Civil Affairs and Walmart - Nanchang Style

yaqidadgood
Originally uploaded by mc10672

As Rui says, This was the longest day. After our happy child fell asleep she woke up in the middle of the night and figured out she was stuck with us and was not a happy camper. After stuffing more food into her, rice ceral and formula, she finally fell asleep, but we got none, because we had to make sure she was breathing. Which she did fine. By 6 am we were all up, and had to prepare for the longest day, which is civil affairs, police station, notary, and Walmart. I did manage to get a shower in, and we got Grace fed and clothed, but no time for washing up, so both of us had wild hair thing going for our interviews and photos at civil affairs. Rui took a look at both of us and told us that we were going to have pictures. I said this was the best we could do. The only thing we can say about going to civil affairs --where we pay our money, get interviewed, and more is that it is alot of waiting around, noisy, hot. The photographer made us pin down Gracie's wild hair for her passport photo but didn't say anything about mine. There is also a group of French-Canadians sort of on our same schedule and so we see them as well. So we went to Civil affairs, paid our donation, got interviewed, then the orphanage officals handed Rui each of the /// Families their daughters finding note, which Grace grabbed and tore a bit. We were only allowed to take a picture but the paper was so shiny that we don't think we got the writing. David could see the date written on it and it looked like it was more than that, so we'll have to get some sort of photographic expert to see if he can clarify the picture a bit. We then went to the police station, and we get our photo taken with our baby. Rui told us later that the clerk at the station was anixous to get lunch, so did all the families except one, so they had to go back later. We then had time for lunch--we went down to the buffet and Gracie had rice with sort of a chicken sauce, watermelon, some green beans, fried egg--ate everything. I feed her small stuff like watermelon with chopsticks, and soupy stuff with one of the baby spoons-- then back on the bus, to the Notary office, for about an hour. By this time, most of the babies were asleep and most families brought snuglies to hold the babies. We then went to Wal-Mart of Nanchang. Wal-mart in US is crazy enough, this was insane. It was on 2 floors, and we had a list of stuff to buy. Rui provided us each with a tag around our necks that explained who we were and why we were carrying around a Chinese baby--and if they had more questions, provided Rui's cell number. The French-canadians and other adoption groups were also there -- and we were stared at and several families were stopped by locals who inquired what was going on --but no one stopped us. I had planned on taking photos but it was so crazy, so loud, we just wanted to get our stuff and get out. We had Grace strapped in her Baby Bjorn and she was fine, until we were ready to leave because she was hungry and we had forgotten snacks, so we borrowed Cherrios and that kept her happy until we got back to the hotel, where she ate 3 bowls of rice ceral, 2 bottle (4 oz), then when room service came, I gave her more rice with some chicken and mushrooms. We put her in her pj's, and she rolled around and did Yoga positions and played with her feet for about 40 minutes and it was lights out for all of us.

This morning -- since we got everything done today -- is basically a free day. We finally got Grace in the bathtub for a quick bath, she hated it, but we finally got her hair tamed in clips and pigtails, put her in her new Wal-mart duds, and wowed everyone at the breakfast buffet. Rui (Saint Rui, really) then had local dressmakers set up in her hotel room and we had 2 outfits made for grace, with one matching a tie for David and a jacket for me - cost around $200. We also then hung around the hallway with other families. I don't think we could've traveled with a better group of people- everyone is so nice and patient and the travelling kids all deserve gold medals for being super. Nanchang is a bit off the beaten path for tourists - but the hotel is great, good food, friendly people. The smog is terrible. We will try to take some video from the bus because the traffic is insane.
Other notes: Grace thought David was the bomb when we first got her, but on the second day, would let him near her --which was the case for many other families where ba-ba is scary to these kids who apparently haven't been around alot of men. So it was up to me to carry and feed her all day, and thank goodness for the baby carrier because my arms were dang near ready to fall off. However, this morning, she loves her Ba-ba and she says his name and thinks he's great. She likes being entertained by Ba-Ba, but holding -she's still a little wary. Also, after breakfast this morning (watermelon, egg, steamed dumpling and more rice --this was after her frist breakfast of rice ceral and formula) she decided she wanted to walk in the lobby. It may have been that one other  daughter, Natalie, who is older, showed up in her pair of squeaky shoes from Wal-Mart, so our little one decides that she wanted to walk, and walk on the hard marble floors of the lobby. She was really annoyed when I kept holding on to her. She has take a few steps, and I expect her to be walking pretty well by the time we get home.