Our first meeting

Our train ride was long; we got in early in the morning and walked around the beautiful downtown area.

We had our first appointment with the child services officials today and then went to the orphanage to meet with "Bowen".


In our first meeting, he cried at first because he was scared of strangers.   He quickly got over this and enjoyed playing with us for an hour until he fell asleep.  He seems to be a sweet and good-natured boy.  He copied us at several points and seems to be quite intelligent.   He will be able to a lot once back in America.  Ezra has worked with many children who have more disabilities than "Bowen" does.  He will be able to play with toys, turn on lights by himself, and use a computer - even  without prosthetics.  With prosthetics (we will start the process of evaluation for prosthetics when we get home), we hope he will be able to run and jump and play sports.  We know a little boy (five years old) who has similar missing limbs as "Bowen"; he is playing junior baseball now.

In our second meeting, we played cause-and-effect games with him.   He understood very quickly and enjoyed attempting to kick a ball or knock a toy off our hands.

He is a very cute boy.