Finally!!

Wow, it's been so long since I've wanted to write this blog entry. We are sitting in our dark hotel room with last minute NEw Year fireworks going off in the distance, and there is a baby sleeping in the cribnext to my bed. What an amzing day.

It all started out with meeting Michael to sign some papers, exchange mucho dinero, and go to the bank to make the $$ transfer to the orphanage. Then we had to wait. Car and I played cards... we never play cards, but today we did.

Then, at 1:30, Michael picked us up again and we drove about 20 minutes to the Civil Affairs Burea, went to the 8th floor, stepped out of the elevator, and there they were, the owner of the orphanage, the care-taker and Max, waiting for us in the lobby. In my mind, I had imagined it to be so much more ceremonial, but it was very simple. No crying baby, no drama as I'm reaching for the baby, no sobbing care-taker. It was all very cordial, and happy and efficient.

We all sat down in this lobby (we were the only ones adopting at that time), and started talking to the owner and the care-taker. It turns out that they had had a long ride on the train, and that Max has a slight cold. I put Car in charge of taking pictures/videos, and we had made a list of questions to ask the care-taker. Since we had Michael there to translate, all the questioning went great. We found out basic things, like how he was abandoned, who gave him his Chinese name (the owner: his name means "strength"), his medical history (no allergies, has received all of his shots, his schedule, etc. We got out "family picture" taken, the director got her picture taken with Max, and that was it! THe whole thing took about 40 minutes.

"So, Jess, what'd you do today?" "Oh, I got a baby... how about you?"

We went to the hotel, undressed the Little Dude, and gave him a bath. Not his favorite thing, but he took it all in. Then we walked and walked and walked, up the room, down the room, up the room, down the room. He did not like it when I sat down. Once he fell asleep in my arms did I sit down, and we had some quiet time. When he woke up, we walked some more. He's fascinated by the mirrors in our room, so that kept us entertained for a while. By this time, Car had fallen asleep (she has been working really hard keeping me afloat!!), so we had some more quiet time, which was just fine by me.

By 6:00 Car and I were quite hungry, so we got ready for our first outing. Diaper change: check. Bottle: check. Toy: check. Baby sling: check!! In fact, once Max was in the sling, he came alive. It was so cute. He became a lot more interactive, and relaxed a little (his little body had been so stiff up to this point). We went down to the restaurant, and Max began to charm the entire wait staff, who, of course, quite rightfully so, ooohed and aaaahed all over him!! It was great. We went back upstairs, Max took a bottle, another diaper change, read some books, and now he's sleeping.

So here I sit, in a dark room with my best friend and my baby sleeping!! It doesn't get much better than this!

But let's wait to see what our night will be like. :)
I am ready.

Enjoy some pictures!