Day 6 - Nanjing - April officially becomes a Slonim & Happy Birthday to Mark!

Today marks two auspicious occassions. First, we finalized April's adoption this morning and second, it is Mark's 48th birthday.

The kids slept for 12 hours last night. Amazing! We were expecting April to wake up during the night, but she slept right through. We woke up Bennett (as we usually do) right before we went to sleep to take him to the bathroom. He looked over, saw April next to him and broke out in a very cheesy grin. We did have to separate them in the middle of the night because April had Bennett pinned up against the wall and we were afraid he would fall between the bed and the wall. He woke up as we were putting him in the roll-away bed. He was not happy about the change in sleeping arrangements. They are in bed together again tonight and we will see how it goes.  [Just before we posted this Bennett was pulled from that bed because he was playing with his stuffed bunny].

April is really picking up on the regular routine of things. This morning we had her watch as we brushed Bennett's teeth and then she let us brush her teeth with no issues and even managed the "rinse and spit".

This morning was a bit tough on April. We had to go back to the CCAA registration office and finalize the adoption. She was great at breakfast and in the van ride over. As soon as we walked in the building, she started crying (quiet sobs and teary, but not loud sobbing like yesterday) and didn't stop until we left again. The process itself was pretty interesting. When it was our turn, we met with the head clerk, signed some papers, made a red thumbprint over our signatures, and then put April's thumbprint on the documents as well.  We then moved over to the notary where we signed another form and handed over the orphanage fee. She put the money throught a counter and issued us a receipt. April was still crying through this, though the money counter caught her attention.

We had the opportunity to ask Ms. Tang a couple of additional questions and then we were through. Its official - she is our daugher!

We actually had some sightseeing planned this morning. We thought sightseeing in Beijing with Bennett was a different experience, with both of them it was almost humorous. We toured the Presidential Palace which was extremely beautiful and full of history. I had carried April for our walk over from the CCAA office and needed to take a break (she is 35lbs of child!). Mark took over and of course Bennett (40lbs of child) wanted me to carry him too. He was very unhappy with walking holding my hand.  We did probably the quickest tour in history and headed over to Carrefour (like Walmart) to buy some new shoes for April. When we asked what we could bring on our visit, Ms. Tang said the orphanage needed shoes for the kids. It seems that April had never been given choices. We tried to get her to pick between 2 pairs and she didn't seem to know how to choose.. So we bought her both :)
We also about bought out the kids sneaker selection to bring with us to the orphanage. The cashier had some difficulty checking us out and had to call in reinforcements to open boxes, check sizes/price and then had to call a supervisor over as she was not authorized to process such a large credit card amount. Instead of escalators, the store had inclined moving sidewalks and the shopping carts have parking brakes that engage on the incline! Pretty neat!  We're not sure April understood only 2 pairs of the shoes were for her - she may have been thinking she hit the jackpot.

By then, we were all tired and headed back to the hotel for a makeshift lunch of drinkable yogurt and peanut butter crackers and family nap. Daddy napped with April and of course Bennett then wanted to nap with Daddy too (the standard cycle today - picking April up, holding April's hand, etc.).  Bennett loudly declared he did not need to nap before passing out for 2 1/2 hours on top of Mommy.

After the nap, we headed over to the Nanjing Normal University with a beach ball to play on the open grassy area. When we got there - it looked like the preschool had just discharged and there were a ton of kids with their parents or grandparents running around. Bennett and April had fun running around, chasing the ball and playing with the other kids. Kids seem to have a universal language of play. Many kids and their parents joined us playing with the beach ball - but everyone was extremely friendly.

By this point, April had decided that Daddy was her favorite and only wanted him to carry her or hold her hand. She is still letting me care for her, soothe her, bath her, etc.. but Dad is definitely the favorite.

Bennett is starting to show some signs of jealousy, but is directing them towards Mark and I. For example, if Mark is holding Aprils' hand or carrying her, Bennett wants to hold his hand or be carried, too.  [Daddy's edit - okay, a lot of jealousy, but he is being very good with April].

We are going to visit the orphange tommorow and anticipate another tough day for April. It is really important for us to make this trip and see where April has spent her life up to now as well as allow her to say goodbye to her nannies and friends.