China Day 3--Giggles, Finalizing the Adoption, Nanjing Road

Today has been a very good day.  We were up at 3:30 again, but we are hoping to avoid that tomorrow.  We went out tonight and kept the girls up a little later.  Hopefully, Sarah Beth will sleep a little later.  We took Maggie down to breakfast.  This was something I was kind of dreading.  It was the first time that we had taken her out somewhere since we returned from getting her yesterday.  God knew my fears and went before us.  Breakfast was set up in a different place this morning, and we did not sit in the main breakfast room where most everyone else was.  We were a little off to ourselves.  Maggie did great.  She is excellent at feeding herself and cleaning up.  She ate two bowls of congee—a rice porridge.  She also ate a tiny pancake.  Sarah Beth ate several pancakes.

We returned to the room to clean the congee off of Maggie and get ready to go to finalize the adoption.  We were able to skype with Annie and Emma which was fun.  It makes our day complete!  Maggie said “Annie” and “Emma.”  We also got in a quick skype with Aunt DeeDee.

We went on down to the lobby to wait for our guide, and while we were there, we got our first giggles from Miss Maggie.  Sarah Beth was running across the room to her, and Maggie would just break out in a fit of giggles.  It was so cute to see them laughing and having fun.  This continued all day.  In the car, Sarah Beth would tickle Maggie, which would make her giggle away.  It was such a blessing!

Finalizing the adoption did not take long.  We had to answer a few questions, sign a few things, Maggie had to leave her thumbprint, and we were done.  They gave us an adoption certificate, which is very nice and serves as proof that Maggie belongs to us. 

We were also able to spend some time with some of the other adoptive parents from yesterday.  It was good to share stories and see how others’ night went.  Ours did go excellent, by the way.  Maggie slept until five.  If we could just get Sarah Beth on track, we would be good to go.

We came back to the room and made ramen noodles and chicken noodle soup.  Maggie loved the ramen noodles.  She allowed me to help her eat, which is good.  After eating we had naps.  They both fell asleep, and Tim went to see what he could find for us to eat.  There are not many restaurants around, so we are kind of missing out there.  He brought me back a cheese pizza from Pizza Hut and he had McDonalds’s.  I know it sounds silly, but that pizza tasted so good.  Yesterday my stomach bothered me all day long, so it was nice to eat something familiar, to feel full, and not hurt afterwards.

Maggie woke up first, and so we were able to play with her.  Today she has definitely shown a preference for me over Tim.  Yesterday she did so well with him, but today shoe only wants mama.  She will even turn away from him if he touches her.  The cute thing though is that she is very willing to color with him—especially if he lets her tell him what color to use!

We finally woke Sarah Beth up because we wanted to go to Nanjing Road tonight.  It is a pedestrian street filled with shops.  We found a place to eat, which we realized was a Japanese restaurant, but it was very good, and we all enjoyed our food.  The street was really neat with lots of neon lights and people everywhere.  I carried Maggie as we walked, and she chattered on the whole time we were walking.

Cab rides continue to be an issue for Sarah Beth.  She fell asleep in the floorboard of our van today on the way back from finalizing the adoption.  On the way to Nanjing Road she literally screamed at the top of her lungs for three fourths of the ride.  She struggled today with the fact that Maggie only wanted mama.  I held them both in my lap as often as I could and carried them both at times too.  Sarah Beth is very tired.  After having been up since 3:30, even with a nap, you can imagine that waking so early is not good for the demeanor of a two-year-old.

Tomorrow we do some sight-seeing with our guide, which we are really looking forward to!