Happy (or not) Adoption Day!

{Note: this post was partially written on Monday night but I had to stop for 2 reasons. 1) Blogger was having trouble uploading pictures and 2) I was literally dozing off while waiting for the picture to upload.}

Last night (Sunday night) when Ryan fell asleep he was doing pretty well and fell asleep at the foot of the bed. He wouldn't let me take his clothes off, but I figured we could work that out this morning. He slept through the night and I had to wake him up at 7:00 so we could to the civil affairs office to complete the adoption paperwork. But when he woke up he realized he wasn't at his usual place of residence and he let us all know he wasn't happy. But he did let me change his clothes. Baby steps!

This photo is of the kids on after they fell asleep. Notice Ryan at the end of the bed.

We went to breakfast and Ryan seemed amazed by all of the food. I carried him around (because he will not let me put him down!) and he would point to something and I would say "You want this?" and he would say something and I would put it on a plate.

Our conversations are quite humerous! Neither of us knows what the other is saying yet we both talk to each other like we understand.

At breakfast Ryan would watch me and do what I did. If I drank some juice, he would drink some juice. If I took a bite of muffin, he wanted some of my muffin so he could have a bite of muffin. It was easy for him to get-- he was on my lap. He refused to sit in a chair or a high chair.

After breakfast we walked by a small water feature in the lobby of the hotel. It contains a large number of gold fish and koi. Ryan got VERY excited over this so I must say we have used this water feature to our advantage over the course of the day!

Back to our room so I could get my money out of the safe and get my passport so Ryan and I could go with the other families to official register our paperwork of our adoptions. Slight problem: Its 8:00 and I need to meet the other families in the lobby at 8:30 and I can't open the safe! Before I seem like a total doodoo head though, let me set the stage. I was holding Ryan while I went to open the safe and he saw his shoes he came in (which were too small and cut into his feet) that I had hidden over the safe. The wailing started again. My small room was full of my mom, Jenna, Emma and Julia who was on the computer talking to Anna, her best friend, on Skype. It was mass confusion and chaos and I was nervous enough already and for some reason I must have typed the password in wrong.I finally had to have someone from the hotel come and open it for me. How embarrassing. But I got the money in time and made it to the lobby with time to spare. The rest of the family stayed at the hotel with the exception of Jenna who was Ryan's little buddy the day before and I thought might help him.



Ryan and I waiting for our group to go to the civil affairs office. The fish are around the rocks behind us. Photographer is Jenna.

We had a short busride to the office and there we were. This was on the 23rd floor (if I remember correctly) and the building had no air conditioning or heat. Believe it or not. And it was hot. Yeah, its July in southern China.

The entrance to the Jiangxi province civil affairs office. I think Ryan is thinking "No one asked ME if I wanted to be adopted!!!"

Here you recieve a small interview where they ask you why you want to adopt a Chinese child. What your plans are for you education (Here is where some controlling parents could definitely get carried away, I'm sure!) I simply said my goal was for him to attend college and graduate school if he wanted a career that required it. They also asked me how many other children I had and the look on her face when I told her 5! She asked me how I could raise that many children! I told her the several were older and that I had help.;>) Thankfully, I was approved.

I also got to meet the orphanage director again.

Ryan and I with the orphanage director. She is a very, very nice woman who answered questions and offered answers to questions that weren't even asked. She also asked me if I would send her pictures of Ryan in the future. She told me that Ryan had lived in the orphanage until he was a year and a half and then was sent to foster care. His foster family only had the parents, no siblings. She said he was a good boy, loved to play outside with other children and was very healthy. He rarely even caught a cold.

It was somewhat reassuring that while he wasn't entirely happy being with me, when she was around him, he would bury his head on my shoulder.

After we left that VERY hot building, although I must add they had freestanding air conditioners in corners of the rooms that cooled THAT corner. We were then off to the notory.

