Got Him

We were supposed to go get Joshua at 9:00 this morning but we found out last night that the appointment was changed to 3:00 this afternoon. So, Lora and I slept in (7:00, latest morning we've had yet) and took our time going downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast at the "Western Buffet" was a trip. No cold milk for your cereal, only warm milk. Much of the buffet were things I wouldn't think of for breakfast such as sushi, fried rice, veggies in garlic sauce to name a few. Heather tried to get a scrambled egg - explained it to 6 different people and none of them could figure out what she wanted. No entiende... As we were finishing breakfast Lora got choked a bit and threw up all her breakfast in her plate. Awesome!

We spent the rest of the morning lounging around in our room. Met our guide at 1:00 and headed to the bank to change our dollars to RMB (part of the adoption is a donation to the orphanage, must be made in RMB). The bank took a while on account that they scrupulously examined every single bill to make sure it was the real thing. It was, we walked out with a pile of money that made me feel like I robbed the place ($1 is a little more than 6 RMB so our meager stack of bills grew 6x while we were in the bank).

From the bank we headed to the Civil Affairs Office. Joshua was already there when we walked in, waiting for us with his Nanny and a bag of Prawn Crackers (that's my boy). He wasn't too excited about us. They told him that we were his mommy and daddy, but that only made him cry (which because of his hernia we are not supposed to let him do for long). So we tried everything we had. He apparently doesn't like M&Ms, as he spit them all back out, and didn't take to the toys very quickly. They had a little play area, so his Nanny took him over to the play area where Lora and Heather were playing. She then stepped away and he started crying, but eventually calmed down. He had a tight grip on one of the stacking cups and seemed to have some security with it. Unfortunately, Heather had to sign some papers so we had to disturb the calm. He started to cry again, but Micah was able to calm him again. So he sat kind of stunned for awhile with Micah. His Nanny has cared for him his entire life so you can imagine that he is a little attached to her, rightfully so. Anyway, a bit of paperwork, the donation of our stack of RMB, some pictures, a little bit of visiting with his Nanny and it was all over. Score: Shanks +1.

 

Leaving the Civil Affairs office we went to the Lotus (the supermarket we visited yesterday) to buy some milk, a bottle, some new shoes, and more prawn crackers. Came back to the hotel and our guide helped us order KFC (I'll elaborate on KFC in a second). After dinner we had poop incident #1. Gave Joshua a bath, new clothes, and had poop incident #2 (he's clearly squatty-potty trained but is scared of the toilet). After that we all calmed down and Joshua played very well with his new stacking cups. About 30 minutes before bedtime we popped the movie Cars into the laptop. Not sure which he liked more, the laptop or the movie but he was excited and even smiled and laughed a bit. Both of the kids are in bed now and Heather and I aren't far behind.

 

Been a full day! We're very excited that we finally have Joshua with us. Thank you for all your prayers.

 

KFC in China:

• The KFC nearest us didn't have chicken legs. Seriously?
• They deliver. McDonald's delivers in China as well but Pizza Hut doesn't. Go figure.
• We ordered chicken pieces (was thinking it would be something like chicken fingers). Instead, we got McDonald's chicken nuggets with kernels of corn inside them.
• The food was delivered in 20 minutes which is faster than they said it would be over the phone.
• The delivery boy wouldn't accept a tip.
• The chicken burger, actually a chicken sandwich, comes with or without chili. Turns out they meant chili pepper sauce, not chili like I was thinking. Also, the chili pepper chicken is actually less spicy than the regular chicken sandwich.
• Joshua likes mashed potatoes and gravy which actually tasted a lot like the mashed taters and gravy from home.

 

Love the Shanks, party of 4