IT'S OFFICIAL!!
11/29: Today was the day we actually completed Eleanor's adoption with the Chinese government. She is officially a King! But let's start with how we all slept: fine! Eleanor went to sleep at 7:00 pm and woke up at 5:30 am - not too shabby. Even more exciting was the #2 diaper she had. Ahhh, for all the times I heard about my friend's children's bathroom activities, this is the payback! I go all the way to China just to write about a poopy diaper (which was gross by the way)!
Okay, so we went back to the Civil Affairs office to meet with the Registrar and the Notary. First we had to go into a room and they asked: "are you happy with this baby?" Then they took a stamp of each of our thumbs and Eleanor's right foot. Of course, Eleanor fell asleep on the way to the office and only woke up as they stamped her foot. She was clearly moved by the event as you can see from the picture!
Then we went into another room, where we had our family picture taken for the final adoption certificate. Then we went to another room where they asked us four questions: when were you married (Rich remembered); do you have any of your own children; have you ever adopted before: and what is your annual income? Then the notary, said "you are done" and that was it -- we had adopted Shao Ming Ye.
Now, while we were doing this, we were right next to the room where you get the babies. There was a large group from France there and so we got the watch the process one step removed. Unlike our babies, these babies were all crying and there was just general chaos. Imagine this: you are in a goverment office which is overly warm. Everywhere you look there are people holding babies who are either looking around or crying. Then you have goverment officials ferrying people in and out of the room who are meeting their children for the first time. Then there are the people like our group who are milling around watching and waiting for other appointments -- all in a room that is very small. Today was hard to watch as there were older children being adopted and they were crying and while I know they have a wonderful life ahead of them, it is heart-breaking to know that they have to go through this to get to that life.
After finalizing the adoption with the Chinese government (we still have the US to go), we did what all Americans do to celebrate a big event: shopping at Wal-Mart! While I have never shopped in one in the US, I am guessing that the merchandise here is a little different -- my favorite item was: meat floss donuts! No, I do not know what they are and I am not going to find out. To be honest though, we did buy some American junk food -- oreos and bugles (spicy chicken flavored ) and I had to buy the Lay's "Chinese Favorites" potato chips in Five Flavored Fish flavor. I have not tried those yet, but I bet they are good!
At Wal-Mart it was Rich's turn to be the celebrity as people kept coming up to him and Eleanor and smiling at Eleanor. Rich thinks that one woman was trying to tell him that Eleanor looked like him, but what do we know, she could have been asking for where in the store the meat floss donuts were located. Rich clearly enjoyed the attention!
Also, I said yesterday that E-Day was a bit surreal -- well, that was before I was in China, shopping at a Wal-Mart, listening to American Christmas carols sung with a Chinese accent and was being checked out by a Santa-hat bedecked Wal-Mart clerk -- now THAT is surreal!
Tomorrow I promise to write about life in Changsha, but today I'll update everyone on life as a parent. All of the girls slept through the night. One family had to go to the hospital as their daughter was running a high fever. They said the hospital is as rudimentary as it gets -- to check the baby's ear, he just looked into it -- no medical instruments. None of the babies has had a melt down and we have yet to have Eleanor actually cry. Most of the babies are around the same age, but Eleanor is one of the biggest and most advanced. For example, she can sit up on her own and can stand with our assistance. Other 8 month olds in the group cannot not sit up without assistance. She eats like a horse -- last night she had steamed egg, congee, watermelon, a whole banana and formula! Hence the poopy diaper (I HAD to get it in again). She is a fine burper and smiles and laughs a lot. She loves to babble away and has figured out that if we put her down and she starts to whine, we will pick her up (Harvard School of Psychology, here she comes). Here are some other stats:
Sign: Pisces
Likes: warm baths, playing with stacking cups, peekaboo
Dislikes: getting her clothes and diaper changed
Teeth: two bottom teeth
Hair: a lot comparatively - in fact, on E-Day, one of the little boys travelling with us, looked at Eleanor, then looked at Rich and said: "she has more hair then you do!" Out of the mouths of babes
Health: has a slight cold
Personality: easy-going so far . . . . |
