Anyway, the flight was easy - almost as soon as she got in her seat, she fell asleep! WHEW!! I too, dozed for much of the flight. We got dinner which was, guess what? CHINESE FOOD!! LOL Waaaaahhhh!!!!
Much to my delight, the taxi to the hotel was an absolute snap! Checked in and crashed. The Holiday Inn Aqua City is 100 times nicer than the Sha Tan was in Beijing. :o) Also double the price. :o(
The Civil Affairs Office, waiting for the Star of the show to arrive! I'm told it's usually really busy in here with families and their kids, but because we were doing this on a Thursday, we were the only ones here!
Excited to meet her new sister!
The next morning, the 6th, we met our guide, Michael, at 9:15am in the hotel lobby to go pick up Mei. We arrived in the empty Civil Affairs Office and talked money and paperwork. Then, Wei, JiangMei arrived! She darted in and smiled at me and ran to the bathroom. LOL 5 minutes later she came back out and we met. She looked just like her pictures! She was shy, but seemed pretty happy about the whole thing. I asked my questions, signed the papers, took a few pictures, and left. Michael took us to a Chinese restaurant (where else?) and I ate nothing. The breakfast that Yang and I ate at the hotel made my stomach hurt (probably the fried potatoes) and there was no WAY I was going to eat that food!!! The girls ordered stuff that made me want to gag: Yang ordered quail eggs (small dark brown balls that looked like they were dug out of a swamp) and a bowl of mashed tomatoes (not potatoes) with scrambled eggs in water(?). GAG. Mei also ordered the tomatoes and eggs but also some other disgusting looking things that I've blocked from my memory forever (thank you, Jesus). My poor stomach!
First moments. I was showing her how I had her photo on my phone's screen saver so I saw her picture every time I turned it on.
Someone was feeling very jealous at this point and not acting her best. I didn't care. I was too happy!!
A better picture of just the two of us.
Some last moments with the orphanage director, who obviously cared about her a lot.
Saying hello and goodbye. How hard this must be for Mei... So brave...
At that point, Michael dropped us off at the hotel and we "rested" for awhile. Mei became emotional earlier and cried a bit, poor thing. Mostly in the afternoon she hogged my phone and the remote control and didn't want to give either up! Gonna have some reprogramming to do when we get home. LOL For now, I'm indulging both girls just to keep them happy, but it's with my teeth gritted. You know me...!! ha
Breaking the ice with silliness, like Jackie O. sunglasses.
Yang is SO sweet and SO funny and SO loving but she is a bit of a brat, as mentioned earlier. (That'll get better.) Mei is much more mild mannered and steady, but her manners aren't as good, i.e. she grabs things out of your hands, she hoards things like the remote, and she does not show appreciation for things like when I give her gifts she doesn't say thank you or act at all pleased. I'm sure these are classic orphanage behaviors and I'm not worried about it. She seems like a GREAT girl who just needs a family to help her learn proper non-orphanage behavior. No shocker, there! ;o)
This morning, Michael picked us up again at the hotel lobby and we went back to the Civil Affairs Office. We signed a couple of more papers (even Mei had to sign one giving her permission for the adoption) and said goodbye to the VERY NICE orphanage director. All done!! Much easier than Beijing!!
Michael, my guide. I wish I had a better picture of him! He was a great guy. Really cared.
Signing more papers.
Finishing up!
Back again to the hotel where we went back to the huge attached mall and I finally found some pizza at a Papa Johns!! Oh, the taste of real American food almost made me cry!! The girls barely ate one piece each, and I ate 3 pieces. :o) I just couldn't smell Chinese food again (and look at it!) without a break. I even had a Coke (without ice, of course) and it tasted a little strange, but that was OKAY.
Yes, I took a picture of the placemat! I was that excited.
LOL!! She looks thrilled, doesn't she?? She insisted on eating her pizza with knife and fork!
One of the benefits of this hotel is the huge mall attached to it. It is many stories high and is open, so you can see the other floors above and below, and even outside. It gives us a safe, attractive, interesting and fun place to hang out without really "leaving" the hotel!
The entire place was decorated for Christmas.
They were so funny - they wouldn't stand NEXT to each other for pictures - there was always a big space between them! ;o)
There was a little singing and dancing performance given on this set shortly after we took this picture. Yang refused to wear a jacket, so when we got to the mall where it was quite chilly, I insisted that she wear my vest! At first she refused, but then she decided she liked the attention it was getting her and she happily wore it for awhile. ;o)
A word about Yang: She appears to be attaching very strongly to me. Yes, she is VERY friendly with strangers, but she is constantly saying, "Mama!" and gives me hugs, kisses, and insists on sleeping with me at night. She is the sweetest little thing! Mei is slower to come around, but should attach just fine, in time. She has not called me "Mama" yet (hasn't called me anything), but smiles at me frequently and seems respectful enough, in fact, she hasn't shown the slightest sign of defiance at all! Just the dominance of my phone and tablet. Ha Heck, she's going to be 14 in a couple of days! What do I expect?!? ;o)
I desperately needed to repack the suitcases...
Tomorrow we take a taxi to the airport and head to Guangzhou. Hopefully, we can get into some sort of routine and settle in a little. Food is going to be a problem I think. I HATE CHINESE FOOD and they love it and want it all the time... This could be a loooooong 2 weeks...
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