Parenthood...

We're so tired! I know, know it comes with the job.

It turns out that our two combined groups of 19 families is the largest group ever to adopt from the Jiangxi Provice. Therefore special accomodations have been made. First, the babies were brought to our hotel instead the Civil Affairs Office, which was great because we could head right back to our rooms instead of having to take a bus ride back to the Hotel. Second, the Official Regristar that interviews each family and processes the paperwork to legalize the adoption also came to our hotel. She also came on Sunday evening instead of the Monday which is the typical procedure. This meant a very long day on Sunday.

We started out in Hong Kong, took a 1.5 hour plane ride to Nanchange. Then it was a 45 minute bus ride to the hotel. After checking in we had a 2.5 hour long meeting. Immediately following the meeting we recieved the babies. Then we had 30 minutes with the babies in our rooms before we had to head back to the confrence room to meet with the regristar. We got back to the room around 8:30. Then around 9:00 of the agency assistants dropped off "medicine" for Harper. Unfortunately the directions were written in Chinese. So it was off to find the lead guide to translate the medicine and to get more information on Harper's condition. (She seems to be doing fine, with the exception of chest congestion. We are our meeting with doctor tomorrow morning).

Harper did well last night (Sunday). She woke up at 2am, had a bottle and went to the bathroom. The Chinese "potty train" their babies at a very young age. We were intructed to hold her over the toilet bowl and whistle to signify that it is time to pee. Well sure enough it worked! To get a BM going you say Ba BA! then HMMMM. That kind of worked as well. If you follow these instructions every few hours you may not have any dirty diapers to deal with.

Today was tiring. We woke Harper up at 7:00. However mom didn't make it back to sleep after the 2am feeding. We gave Harper a bottle, which she wasn't interested in, and a bath that she seemed to enjoy.

At 10:30 it was off to Walmart to pick up some water (you can't drink the tap water here), food, and other baby supplies. Inside Walmart Janet and Harper drew the attention of a Chinese family that rode the escaltor with us. They kept saying show mei mei which I think means litte girl and giving us the thumbs up sign. bWhile waiting for the bus our group drew the attention of the locals. They kept their distance but more and more lingered around to see the foreigners with the Chinese babies. Nanchang is not common place for foreigners so we really stood out. We were lined up under an overhang, as it was raining (it is monsoon seaons here) when a teenage girl approached me and said "excuse me, may I have my picture taken with you?". The photo was snapped and the and her photographer switched roles and the next photo was taken. Well the ice had been broken and the rest of the group started to move in, but our tour bus show up at the same time and we were all off back to the hotel.

The orphange director arrived a 1:00 to answer our questions. With such a large group and limited time, specific child related questions were not possible. The only real item of interest was that he said he would email us copies of any letters that were left with our babies when they were abandoned. Apparently Harper did have a letter with her, so we'll have to wait and see what comes of this.

There were a few stops, but nothing noteworthy other than to say it was a very long day. The babies didn't get naps, we not able to eat on time and as a result they were pretty unhappy. Mom and Dad missed both lunch and dinner. But its too late now. It's off to bed. Tomorrow our only committment is the doctor's appointment at 10. Hopefully we will get to catch up on rest and eating tomorrow.

(I am too tired to proof read now, so sorry for the typos and misspellings. I'll fix them tomorrow).

I did a few new photos that can be found under the China Photos link.