Adoption Day

We feel like the blessings have only continued to flow for our family!  After nap yesterday, David woke up happy and we played in our room some more until we decided to try out the swimming pool.  We got to the pool and refused to allow us to even change him into a swimming suit.  After 5 minutes of sitting near the pool to see if he'd warm up to the idea, we gave up when he kept getting more agitated.  As soon as we left, he was happy as a clam again.  Splurged on the Italian restaurant in our hotel and David had pizza and pasta carbonara.  He ate both but preferred the pasta.  Much to our surprise, he picked up a fork and had a blast using it to both eat his food and transfer it from one plate to another.  We are learning that he is VERY neat in his eating habits.  He doesn't like to have anything on his face or hands.  When he was eating the saucy pasta, he would hold up his and every time he put a bite in his mouth for me to wipe off.  He also doesn't like food to be spilled on the table and will clean up any little crumbs before continuing to eat.  We're hoping he can teach some of these traits to his little brother!

Despite not liking to pool, he LOVED his bath.  Played quite happily in there with a spoon and plastic bowl, though he would only squat and not actually sit.  After jammies and some snuggles, we put him down a little after 8 and he went right to sleep with no fussing.  I had to wake him up at 7:45 this morning!

He ate a good breakfast of some eggs, porridge, fruit and milk.  He didn't seem nearly as hungry as yesterday, but was again very entertained by transferring his food from one bowl to another.  After breakfast we met up with our guide to return to the office where we picked him up yesterday to finalize the adoption.  We were there only about 10 minutes when they came out with our official adoption decree and made a little speech thanking us and the other family that was there for adopting our children and wishing us the best.  David was definitely calmer this time around, but as soon as we walked in he was clearly more nervous and withdrawn.  He only wanted to sit on Jeff's lap and was very suspicious of the two other children there.

From there we travelled to the notary's office, where we dropped off our paperwork to be translated and to request David's passport.  Oh, one funny story about the paperwork.  Our guide came to our room yesterday afternoon to fill out most of the paperwork, including having us put our thumbprints over several of our signatures and taking a handprint from David.  Just as she was getting ready to finish it all up, I pulled a box of juice from the fridge that spilled all over the floor and even on some of the papers.  We all freaked out for a minute until our guide assured us that nothing of great importance got wet and they could still all be used. We are grateful nothing was ruined, and we are all done with paperwork now!  All we have to do is go back tomorrow afternoon to pick it all up before we leave Thursday morning to head back to Beijing.

We took a taxi to the Walmart to pick up a few snack supplies and then went to the KFC for lunch.  That was a somewhat cold and wet experience as it was starting to rain much harder and the wind was blowing, and of course we had no umbrella.  David did not like the cold and wind, so we kept dashing from one cover to another trying to get to where we could catch a taxi home.  Jeff finally got one after standing out on the street corner getting soaked while we waited in a nearby store.

We were all happy to get back to the room and David fell right asleep when I laid him down.  Jeff and I appreciated a little nap too!  When David wakes up, we just found out that there is a kid's play area in the hotel that I think we're going to go check out.  We bought some ramen noodles for David, and some peanut butter and bread for us so we can just make dinner in our room to avoid the need to go back out into the yucky weather.

We just can't believe how smooth the last two days have been for everyone!  I'm positive there will be plenty of bumps in the future, but we are going to continue to enjoy the blessings of our son having such a wonderful start to being a part of our family.

Oh, before I post the pictures, I need to ask a question of those who have a potty trained boy.  How do you keep them from peeing all over their clothes when you have to hold them over the toilet?  It goes great when I can just plop him on the toilet seat, but when we are out and about and need to use the squatty we are having some troubles. :)  The poor kiddo works hard to keep himself dry, and then we go and hold him the wrong way so he soaks his pants anyway. :)

Ok, so here are the photos we have.  Again, sorry that the number and quality aren't great at this point.

                                                   Jeff and David at the registration office

Italian restaurant last night

Enjoying his fork!

Happy at KFC for lunch!