Hello everyone. We will get some photos posted as soon as we can – she’s the cutest thing!
Nadia woke up at 5:30 (for real Karen 🙂 ) She had a bottle, took a nap and we got her up and dressed. We met everyone downstairs at 8:15 and headed back to the Civil Affairs office to pay assorted fees like for her passport and orphanage donation. While there we were interviewed and asked our profession, age, year we got married, if we had any other kids and why we wanted to adopt from China. We were also asked if we were never going to abuse or abandon Nadia and what our education plans were for her future. They gave us a gift of a porcelain vase and our registration folder. This is the folder that shows that we are her parents and shows the US Consulate everything is legit so she can get her American Visa. We gave her a bottle while all this stuff was going on. Jiangxi Province is the birthplace of Porcelain, so this is an important gift for the baby.
Next we headed to the notary’s office and were asked all the same questions as the Civil Affairs office and we had to give the guy some money for being the notary on all our Jiangxi docs. He told us he was from Suichuan County like our baby and seemed very excited about that. He asked us if we loved her and I said, “Oh yeeessssss.” He and the translator laughed at my strong reaction.
Then we all loaded back up in the bus and headed for the Security office in Jiangxi where I think they do her passport and Nadia promptly fell asleep for nap #2. We had to wake her up when it was our turn so they could take her photo. Back on the bus and we went back to the hotel. Nadia scarfed down a bottle since we missed one of her SIX feedings in the middle of all that activity and she went down for nap #3. This kid can sleep!!! As her mother, I love this because I love sleep!
Mike and I decided we needed a nap too and everything was peaceful. We got her up and introduced her to Gerber Graduate Fruit Puffs and at first she thought they were totally weird and she was moving her mouth around in funny ways to get the hang of it. She had quite a few and then we decided it was time for the first official bath. We only gave her a sponge bath before, so this was the big time. The babies are so used to being bundled up that Nadia does not like to be unclothed.
So I gave her a bath and tried to distract her with stacking cups. I could tell she liked having her back rubbed and the warm water, but by the time we got to the hair washing, so was done with bath time! I got her out and bundled her up and she calmed down. She still hasn’t had a full on crying fit and just seems to be getting used to us more and more. She started to “baby babble” after the 3rd nap and talked more and more as the night went on.
We went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant with all the other families and it was AMAZING. We got boatloads of food, more than we could eat and the total including tip was $5.33 a person!!!!! Mike said he felt a little guilty that we got all that food for that price. The food was blow your mind amazing. I got to try Peking Duck for the first time – yum. Mike really liked the Lotus Roots.
The best part was that they ordered this steamed egg dish for the babies and I thought Nadia might like to try it for her first “solid food” adventure. I was holding her with one hand and trying to feed her with the other. I gave her the first bite and she looked at me funny like, “Why are you giving me this?” Then BAM she grabbed the spoon with one hand and the bowl with the other and started trying to pull the bowl into her mouth! We couldn’t feed her the stuff fast enough. It got all over my pants when I was trying to gain control of the bowl and so Mike grabbed her to keep feeding her. The whole table was laughing and one of the grandma’s said that she had to take a photo because it was so cute. Mike and I were cracking up at her reaction and we just kept giving her more. I finally tried it myself and the stuff was FANTASTIC. I am going to learn how to make it and Lisa (another mom in the group) told me all about how to do it, since it’s a family favorite for them. The waitresses at the restaurant really liked Nadia and kept trying to come over and let them pick her up, but she was having no part of that, she was with her Daddy. But they were playing with her a lot when Mike was out in the hallway with her.
Nadia is sleeping now after her adventure out on the town. We walked from the hotel to the restaurant down the busy street in Nanchang and she was just looking at everything and taking in the sights. It was really loud out there with a lot going on, but she just watched everything very closely. She is sleeping now and seems like she might be teething. She has one little tooth showing and another looks like it was poking through and she tried to chew my finger off several times tonight. One of the other moms (Mya) stopped in a store and bought a teether for her baby and Nadia as they were both behaving in the same way. I think most of the babies are teething right now.
She is just beyond what we could have hoped for and we just thank God continually for allowing this beautiful and sweet baby to become part of our family. She just seems made to be with us always. It amazes me to think that our paperwork sat in China for a year before she was ever born. I already can’t imagine any baby being more perfect for us and the wait just melted away.
Thanks for all your sweet and funny comments so far. It’s great fun for us to wake up and see what people have had to say overnight. Love, Louanne