Likes & Dislikes

Today was a fairly calm day. We had to take a bus to two government buildings to get the adoption finalized by the Chinese government and to have the forms notarized. After that we were on our own for the afternoon while most of the families went to apply for their children's passports. We will join two other families to do the same thing tomorrow which will require leaving the hotel at 7 AM to travel by subway, train and taxi to the remote town Seraphina's orphange is located in. We anticipate that being an emotional day, especially after learning of one of Seraphina's dislikes as detailed below.

1st American meal: BK nuggets and fries

Things Seraphina likes

1. Watermelon. I always thought "congee" was a porridge-like dish made from rice. I am beginning to think it is the Chinese word for watermelon though as this is the 2nd child that prefers the juicy, red fruit to a bowl of white mush.
2. Touching the ceiling. The ceiling in the hotel room is about 10 feet up. Sera constantly asks to be lifted up so that she can touch it with her hands. I'm basically doing chest presses to the tune of 10 per hour. The laughter however makes the pain a little more bearable that doing the same with a kettle bell.
3. Taking a bath. This girl tries to climb into the tub whenever she is in the bathroom. We have to repeatedly tell her that she has to wait until before bed time. She has taken more baths in the past two days (2) than most of my kids prefer to take in a week.
4. Balloons. I thought they would be a nice distraction for little cost after seeing another parent with them on Gotcha day. Unfortunately I made the mistake of blowing one up and then stretching the material to make the ballon "whine" as the air was released. I thought it would annoy her but instead she now insists I blow up balloons over and over so that she can make them whine herself thereby annoying her parents. Well played, Sera.
5. Cleaning up. Grandma will be pleased. Seraphina is very good about putting one toy away before getting another one out. When she eats a piece of candy for finishes a water bottle, the is good about putting the trash in the basket. When she gets ready for bed, she folds are her clothes and puts them in the suitcase first. We're hoping her habits will rub off on her "roommate" (aka sister) when we get home.

Things Seraphina does not like

1. Look but don't touch. She is mesmerized by the Christmas tree in the hotel lobby with decorative presents stacked all around the base. We allow her to look at the ornaments but will not let her touch them since she is reluctant to let them go once she has them. Keeping her from touching resulted in a minor breakdown today as she tugged and loudly voiced her displeasure, forcing me to remove her from the lobby.
2.  Downtime. If she's not sleeping, Na-na wants to be active. Sitting still is not an option (unless she's eating). Needless to say, Angela and I are often trying to sneak a little nap time in whenever possible. We are happy when 7:30 PM rolls around which is bed time. We're quite glad the orphanage instilled that habit in her.
3. Buses/travel. Today we got our first tears from Sera. She completely lost it as Angela held her and stepped on to the bus to go to the government buiding. It took several minutes to calm her down. We assume she associates something bad with going places, and expect we will have a repeat performance tomorrow as we head to her "home town". Hopefully she will look back one day and see that it was a "trip" that brought her home to her forever family.

That's it. I was thinking of a Top 5 list for the good and the bad, but thus far there really isn't anything she doesn't like. Not to jinx ourselves, but aside from her medical needs, this has been the easiest adoption yet. Maybe we're just getting comfortable with the process after 3 previous adoptions, or maybe she's just that angelic. In any event, I think "Seraphina" was an applicable name.

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On a side note, I was reviewing some of the posts from our trip to adopt Leah which included our stay in the same city we are in now. In it I mention how blue the skies are in Zhengzhou. My how things have changed in the past 7 years. The skies are now filled with a yellowish-gray haze that persists all day. Air pollution is thick and you can practically taste it. I once thought the Asians wearing face masks with a little ridiculous, but I would be open to wearing one this week. We try not to go out too often because it is so bad.

I also have to grin when I read in the same post about the other families back then adopting children with "bigger" issues than Leah had -- among them were 'adopting an older child' or 'one with missing limbs'. I suppose God was laughing when I typed that, thinking "if you only knew". Check and check.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) looks to be a busy day. It may be Thursday before I have a chance to post again so go back and review some of the older posts from past adoptions. It's interesting to see what's changed and what has stayed the same. Like a cream-colored henley that I wore when we adopted Leah 7 years ago which I packed again for this trip.