What A Difference A Day Makes

Sorry for the delay in our posts. We had a long day, yesterday and were very tired. It was another amazing day.

We had to wake our sweet girl up yesterday morning. She slept through the whole night. We're sure the trauma of the day induced extra sleep. She took a 3 hour afternoon nap instead of her normal 2 hours also. Her Nanny provided us a written sheet of her normal eating, sleeping, napping schedule to take with us from our first meeting. Of course, it was written in Chinese so our guide, Eva, is graciously translating it for us.

Our friend from the restaurant, Merry, met us and helped us select appropriate breakfast foods for her. She had egg with tomato in it, plain congi (a bland sort of rice soup), fruit and some half cooked yeast rolls with bean curd in the middle (yum). I offered her some banana bread from my plate and she ate it up too. I was happy to find some common ground there to build on. Cole and Gracie - we will definitely be making our banana bread now won't we? She did great at breakfast and we began to see glimpses of her starting to relax slightly.

After breakfast, we left to return to the Civil Affairs Office to do all the official paperwork. They wisely understand that Gotcha Day is not the day for lots of document signing and interviews. It would be too much on the child to endure with the trauma of leaving every thing she knows with strangers. They took us back into the same room we were in the day before. We would have chosen a different room, but they didn't ask us. You could see on Hadley's face that she was wondering if her loved ones would be back in that room, but she seemed to be OK when they weren't there.

We had to tell the officials we found her "acceptable" and we promised never to harm or abandon her. We handed over our papers, signed more of their papers, they made her foot print for her signature - they used red ink of all things (not on her new white dress please). We gave a gift to the Civil Affairs Lady, did an interview with the Notary, got our picture made with Hadley in front of the Chinese flag as we were presented with a certificate of adoption, making her ours. It was official. She is now Hadley Lu Eddins according to the People's Republic of China. That was a great moment. She sat sweetly the whole time and colored in a book we brought, never making a sound and never trying to get down. We were through in 1 hour.

Now for the good stuff: Back at the hotel as Eva, our guide, was helping Pat with directions to the Merwin's apartment, I began playing with Hadley (Jiao-Jiao) nibblng on her neck while she sat in my lap. And there it was - our first smile. She giggled and smiled ear to ear as I tickled her. I got Pat's attention and he quickly came over and snapped some great pictures.

Programming note: We are now blogging written details to pictures that have already been placed on the blog. Our excellent techno guru, Ron Luster, Jr. a.k.a. "Uncle Mayonnaise" is Mr. Johnny on the spot. We will have to be more prompt. Thanks for all of your help, Ron.

Eva jumped in the van with the driver, Mr. Poo (I love his name - Poo!) and was gone until the next day. We went to "Walking Street" to do some shopping for Hadley. Walking Street is a pretty neat place. Lots of locally owned store fronts, as well as, national chain department stores and restaurants. We ate at Pizza Hut two nights ago. The Pizza Hut guys must have given up on the U.S. market and are putting all their eggs in China. This is not the Pizza Hut we are used to. It was very upscale and very good - but, I digress.

We bought Hadley some cute pajamas and a couple of cheap toys and then went into Parkson, the big department store, and fed her some noodles at one of the small restaurants within the store. She fell asleep in her stroller on the way back and we all got some rest.

She was upset when she woke because she had had an accident, she didn't potty before she fell asleep. So, since she was already wet, we attempted her first bath. She did really well, dispite the fact that we really didn't know how she had bathed at the orphanage. When we asked her Nanny how she normally bathed at the Civil Affairs Office, she replied "she will need help with her bath." We assured her that we would not toss the the toddler the soap and leave her to her own devices. After her bath, she was a little upset and cold. I'm glad I packed some long sleeve shirts for her. She looked so cute in her pink outfit with a white bow in her freshly washed hair. We loved dressing up our Gracie and we are loving dressing up our Hadley, now.

Now that everyone was presentable, we travelled over to the Merwin's in response to a much appreciated invitation to some home cooked "American style" food. We have never been so touched by the generosity of other believers. They hardly know us and yet are treating us like family. Their help has been indispensable. We didn't realize that Hadley would have a hard time seeing them again. Remember, they were with us on Gotcha Day. I guess she associates them with leaving her Nanny. She immediately started crying hard when she saw Kellie and Stephen. She finally was consoled but never left my lap the whole night, never played with a single toy. We're glad to report that she didn't let her emotions overide the prospect of a good meal, however (she is such an Eddins). She ate Ramen noodles (Yes, Gracie, Cole and Sam - the same noodles that you like so much), bananas, plums and a very interesting looking chicken meat stick, kind of like a Slim Jim. We had wonderful spaghetti and salad with amazing cookies and "Coke Light" on ice. These were the first drinks on ice we had had since we left the states. What a meal! The Merwin's and their teammates really treated us to a wonderful night!

Upon returning to the hotel, Hadley settled in and responded better to familiar surroundings. I snuggled and read her a book and unbelievably, in spite of such a crazy day, she went to sleep and NEVER CRIED. We don't know if that's good or bad, we just pray we're helping her the best we can.