Day 2ish - 3

After breakfast we went back to our hotel room and hung out for a while.  Some of us napped a little but I was too nervous/excited to sleep, even though I was dead tired. We decided to get some lunch in the restaurant here in the hotel before we had to leave to meet our guide at 3:30 so we quickly exchanged some good ol' American dollars for some "Monopoly money" as Josh calls it.  We were the only people in the dining room since it was 2:00 pm.  We ordered 3 pizzas for the kids to share (think personal size pizzas), a bowl of minestrone soup for me and some crazy salmon and fruit dish for Josh (gag!)  It ended up being about $100 dollars (American!) for the meal.  What a rip-off.  We learned our lesson and will not be dining there again except at the free breakfast buffet.  (I have also been taking Ziplocs down to breakfast to pack away a few things for lunch or snacks. Gonna get our $100 worth for sure!)  

We ran back up to our room to gather all the things we needed to take with us to meet G.  Our guide met us in the lobby of our hotel and we were off.  Driving into Xi'an the night before didn't really seem any different than driving somewhere in Texas.  But that was merely because we were in the dark.  Driving (or being driven) around China is an experience I didn't really need to have.  It is so scary!  

The similarities to the US:  They drive on the same side of the road as us.  The driver is on the left side of the car like us.  

The differences:  There are no carseats here so babies are just held or sat down in the seat next to you.  There are lanes painted on the roadways but apparently they are just guidelines and no one really follows them.  There are also people just walking down one of the lanes of the road if that's what they feel like doing.  There are motorcycles and bicycles everywhere - with at least three people on each, and a load of watermelons and a chicken. I have seen so many bikes loaded up with the craziest things.  There are stoplights and crosswalks, just like at home, but these, too, seem to be just guidelines.  No one uses blinkers - they only use the front of their vehicle to squeeze into wherever they want to go.  They like their car horns too, but only if there is no policeman around - it's illegal to use the horns in the cities because of the noise.  They drive much slower, even on the tollways/expressways, which is good when there are only guidelines to follow.  I haven't seen any accidents yet, which is amazing considering all of the times I've gasped in horror, sure of our certain death over the past few days.  Everyone seems very patient.  I'm surprised our guide isn't cussing out all the drivers around him all of the time.  (To be fair, I have no idea what cussing someone out in Chinese would sound like so maybe he actually is!)  Even the people on the street that we almost run over seem patient.  They don't even make faces at you or look surprised when you almost run them over.  In America that kind of thing would get you the bird at the very least!  It's just so different.  Our driver is a very nice man and seems to be a very good driver - I've heard a lot of horror stories from other adoptive parents in the China.  Thank heavens we got a good one!

OK, on to what you really want to read about.  I just wanted to get some of this stuff down for my own journaling purposes.  :)

We arrived at the provincial government office building a little early on Sunday afternoon.  This province (Shaanxi) actually does things differently than most of the other provinces of China.  They plan their 'Gotcha Days' for Sundays when most of the people are not in the building.  (Most provinces do them on Mondays.  E's will be on a Monday.)  

This is the building we were at and that's our van.  

The view looking up at the huge building:

Since there aren't many people in the building they don't turn on the air conditioners.  Can you say, FREAKING HOT?!  'Cause that's what it was up there on the 20th floor in the international adoption office.  There was one little couch, a rolling desk chair and a couple of folding chairs, so our family pretty much took all the seating.  ;)  

We actually walked into the building with a nanny and another child waiting to be adopted.  It was a little boy, almost 3, with bilateral microtia.  Definitely made me think of E!  We were all waiting in the office when his new parents walked in.  They were very surprised that he was already there, and he wanted nothing to do with them.  The dad finally got his interest a little by playing ball with him in the room.  S saw that and immediately wanted to join in but the little boy was having none of that.  It totally hurt S's feelings.  He can be so sensitive!  The couple adopting this little boy ended up being from El Paso.  Small world!  

So anyway, we were just sitting there and suddenly they walked in!  No great announcement, no fanfare.  She was suddenly just there.  

Josh happened to be sitting close to the door and saw her first.  He stood up and immediately took her from the nanny (who was handing her to him).  

She is still not so sure about that goatee.  This may be the first man that has ever held her.  Love how she looks at his goatee out of the corners of her eyes! 

I snapped a few pictures and then handed the camera over to Madison and went to meet my girl.  

Daddy handed her over to me and she came willingly.  She was smiling and happy.  

The nanny was visibly worried about this transition and obviously already missing her sweet girl.

G never cried and went back and forth between Josh and I and the nanny.  At some point we put her on the ground to stand at the little table there and all the kids gathered around her.  It was very sweet.  

We took a few pictures in front of the big red sign in the office.  Us, the nanny and the adoption coordinator from the orphanage.  

 

We asked some questions of the nanny and other orphanage worker through our guide, filled out some paperwork and then went to another little room to take our first family picture, well actually just us parents and G's picture.  It actually turned out to be a pretty good picture.  We got it back the next day on the official adoption certificate.  After picture taking it was time to go start our 'trial-period.'  China gives the prospective adoptive parents 24 hours with the child to make sure they really want her/him.  We would go back the next day to sign the papers and make it official.  

After all the papers and everything we were very ready to leave that crazy hot building.  So we loaded up our crew and headed back downstairs.  We said thank you to the nanny several times and gave her lots of hugs and then we left.  

On the way back to the hotel we needed to make a stop at the local Walmart.  ACTUAL WALMART, people.  It's pretty much exactly the same as in the states except for all the Chinese signs and the fresh noodle making stand in the middle of the store.  

We ended up getting a stroller (which they assembled for us right there in the store and which we paid for right there in the store), lots of bottled water (that ended up being the most expensive kind you can buy - leave it to us!), and some baby formula (which we had to pay for at the liquor counter.  Still not sure why. . . )  

We did all of this while walking through Walmart with our 5 children and getting LOTS of stares and questions.  Lots of people taking our picture and asking our guide questions.  I think it's pretty funny that they're so blatantly staring and pointing at us but the kids, especially S, don't think so.  It's not rude to stare here, like it is in the US.  Some of these people have probably never seen an American before in their lives, let alone 2 adults with 4 children and a Chinese baby on a hip!  We are quite the spectacle.  

We made it through Walmart and back to the hotel in one piece.  We got everything up to the room and Josh took the older boys with him and Celine so she could show him where the good restaurants are within walking distance.  She also wrote down a few things in Chinese for us like:  'take out', 'no spicy' and 'broccoli'.  The first two I understand, but I have no idea why he asked her to write down broccoli!  LOL  M, S and I played with G while Daddy and the boys were gone.  

He brought us back some food - sweet and sour pork over rice and some pumpkin congee for G.  Congee is a rice porridge similar in texture to watery oatmeal or a thick soup with rice.  It comes plain (just rice and water) or with things mixed in like pumpkin or beans, etc. 

We ate, played a little and then crashed after bath time.  

G never cried, ate her congee like a champ, took a bottle and loved her bath.  She went to sleep without any problems and slept all night long.  (If all Chinese babies are this amazing. . . )