Two posts in one day!

So, here is my second post of the day (I think the last time that happened was probably when we were last in China!)

We just got back to the hotel room, with B. So far so good. I'd like to say everything went off without a hitch, but it didn't. Nothing major, just some anxious moments. We arrived at the adoption centre at about 2:15 p.m. B was not there yet, but we saw him arrive about 10 minutes later. We were receiving B at the same time as a group of about 12 or so families, all from the USA I think. B handled the hand off very well. There were very few tears, and the ones we did get were only about an hour or so later. We were still at the adoption centre at that time. And an hour after that. And an hour after that. All told we were in that room for about 3 hours. But some of the delay was our fault... okay most of it was our fault. Turns out we needed to pay the fees in Yuan, not in American dollars, as we thought we had been told. We didn't have the Yuan (see the post below about our difficulties in getting money exchanged, it continues) and DoT and our guide needed to go to another floor to get the money exchanged at a bank. Luckily there was a bank right in the same building. There was quite a line up though, so it took them about an hour to get the money exchanged. I was quite relieved when they finally got back, as the number of people in the room had dwindled to about 3 or 4 and I had visions of the orphanage director demanding B be handed back. :-)

Anyhow, after we left the adoption centre, we headed for a department store since we found out from the orphanage staff that B drinks from a regular bottle. I had assumed he would either drink from a cup, sippy cup, or bottle specifically for cleft palates. So we didn't bring any regular bottles with us. No problem though, we picked up a couple at the store.

We had supper at the food court of the shopping centre -- yummy noodle soup. We also did some more of the paperwork there. Finally we headed back to our hotel room. We got back at about 7:30 p.m. Since that time B has played with DoT a bit, eaten a couple of cookies, cried some more, and is now trying to drink from one of the bottles we bought. We tried one of the bottles with him shortly after we bought it at the store, and I'm not sure how much water he is getting out of it. He works away at it (ind of like biting the nipple) but I'm not convinced he's getting much out. We go for a visit to the orphanage the day after tomorrow, so I'll ask them to show me there, how he drinks from the bottle. Hope we can get enough liquid into him until then.

We were told again today that he only goes to sleep at 10:00 p.m. and wakes up at 6:00 a.m. He seems pretty tired right now, so I'm hoping he will go sleep before then, but who knows. He's fighting it pretty well, right now.

So, here are a few pictures from the big day...



















And finally, yes, for those of you with sharp eyes... he is eating a sucker and holding a second in one of those pictures. Both of which he was given before he came to meet us. After he stuck the first one in his mouth with the wrapper still on, I took pity on him and unwrapped it for him. Seems he has a sweet tooth. He'll fit into our family just fine. :-)