Adoption Day

Today was a more difficult day, but mostly because I was so tired. Cosette woke up at 3:30 a.m., hungry and ready for the day. Of course, we couldn’t start our day. She and I had a snack in the bathroom so we wouldn’t wake up Daniel and John. Then I made my big mistake, I invited her to crawl in bed with me because unfortunately, Cosette really was awake. Really? Awake now? At 3:30 in the morning? Yikes. We lay in bed and rested. Each time I was about to fall asleep Cosette would wiggle or something and wake me up again. Finally about 5:30 we gave up and got up. So please forgive me if this entry is not entirely lucid. I truly am exhausted.

After breakfast we drove back to the Civil Affairs building to complete the adoption proceedings. John and I signed forms and we had our finger prints taken and Cosette and Daniel blew bubbles, colored and played with cars. The kids were amazingly good and we were done with everything in about two hours. So its official, Daniel is now and Eisenhauer! Amazing that in the blink of an eye a child can become yours forever.

(Pictures right and above, Daniel being hand printed for the adoption documents; left and below, Mrs. Pan, Daniel and Cosette. And yes, I just missed Cosette kissing his cheek, right and far below D & C blowing bubbles under the conference room table as mom and dad signed adoption papers)

Our guide had no sight seeing, shopping or dining out planned. She kept saying “business before pleasure.” Her determined point was that we must finish the business of the adoption and passport, all the paperwork before we do any fun things. The problem is that the “business” only took all of two hours and we had the rest of the day we played the “what can we do next” game. We played with the beach balls then play dough. Daniel and Cosette did more tumbling on the bed, then on the floor also. Daniel demanding we clap each time he did a somersault or other trick; and of course it was our pleasure to do so. He is a little ham. The kids watched a cartoon while John and I worked on financial stuff. Then we walked around in the area, checked out Wal-Mart and the underground shopping. We had a nice Chinese dinner and retired early.

Daniel is doing great; he did exasperate me a little today, although I believe it was mostly because I am so very tired.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we drive to Dalian, Daniels home city to process his passport. It’s about a four hour drive. We leave at 7:30 a.m. Thursday we will do some sightseeing in Dalian and Friday will be our orphanage visit. We are still hopeful that we will meet Daniel’s foster family. I continue to ask and Mrs. Pan has yet to say “no”. We shall see. Saturday and Sunday we will do more sightseeing. Monday we return to Shenyang, where we are now. I understand internet connections in Dalian are not as good so there is a chance we will not be able to post from there.

It’s 7:45, the kids are asleep, John is reading and I am drifting in and out of coherent thought so I’ll sign off for today.

Tonya