Day Three - Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Today we needed to meet Mr. Li at 10 a.m.  We appreciated the extra time to get up and around in the morning.  Elora has been sleeping all night, but Heidi and I wake up around 1 or 2 a.m. and have trouble getting back to sleep for a few hours.  We were able to make some calls back home, and have a Skype session with Grandma, the kids and even Tori!  There is a 13 hour time difference, so our mornings are evenings back home so people are off work and out of school.  That is a nice time to call home.

Breakfast was good again.  Miss Elora is still loving to eat, and I am still loving watching her do it.  Heidi is such a good eater though.  I am so happy she has always taken such good care of the kiddos that way.  We can't all live on my American junk food.

Mr. Li came and got us, and we piled into the back of his car again.  It is so sweet, we all get buckled and Miss Elora puts her hands out on each side and we all hold hands.  This is now the ritual when we go anywhere.  Heidi doesn't know how it will work when we are home and can't sit in back with her anymore.  :)

Mr Li took us to an amazing souvenir store!  We had asked him for suggestions on things to buy for Elora to help her remember her home country, as well as things for the rest of the family back home.  He told us this store was very nice, and is a great place because it has everything in it...hand painted dishes, traditional Chinese clothing, porcelain, jade, other hand crafted Chinese products, etc.  He also said their products are guaranteed, although from all the way in China I'm not certain what that would mean for us.

In any case, the store was great.  If I were to guess, it was a little more expensive than many of the hole-in-the-wall street stores, but the convenience of having it all there was very worthwhile.  And, the people there spoke great English and weren't pushy at all, but very informative.  We wound up spending more than we'd planned, but it was nice to buy several things and not have the stress of trying to figure out where to go to find a bunch of different things.  We even ordered some personalized things, and they took our hotel information and had them delivered to the business center for us there later that afternoon.

After going there, as promised Mr Li took us to a huge and fancy restaurant.  It was awkward for me, as expected, because I finally had to explain to him that I am a very particular eater and probably would not be eating there.  I told him, though, that I love to see everything and do not mind not eating, and hoped he wasn't offended.  I also told him that I love for Heidi and Elora to try things.  At first, he told me I won't be in China very often so I should try it.  I told him I understood, but please believe me that it isn't a China thing for me, and that I am a terrible eater also at home.  I even looked through their entire two menus.  They had soooo many choices, but believe me when I tell you none of it was Greg food.  I often wish I could just eat normal things like everyone, because I certainly don't like to offend and spend my life explaining how picky I am.

Oh well, we very much enjoyed the restaurant.  The menu had pages and pages of actual fish pictures that you could order.  When you walked in, it was like going to a Red Lobster with the tanks, except there were probably 20 to 30 different tanks with all different kinds of fish.  It was like going to an aquarium, only you could actually order the stuff and they would take the live things from the tank to prepare for you.

Heidi wasn't all that hungry due to the late breakfast, but they all managed to eat a fair amount. (Sample of dishes from Heidi:  spring rolls, corn cakes, fried lotus root/fish, noodles which Elora went to town on, green onions sauteed in garlic, shrimp dumplings, custard tartlets, and of course hot tea.  Mr. Li and I laughed because the individual servings of things they brought came in 3s and there were four of us which worked out well for Greg. Mr. Li had not told them Greg was not eating, it is just how they do it.  Ha!)  We sat at a large circle table, and they kept bringing dish after dish and they would put it on a large lazy susan turntable so everyone eating could just spin the individual dishes over to their area.  And as usual, I had to take some pictures of our little munchkin with her chopsticks.  I'm not sure when or if that will ever get old.

After eating, Mr. Li took us to the international travel medical center.  There were plenty of people there, but no wait really.  We were able to take pictures, so I took pictures and video.  Again, she was a good girl.  She likes to explore and is curious, but she only goes so far and then stops.  She doesn't just run off on us.  They checked her ears, eyes, walking/running, tried to get her talk but she wouldn't much.  She really loved the part when it was time to get up on the table/bed.  She was so excited, Heidi couldn't hardly get her to let her take her pants and jacket off because she kept trying to climb up there without doing that first.  Then they had to take her blood for something.  They didn't have us go in for that part.  We were happy, because we thought it may be the first cry.  Once again though, she was a trooper.  I don't think she cried at all, but she marched out of the room pointing at her band-aid telling everyone about her boo-boo in Chinese.

She also had to get her picture taken there.  She liked carrying the extra copy of it around.  Like Asher, she seemed really fascinated with herself.  At first, I didn't think I'd ever get that back from her either.  Eventually, though, she forgot about it and I was able to file it with all of my many other adoption items.

After the medical, Mr. Li had noticed we exclaimed about passing the Starbucks earlier and offered to take us there.  Having skipped lunch, I was totally ready to try a China Frappucino.  I am pleased to share with any international travelers, the China Frappucino is just like those at home.  And, I'd like to also say, that Elora was skeptical about it at first, but after just one suck of the straw she was hooked.  Sorry, Tori and Madeline, but this Dad just had to be the one to make sure she got her first Starbucks.  I actually just shared mine with her, but like my other kiddos she would have consumed the whole thing if I would have let her.

After Starbucks we went to the police station to get her picture taken and get the passport going.  And, we didn't know it was coming, but this is where we received our adoption certificate finalizing our adoption.  Mr. Li told us congratulations, as Elora is now officially our daughter!  Hooray!!!!  What a feeling!  I just have to say though, if you've been following along and remember that family picture from the day before where I looked awful...yep, this is where it resurfaced.  Printed on the adoption certificate is this picture of us with my goofy eyes.  I knew it would be back...lol.  Oh well, I'm just happy to have that document in our hands.

We were now done for the day.  Mr. Li took us back to the hotel.  We later went out for a bit and took Elora to a McDonald's.  Please don't judge me for taking her to these places.  I promise that Heidi is making sure she is getting the best of both worlds.  :)  So Elora had, what I can only believe was her first McD's burger.  She didn't care for the pickle at all, and did a thorough inspection under the bun to make sure none of those were getting near her mouth again.  She only ate about half of the burger, but plowed through the fries and ketchup.  She doesn't know what to think of soda.  She will drink it, but slowly and she makes a bad face after every drink.  We then stopped at a couple of shops on the way back and came up to the room.

It was too late to do a morning call to the kiddos :(.  We just hung out at the room after that.  Heidi and I were sitting in each of the beds, with a bedside table between us.  We both had our arms out trying to get her to come to one of us for a hug.  She slowly approached and we thought she may come love on one of us.  But no, she passed us both by and grabbed the remote for the TV and left us hanging...lol.  She then sat with Heidi for a while and watched TV.

Heidi went to sleep around 8, so I was able to get her to be with Daddy.  I streamed Ice Age 4 on my netbook, and she watched the whole thing, giggling at appropriate parts despite her lack of understanding for English.  I fell asleep for a while during it, but Elora hung in there for all of it.  Got her to go sleep around 10:15 p.m.

Sorry for the looong posts, but we like to share everything and hope that someday this will serve as a great reminder of how our journey to China to get Elora went.  We love you all, and we miss everyone, especially the other members of our original five-finger family, Mr. Lane, Madelineskipooskidoodle, and the Ash Man!