MinLan Matters: Tuesday

Well it's Tuesday afternoon in China. MinLan is taking a nap and Ellie and I are eating some noodles from a cup, Oreos, and beef jerky in our room. Living the high life! Ha! Wouldn't trade it for the world!!

Last night at bedtime and today at nap, just about broke my heart. You just lay her in the bed and she just stares up. No fussing, no wanting you to pick her back up. All my babies cried when I layed them down. Now I appreciate the fact that they wanted their momma.

We woke up this morning about four and took showers before we woke MinLan up about seven. We got her dressed and then went downstairs to eat at the buffet.

I was told that MinLan only eats rice cereal and congee. So I figured for breakfast she could probably handle the consistency of yogurt. Wrong. When you put a spoon in her mouth she acts as though she doesn't know what it is. I find it hard to believe that she was fed this way all the time.

But girl has a mouth FULL of teeth so I gave her egg, watermelon and banana bread which she loved!!! I did buy her some rice cereal today so we will have it as we travel around this week in her province. We fed her that for lunch and she did seem to recognize it. She also loves yogurt melts and was really eyeing my chocolate I ate this afternoon!

This morning after breakfast we met out guide at 9am to go back to the civil affairs office to finalize our adoption. They took mine and MinLan's picture and then we had to promise not to abuse or abandon her and to treat her just like our other children.

Then we went upstairs to the notary. He was crazy! Our guide warned us not to make too much conversation with him because he was strange....man was she right.

I have been surprised by the number of non-American foreigners here adopting. Guess in my mind I thought it was mostly Americans!

Then our guide took us to Trustmart. This is Walmart in China. We had told them that we really wanted to shop at Aeon but she seemed pretty adamant and I'm not sure she really understood my reasons for not wanting to go there. So this October will be five years since we shopped in a walmart. I'm not counting my forced China excursion! Ha! We bought bottled water, rice cereal, Hershey's chocolate, chips, treats for the children at the orphanage and Oreos!

We came back to the room, fed MinLan and laid her down for a nap. The orphanage was very clear that she naps from 12 to 2 and that her bedtime is ten! What?!?!

This afternoon our other guide, Richard (Alexa's husband) is bringing us some more paperwork to fill out then we plan to go eat those yummy noodles again!

Tomorrow we head to the bank to exchange more currency and go to MinLan's medical appointment and to the police station. Say a prayer for her medical appointment. They take her into a room without me I think and needless to say I'm not liking that one bit. So would not happen in America!

We are loving our time here but also missing everything about home. I miss our nice clean air and water, the politeness of most people from the south and hearing my own language being spoken. Trying to imagine that this is what MinLan is feeling too being with us. Most of all I miss Bryan and the kids. Thankful that we have been able to FaceTime.

Here's a few pics!

Ready for breakfast this morning!