Adoption Day

At breakfast on Monday we realized that we were not the only adopting
family in the hotel. There was a group of families who had just
received their babies the night before so it was nice to see others
who are going through the same experience. After breakfast we met Mary
who would take us to do the paperwork for the adoption. First, we went
to the Jiangxi Center for Adoption Services. Once we arrived Richard
and I had our picture taken with Nathan and then we went into a large
room and filled out some forms. Not long afterward, the other families
from the hotel arrived and there were kids all over the place! A few
of the families also brought older siblings so the older kids enjoyed
playing together while the babies took it all in and the parents did
their paperwork. Next, we went into a room for an interview. I was so
nervous about this but it was really simple. It almost felt too simple
but I guess the large amount of paperwork we needed to do beforehand
is the hard part. After the interview we signed some papers and put
our red thumbprints over our signatures and Nathan needed to put his
footprint on one of them. We then received a nice little red book that
meant that we've officially adopted Nathan! Shortly after that we left
to go to the notary place where we signed a couple more documents and
then it was back to the hotel. Just like that our family grew by one!
We were back at the hotel within two hours of leaving which I thought
was quite remarkable.

For lunch, Mary showed us a restaurant in back of our hotel where we
could eat. She even showed us what on the menu was good (yay, there
are pictures on the menu) and even wrote down a couple things so that
we could show the waiters when we were ordering. It was great. We ate
lunch and seriously, I think we spent about $5 for all of us! We've
eaten there a couple more times and no meal has cost us more than $10
and that's on the high end! For comparison, the first meal we ate here
was at the hotel and it cost us over $30 and it wasn't nearly as good
as this place! The hotel restaurant is now reserved for our breakfast
which is included with the room. :)

After lunch we came back to our room so Nathan could nap. In the
meantime Richard took Isabel to the local market to get some snacks.
They came back with some mandarin oranges and drinks. Richard always
prepares the fruit for our family which is very nice because I don't
particularly care to do it. Actually, it would never occur to me to
buy fruit while traveling but it's tasted so good and makes me feel
better that we're eating somewhat healthy. Oh, the restaurant I
mentioned always gives us watermelon after our meals and since it too
has been really good, Richard wants to figure out how to buy a knife
or borrow one from the hotel so that he can cut up watermelon in our
room!

Nathan ended up taking a short nap so he was somewhat crabby when he
woke up. After playing in the room a while, we decided to get out and
do something to calm him down. He seems to really enjoy taking in the
sights. We wandered around and then ended up stopping for dinner
before heading back up to our room. I had grand visions of putting the
kids to bed and Richard and I watching a movie on his laptop before
going to sleep but I fell asleep with the kids. I haven't watched
television since we've been in China. The one in our room is unplugged
because the kids were having way too much fun turning it on and off.
:)

I'll leave you some of the pictures we took.