Nanning, Part I

Wednesday morning we had a meeting to complete the adoption paperwork. We learned what the order would be when the babies were handed over. The four babies from the Yulin orphanage came first, then us, then the six babies from Beihai.

After the business meeting we took a shopping trip to the city's Super Walmart. It covers two floors of a building but doesn't have nearly the amount of products we have. Some of the items were easy to recognize like Pampers diapers, and we could figure out apple juice from grape juice from the picture on the container, but for some things the only thing on the container was Chinese characters. Thank goodness for our guide, Michael.

We took a stroll through the meat/seafood section of the store. The first thing that you notice is the smell. We can't even begin to describe it other than it was overwhelming. We posted pictures of the fish tank with big fish, crabs, and turtles. You would use a net to scoop out the fish you wanted. We also saw a whole skinned rabbit that we first thought was a big rat because of the teeth but then we saw the big ears. After shopping we ate lunch at Pizza Hut. It tasted the same although they did have eel as a pizza topping.

At 2:45 we met in the lobby to go to the Lottery Hotel where we would meet our babies. We went to the fourth floor meeting room. The babies were across the hall. A rep from the CCAA gave made an introduction statement. Then it was our time. We were at the front of the room so I had a great camera shot as the first few parents came up. I was so busy taking pictures of them that I didn't realize it was our turn until our names were called. I have to be honest at first I really didn't recognize Jeremy. I just took the baby that was being handed to me. He screamed when he came to me but as soon as he saw Eric he went immediately to him. And he hasn't left his arms yet. You may notice that in all of the pictures Eric is holding him. Today (Saturday) We just got a picture of me holding him...he's asleep. He goes to men only...other dads in our group, our CCAI reps, a stranger in the lobby of our hotel. Anyway back to Wednesday, that night we went to the hotel restaurant specifically to get the kids congee (rice porridge). Every family ordered a bowl. When they came I thought it was such a waste because the bowls were so big they couldn't possibly eat it all. I was wrong. Jeremy almost finished his entire bowl. I've since tried to feed him more but he's found other things he likes even better...like watermelon. His breakfast is basically massive amounts of watermelon. We feed him cheerios for snacks so were hoping to balance out all the liquid.

HINT: Mom, have watermelon in the house when we get home next weekend!