Approaching Third Base!

Well we're approaching third base. Tomorrow we will go to the consulate for the swearing in process. It appears that all the families in our group was successfull in their paperwork that was submitted today for the consulate. We're so thankful for the CCAI guides who are soo knowledgeable and helpful. Today it rained and tomorrow is the same pattern. Most families are cancelling the zoo tour because of the rain, thunder, and the annoying fast mosquitoes.

The days of a luxury breakfast buffet will be gone in a flash. In another day and a half we will be on a plane hopefully back to the states and not be quarantine like some mayor I read about. Every family will need to endure a 14 hour or more flight back home. I'm thinking of buy a bunch of earplugs for the surrounding seats near Rui. We sure miss Thumper. We hear that she doesn't miss us much. We hope to differ.

I also discovered an annoying fact. The more I listen to Rui screaming in my ear, the more white hairs pop up on my head. I made a new scientific discovery! Do you think it's the screaming or is it stress or is it caused by the heavy load put on our arms? Arlene has a cool child carrier called an ERGO, and it really works well. She can carry Rui with no back stress. We both had to watch the DVD to figure out how to make it work.

Arlene decided to go soverneir hunting today and I did a little too...... Arlene puchase these cool marble like chops (rock signature blocks) and had them engraved with chinese names. Man are they heavy! Prices for things really vary here. She bought some clothes and boy are they bulky. I purchased a dvd on Tai Chi for 25 rmb and then spent 50 rmb for a Subway sandwich meal deal. Where's the logic in that price scheme?

Sadly some stores here are going out of business due to the low number of permitted adoptions and the knowledge that the main White Swan hotel will be renovating soon. There are a lot less families here shopping and business for them is slow. It's a little bit weird when every store is eyeing you and yelling at you to come in to their store. Everyone calls us "my friend, my friend come in..... I give you best price."

Oh no, our suitcases are now over the weight limit! What are we going to do? How did our cases get soo heavy. Perhaps the humidity made all our clothes heavier. I think that's why there is no scale in this room. Should we lose the chops? I wasn't going to panic. I'll super google an answer. Hey, I just found out that Rui is also allowed a check in (hurrah!) for 22 lbs. Ya Hoo! Now we can bring back more junk, uh, I meant quality stuff. I was planning to throw all non-essential stuff like our H1N1 masks, baby wipes (very heavy) and diapers (space hogs). Well it's time to shop more tomorrow to buy Rui her very own suitcase with wheels! I need one with a remote control that will follow us around like Thumper.

Well time for me to go. Hope the swearing in at the US consulate goes well.

Loy

Adoption Day

Today is a special day where we make our adoption official and the group was leaving at 0930 am. We had to wake up Rui so we could eat at the hotel breakfast buffet. We got to the buffet around 815. We didn't realize that it would take us 2-3 times longer to eat. We spent most of our time exploring what Rui ate and almost forgot to eat ourselves. It is impossible to enjoy a buffet breakfast in 15 minutes. Tomorrow we plan to spend 2-3 hours there to eat (haha). My cool photography vest has been converted to a diaper vest (not very macho....ha!). I also learned that bottles leak (when they fall over in your pocket) and that is soo not cool. We were rushed to eat, rushed to get the right stuff to register and notorize documents for Rui. We had no time for lunch and ate dinner around 8pm.

After going to the registration office (same location where most of the children were delivered), we went to the notary office. I think it's an official government building. We had to climb up 6 big flights of stairs and everyone was in such a fantastic mood that I felt I was in a dream. Huffing and puffing up the stairs reminded me of the reality that it was not a dream. Walking back in 90 degree, super bright,humid, and in full traffic was no picnic. We spent time playing dodgeball with the scooters driving on the sidewalk. I felt like target practice. People would look at us, or our caucasian friends and point at us and create a traffice jam. I felt like yawning and doing a full stretch clobbering the scooters driving by too close to us. But I didn't. Some older people would come soo close to us that I thought they were either pickpockets or trying to smell us.

Our reward for finalizing our local documents for adoption was to go to a brand new Walmart that opened in May 2009. We took our rented bus there to shop for 1.5 hours and then took the same bus back. It's a drag to buy drinking water ( I appreciate where I work even more DDWEM) because it's soo heavy, because you have to carry it in plastic bags. I spent 178 rmbs for water, snacks, and soda. Some parents are already getting tired carrying their child and three families purchased a small stroller. Arlene is in great shape and with her special ERGO child carrier, we hope to avoid buying a stroller. We learned the average monthly salary here is 1100 rmb a month. We spent roughly $600 rmb on formula and donations of clothes to Rui's orphanage. I understand more now how, in their perspective, they see us as being rich.

I was looking for butterfinger bars , granola bars, chocolate bars and kungfu dvd movies and didn't find any snacks, just the typical asian crackers. The dvd movies didn't have english subtitles and were 14rmb (2.50 us). As long as I buy dvds from walmart and not peddlers, I should have no problems with customs. I'm hoping to visit another shopping type mall (with AC) to relax and shop for nick knacks.

Tonight we at at a hotel next door to us. It felt like we were living in a hotel filled mafia type folks. The whole parking lot is filled with cars in total black with tinted windows. Apparently a black color car is cooler to drive than a white color car. I'm glad they didn't belong to the mafia. Our first dinner out with Rui went well. She surprised us by using a spoon and eating on her own a little bit. She also surprise us by breaking a small plate with her over active hands. Oh well. We sure left a mess there. sigh.....

Ending today's blog on a funny note, guess what is the name of the restaurant they have here for their non-super fancy meals? They just serve really nice meals there. It's called Mamma Mia!