Days 4-8: Sightseeing and Paperwork

On Tuesday, August 4th, we spent the morning doing paperwork and going back to the local adoption center to see the registrar and notary, and present our gifts to them. The first 24 hours you have your new baby is considered the "harmonious period", so theoretically if you decide for any reason this is not the baby for you then you can disrupt the adoption without repercussions. Once you see the Notary and Resgistrar and sign the papers, then the adoption is considered finalized. Brody is officially ours, no one can take him away!!!

In the afternoon, we went to the local mall (7 stories tall, all inside!) where Mom and I stopped at the Pucca store (Pucca is a cartoon character who is Chinese, and she loves a little Ninja named Garu, and she is always trying to catch him and kiss him-it's soo cute!). I had such a hard time choosing what I wanted, but ended up getting this really cute purse. Mom got a back-pack, and Makenna got a Garu doll. At one point Bernie was standing outside the Pucca store with both kids, and a Chinese gal kept trying to sneak pictures of them on her camera! Every time he would look at her, she was pretending to look the other way and hiding her camera. After the mall, we went to the Careforre supermarket and bought some pop, water, snacks, and a cute stroller. I love browsing the supermarktet-there's so much stuff that I've never seen before!!

On Wednesday, we visited a local park in the morning, then went to Shamian Island in the afternoon for the medical exam. That went very smoothly, then we had time for some quick shopping before returning to the hotel.

Thursday it rained all day until about 4pm. We took it easy all day and took naps, then that evening we struck out for a solo trip to Shamian Island for dinner and shopping via taxi. We had plenty of time to browse all the shops we wanted and purchase souvenirs, then we went to the local famous eatery "Lucy's" for dinner. It is famous among American adopters because it has some good ole' American comfort food, which tastes really good when you've had 1 1/2 weeks of Chinese food! We spent some time looking around the White Swan hotel, too. It has a really beautiful lobby with a waterfall and some of the biggest koi I have ever seen!

On Friday we took a trip to the Chen Clan Temple, that the Chen family built for ancestor worship. It is beautiful, with lovely gardens and rock formations, and very intricate carvings and paintings. After that we went to the Six Banyan Temple, which is a famous temple for worship. There were many worshipers there, and there are huge, fantastic statues of Buddha-covered in gold and over 2 stories tall! Really beautiful. We had Elsie ask one of the monks there if he would bless our children, so several of the families brought their children up, too, and we were all blessed by the monk. He chanted and beat on a small wooden drum, then sprinkled water on all of us. It was a very spiritual experience for me-I had goose bumps while it was happening! It really was one of the things about this whole trip that I will always remember.

I have absolutely no recollection of doing anything on Saturday, so we must have just laid low and watched Guangzhou go by outside the windows! It actually is very entertaining to watch all the traffic and people go by outside-it is a miracle anyone survives! We're on the 13th floor, so we have a great view! We occasionally need some down-time, kids included.

All of the sightseeing has been a lot of fun, but the best part of the trip has been watching Brody blossom before our eyes. Every morning he wakes up with a smile! He seems to really love to be around us, and loves to be included in everything we do. He is willing to do and taste anything, but certainly lets us know when he doesn't like something! He's turning out to be a reall mama's boy, too, and doesn't let anyone take him out of my arms. He gets really mad, pulls his arm back with his hand in a fist, and makes a clicking noise with his tongue if Bernie holds his hands out to take him when I'm holding him. It's really funny!! Brody is starting to recognize his name, and is becoming very verbal, with lots of babbling and laughing. Bernie and I think that we have gotten super lucky for the second time!!! We're having lots of fun getting to know our new son, and we think he's great!

Have I mentioned I would do almost anything for a bag of Pretzels?????