Our first full day with Sophie
Today was our first full day with Sophie. She slept wonderfully through the night from about 9:00 to 5:30. Of course, we didn't sleep that well (felt like we were rookie parents all over again getting up to check her breathing every so often).
After a small breakfast bottle (still haven't gotten the formula consistency right), we were up and on the bus for yet another busy day.
You see, yesterday we were only considered Sophie's "babysitters" for a 24hr period. Today, was the day we returned to the social welfare office to complete the paperwork and make it official. As we are a big group this was going to take awhile and while the offices are airconditioned it is still quite warm in the building. Adding to this was the boredom factor for the older children (thank God for technology - game boys and dvd players saved the day). We had two things to do today at the social welfare office. First we had to appear before the adoption staff to sign our confirmation of adoption, then we had to appear before a Notary for some other paperwork (We've signed so many documents we've lost track). We didn't finish until about 11:30 am so we headed back to the hotel where we had a quick lunch and a swim in the pool (they have a fantastic pool facility here!). At 2:45 we were back on the bus to head out to the Chinese Passport office to get Sophie's passport. This document should be ready by Friday when we leave Guangzhou.
After all the paperwork was completed, we went to a supermarket (a huge supermarket- 4 floors of everything you could want. It is a Carrefour - Papi, you will be familiar with this). We bought some extra water, juice, snacks, formula and splurged on an umbrella stroller (about 12$) although we had heard that the babies do not like to be in strollers.
We got back to the hotel, where we promptly fixed Sophie another bottle which she drank along with some apple juice. We were starving by now and decided to venture out with another family to a local restaurant (we were getting tired of the hotel restaurant). The restaurant was a little futher than we had expected but good news - Sophie loves the stroller and slept most of the way. The restaurant was quite an experience as we do not know any Cantonese or Mandarin and the staff knew very little English. We were quite the attraction (the Chinese often stare curiously at us). They are quite polite but some are frankly suprised to see "white parents" with Chinese children.
The meal wasn't that great. The food was good but we were tired, the restaurant was smoky and Stephanie was a bit cranky (She has been a real trouper but has had a few meltdowns when she gets really tired - who can blame her).
We got out of the restaurant and were greated with quite the downpour. So armed with an umbrella, we high-tailed it back to the hotel. With the airconditioning on high (as it always is in the hotel) we were chilled when we got to our room(hope we don't catch a cold). Stephanie and Sophie had a bath together - Sophie's first bath and she really perked up. We are starting to see some smiles and giggles which is wonderful. After an unsuccessful attempt to feed Sophie another bottle (she did drink some juice however) Caroline sat and held her until she fell asleep. Let's hope we have another nice night!!!
Tomorrow it is off to the Buddhist temple (Six Banyan Tree temple) where a blessing ceremony will be perfomed. We are then going to do some souvenir shopping (our first chance to really see Guangzhou).
Well, that's it for tonight. I really hope this works out with the pictures. Please let me know if you have any problems viewing them.
Love, Chris, Caroline, Stephanie and Sophie.
posted by dejardinfamily @ 10:38 AM
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