At the notary we were asked how much money we made, what our occupation was. Did I accept the child? Yes. Did I love the child? Yes. Did I promise not to harm or abandon the child. Yes. Signiture and a red thumb print over it and it was official.

Ling De Long from Shangrao City is now officially Ryan Delong from Kansas City, Missouri.

The we were off to an office where they scanned the children's faces for their passports. Then it was back to the hotel.

I must add that Ryan had several melt downs during all of this, thankfully none during the interviews! But when we are out and he sees the sights he is better, not fine, but better.

After we dumped our stuff off in our room and gathered our other family members we went to a Chinese restuarant next to the hotel and Evelyn, our guide, ordered for us. It was served family style and it was all VERY delicious! Although I could have probably lived without the dish of chicken that had chopped up the chicken whole so that you got a piece of meat that had skin, meat and bone all atogether.

I found out something really funny about Ryan. He would eat something and if something was left over, like the bone of the chicken or a watermelon rind, he would simply drop it on the floor. We will either need to re educate him on that or get a bigger dog to eat the scraps off the floor. Presently I'm going with the former.

Then back to the hotel where we changed rooms from the 6th floor to the 9th floor. Call me a diva but I actually want to SEE out my windows, especially if I'm going to stay there for a week. It was a bit clausterphobic. But our room now is higher, has an interesting view and is actually larger. YEAH!!!!

We then tried to take naps, which brought new crying, for quite some time, I might add. He did nap some though, while Emma and Jenna did not. (I kept Emma in there with me rather than mom and Julia's room just because I had been away from her so much.) Then it was off to Walmart.

Walmart Supercenter is in a 4 story building and Walmart occupies 2 of the floors. You can only imagine what they sell there! I'll tell you this though. In the meat department they had a large variety of dried meats that were hanging from wooden supports. This included dried chickens and ducks, with the feet and heads still on. You know how when you shop for me and you check the package for the expiration date? Well, that ain't happening here. You see there are no packages of meat. Its just laying open in the refrigerator bins. But its guaranteed fresh -- at least freshly chopped-- because the butcher is standing right there behind the case chopping the meat.

We checked out and stopped at KFC, that was in Walmart, just like McDonald's and other restaurants are in the US. There weren't enough tables so we ordered to go and took it back on the bus to the hotel.

Small victory during the shopping trip: Ryan let me put him in a shopping cart. He didn't like it at first but stopped crying when we handed him a bag a Skittles. Yeah, he's one of my kids!

We started eating in our room and Ryan was doing well but Jenna tried to hand him a chicken nugget from HIS box and away he went. He probably cried another half an hour. Emma looks at me sometimes like "what's his deal?" But he eventually stopped. The tv was on and Jenna was watching some Chinese variety/talent show and he was mesmerized.

Likes candy. Likes tv. He's DEFINTELY one of my kids.

I then decided to push my luck. The girls really wanted to swim so we all got our suits on.

Here is Ryan in his suit. Notice the box in his hand. He is still carrying around his chicken nugget box that still has a chicken nugget in it. What's missing is his drink. He had a drink with a straw and to my total amazement he could suck from it!!! (Those of you not familiar with cleft palate, children with this usually can't suck because the hole in their mouth breaks the suction.) I REALLY have to try to see the roof of his mouth today!!!!

Ryan was sitting on the edge of the pool and was having fun kicking water, although it took awhile to get him to that point, and then he fell in!!! Thankfully, Julia was right there and grabbed him. He didn't ask to get out so she carried him around for a little while until we left.

It was almost 9:00 so back to the rooms and bathes. All 3 little ones were in the tub but Ryan didn't want to sit down so I didn't force it. Then out.

My 3 Asian babies after their bath wrapped in towels. Ryan had really dry skin so I lotioned Emma first. When he saw me put lotion on her checks he patted his. So I lotioned him up (which was my intent all along) and Jenna too. Then into jammies and bed.

And here are my babies. The girls are asleep, Ryan is almost there. He was soon asleep after this photo.

I am the most lucky mom in the world!!!