3/14/11 - Day 5: We are now a family of 5!

Whew - what a day!

We were scheduled to meet our guide, Michael, in the hotel lobby at 2pm to go to the civil affairs office to meet Carter. When we adopted April in 2009, our appointment was first thing in the morning. Not this time - hours and hours of stomach butterflies and watch checking.

We woke up @ 6:30 today, got Bennett and April showered and dressed, and headed down to the breakfast buffet. Be warned - traveling to China is not for those on a diet. This morning we dined on eggs, waffles, dumplings, noodles, spring rolls, beans (Bennett was in heaven!), sushi, donuts, croissants, steam buns, fruit, bacon, potatoes, and I'm sure I'm missing something!

To kill time, we decided to take a walk around outside. Our hotel is very close to the Confucious Temple area. It is a very large pedestrian shopping area. Vendors are mixed in with "regular" stores, though I'm wondering if you can bargain in those stores too?

The weather was a bit brisk and windy so we headed back towards our hotel. There is a very large shopping mall attached to our hotel and we walked through it. You could tell that the kids were starting to get a bit nervous. April all of a sudden began speaking in her super quiet voice (never heard at home ... okay, to be honest, we had not heard this quiet voice since the first few weeks she joined us) and Bennett just stopped listening to us and burst out into tears when corrected, when you looked at him, and at other random times.

Time to head back to the room to calm down before the big appointment. After a lunch of ramen noodles and some time with Grandma and Grandpa - we were ready to head out.

As we pulled up to the Civil Affairs office, both Mark and I wondered if we would get to see Carter arrive like we did with April.

This time was different though. We walked into the building and the meeting room where you receive your child was very empty. Only a handful of parents and children. As we walked through the room, we realized that Ms. Tang was already there. Carter was standing with a nanny (Ms. Wei), eating a cracker.

He was very content and allowed us to pick him up and hold him. That is, as soon as he realized we were not trying to take his cookies away. Bennett and April both came over to see him. Bennett wanted to hold him and was a bit disappointed that we told him "not right now".

Lisa is extremely happy that Carter is (so far) very happy with his new mama and does not exhibit a strong preference for his baba (yet).

Carter was holding two packages of cookies. One was open and he was eating them, the other still closed, but clutched in his hand. We took out a bag of puffs and he decided he liked those as well. Fistfuls of puffs went into his mouth and we had to convince him to chew!

We then made our way upstairs to have Carter's official adoption picture. I made the mistake of trying to take the bag of puffs away from him and that didn't go over very well. He is strong and would not let go of that bag!

It was almost impossible to take the picture because the photographer needed a full facial view of all 3 of us. Carter was too busy munching away to be bothered with looking at the camera. Finally another guide came over and between the photographer and with two guides making noises, calling his name and waving things, we were able to get a good picture.

Back downstairs, we were able to ask the director of adoptions from Carter's orphanage several questions. We found out that he always listens and behaves when the nannies are around, but can be a bit naughty when they turn their backs. We also found out that he likes to eat (shocking after what we had already observed!). Another kid born to be in our family.

During the Q&A, Carter stared to show his silly side. He would hold a puff in his fingers, I would lean in and open my mouth, he would pretend to put the puff in my mouth, but then quickly change and pop it into his. After he did that, he would smile and giggle.

At best we were expecting a sobbing and apprehensive toddler who would let us hold him without trying to arch his back and pull away from us. We are waiting for the other shoe to drop, or what happens when we attempt to change him, or least put a clean diaper on him.

Mark and I had to sign some official paperwork and that was it ... we were done for the day and Carter left with us.

Our driver took us over to Carrefour (France's version of WalMart) to do some shopping. Grandpa wanted some headphones for the plane and something a little stronger than beer for a nightcap for Grandma.

Last time we were in this store, we bought out the children's shoe department to bring to the orphanage. April is still recovering from the disappointment of realizing only 1 pair of the shoes was for her.

This time, we only bought 3 pairs - one for each child. Carter started getting a bit upset when we tried to take his shoe off to measure his foot and wanted nothing to do with the trying on a new pair of shoes. (We'll let Bennett teach him the excitement over shoes).

Carter started to get fussy and sleepy in the store and kept putting his head on my shoulder, then crying a bit and fussing until he found a different position and started nodding off again. He fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel and is currently sleeping in his crib behind me. Everyone else went out to grab some dinner and I'm hoping they bring something back because I am starving!

[Edit by Mark - Thank you Angela, NiFun Ramen was a good recommendation for dinner and Lisa is very happy with the takeout we brought.]

Before everyone else left to go to dinner, I went to Grandma and Grandpa's room to get something. Bennett proclaimed to mommy that he loved Carter. April interrupted to say she wanted mommy to look at the picture she had just drawn. That about sums up how they are handling this so far. April is very happy about Carter but is scared and frightened of Ms. Tang and the other lady from her baby home - she thinks they expect her to still speak Chinese. They were looking forward to seeing her and tried to talk to her, but she was not cooperative. We will attempt tommorow to get around this by asking April to use our translator to walk them through a photo album (gift for the orphanage) of April and of the reunion last summer of kids who are adopted from the Xuzhou SWI.

Carter is still in his shoes, most of his clothes and more importantly - the diaper he came in. I am hesitant to wake him up to change him and I'm a bit out of practice in the whole diaper routine. Bennett was mostly potty trained when we got him at age 2 1/2 and went straight to pullups on our watch, so any diaper advice is greatly appreciated.

And now, without further ado - introducing Carter ZhiYi:

Update:
We were able to successfully change the diaper after Carter woke up. Clothing count - 1 padded silk jacket, 1 thermal long sleeve, 1 pajama top, 1 pair of quilted silk pants, 1 pair of thermal split pants, 1 slightly damp pajama bottom, and 1 wet diaper.