CHINA: Adoption paperwork day

The morning after adoption day.  She never would let us take off her shoes that day.

Yun Mei slept in this morning and was pretty happy as long as that scary daddy stayed at least a few feet away.  Apparently children adopted when they are toddlers or older will quickly bond with one parent and shun the other for a while.  Sometimes it's the mother, and sometimes it's the father.  Well, Yun Mei has definitely fallen deeply in love with her Mama and for Baba (daddy) the shunning has begun.  If I have to pick her up to carry her over the puddles or put her in the car she calls, “Mama! Mama!” and tries to climb away.  Oh well, we know it’s temporary and she’ll soon know who the REAL fun parent is.  And I really think her bonding with Stacey right now is about the most important thing in the world.

Today we were driven around Nanchang to do our adoption paperwork.  The day was dark and cold and rainy.  Driving in Nanchang (and the rest of China, I assume) is something to see.  I’m really glad I’m not the driver.  Traffic laws seem to be very similar to those in the US, but here they seem to be only minor suggestions.  Hints even.  Passing fancies.  People seem to just drive however they please.  Lanes are there but are ignored.  Traffic lights are heeded only if there are too many cars going the other direction to allow you to get through the intersection.  Even then you might just lay on the horn and muscle your way through.  And speaking of horns!  Oh, the horns, the horns, the horns, horns, horns, horns!  A symphony of horns!  People honk for the regular reasons: to say “hey! watch it! I’m driving here!”, or “Get out of the way!”, or “#$&* you!”, but also to say “hi” or “I’m here”, or “nice day, isn’t it?”  You honk when you’re doing a lane change, you honk when you are turning onto a road or into a parking lot, you honk when you back up, you honk when you approach another car, you honk when you are angry, or sad, or hungry.  There’s very little effort to accommodate other drivers or pedestrians that aren’t directly in front of you.  I saw an old lady crossing the street on the arm of a somewhat younger old lady, IN A CROSSWALK, and three or four cars zoomed around them blaring their horns.  Nobody stopped.  However, nobody ran over them either, so I suppose it works out in the end.  In fact, for all the bikes and scooters I saw going down the middle of the lane in the wrong direction as cars swerved around them, I didn’t see any wrecks or pancaked people in the crosswalks so I guess they’ve got a system figured out.  Pretty different from driving in Hawaii, though, where people are SO conscientious of other drivers that it sometimes stops traffic.

Waiting for our paperwork to be processed in a very communist era-looking office.

Yun Mei gets nervous whenever we leave the hotel room.  She is very obedient and will go anywhere as long as Mama is there with her, but she clams up and looks very small. She can't breathe without Mama nearby. BUT, when we are in our room, or in a restaurant where she can sit next to Mama and eat good food, the smiles come back and she’ll even talk a little (as long as Baba isn’t visible).

Maggie took us to a great Chinese restaurant for lunch near our hotel.  It was a super-fancy place that takes up the whole building with 50 or more rooms.  We ate a splendid 5-course meal for the price of a light meal at Chili’s back home.

After we got back from our appointments in town we stayed in the rest of the day, ordered room service for dinner and just enjoyed being together. Stacey was finally able to peel off all 16 layers of clothing (just 4, actually) she came in and get her into the tub.  Now she's a happy, clean girl.   -Mark

This is what Yun Mei was wearing when she came to us.