Day 12 - Finalization Day & Walmart

Day 12 – Finalization Day & Walmart (short version)
~Great breakfast
~Butterfly likes rice!
~Finalization
~Photo album and gifts
~Awesome noodle lunch
~Walmart
~Jackie Chan?


Day 12 – Finalization Day & Walmart (long version)
We ended up having an OK night last night, but not great. The baby Butterfly loves to cry right now, and last night was no exception. She has a very soft whimpering cry, but she would stop crying whenever we picked her up and moved around. Which meant, that if we continued doing this all night, we would never get to sleep. Fortunately, I was able to calm her down and finally sit and then lay down on the bed with her sleeping on my chest. Eventually she feel asleep enough so that I was able to roll her over into the middle of the bed, where she stayed, sound asleep, for the remainder of the night.


We all awoke in the morning and made our way downstairs for breakfast. The entire morning she clung to one of us tightly… until we got to the hotel’s restaurant. We had a little highchair set up next to our table and placed her in it, where she sat quite nicely for breakfast, much to our surprise. She was really excited when we found some fried rice with egg; she loved eating it being fed by chopsticks. We made great strides at breakfast. She really seemed to be feeling more comfortable with us.



Following breakfast we were taken back to the Adoption Center for our adoption finalization, which means, in short, that we have a bunch more forms to sign, thumbprints to place on our signatures, and a lot of waiting while papers are being processed. The most important part of the finalization is when the child places her hand print on the paperwork. I remember when the Ladybug placed her handprint on her paperwork four years ago. It was so special to us to have her be such an important part of the finalization process, so I knew how important it would be again for us with the Butterfly. She of course was tentative to put her hand on the red ink pad and then again on the paperwork, but did so with a little bit of help from her Daddy. What a little trooper. The finalization was now complete, the baby Butterfly was now officially ours!!!




With all formalities behind us we were then presented with some special things from the Butterfly’s orphanage. A sterling silver locket, a minority doll from the province, and a photo album with photos of the Butterfly over the last 13 months while she was in the orphanage. The album is such a priceless treasure to us, as it would be to any adoptive family. To have photos of our daughter fromthe time before she was a part of our family is so special. We eventually took some photos with the orphanage director and nannies as well as the Adoption Center staff, and then left the Guizhou Adoption Center for good.




After a morning filled with lots of signing and waiting, we had all built up a pretty big appetite. Our guide Jonathon took us to a great local place that specializes in their noodles. Mmmmmm, yum! What I was expecting was a bowl of soup with some noodles, something pretty basic. What I wasn’t expecting was three bowls of soup with the main bowl being the center of a huge event with lots of ingredients. The first bowl was our starter bowl of soup, a basic, but delicious chicken broth. The third bowl was a dessert bowl of sweet soup. However, it was the second bowl of soup that really brought out the fanfare.



While still eating our first bowl, the waitresses started bringing us the ingredients that we would soon add to our own boiling pot of broth. All of the ingredients were raw and thinly sliced so that they could cook in the boiling broth. The ingredients included raw chicken, pork, an egg, numerous vegetables, some spices, and noodles. When the broth was brought to us, we started placing all of the ingredients into the large bowl where they quickly cooked through and absorbed the broth. The soup tasted divine. It was so good, the best noodle soup I have ever tasted. The Butterfly loved the taste of the broth, but even more she loved playing with the noodles. She took some noodles and then wrapped them around her little arm. She did this again and again, bringing smiles to her face. I am not sure what she used to wrap around her arm at the orphanage, but she had clearly done this before. The movement seemed to be playful and yet calming to her at the same time. At the end of lunch we were presented with the bill and were astonished to learn that for all five of us to eat three bowls of soup each, with all of those amazing ingredients and the amazing presentation, cost us a total of fifteen U.S. dollars… total!


With a new baby in tow, we needed a few supplies, so we headed back to our favorite place… Walmart! We needed some formula, because surprisingly enough, the orphanage did not give us a package to get us going. While there we also checked out all of the numerous differences and similarities between a Walmart in China and a Walmart in the states. There are mark-down signs all over the place, rows upon rows of chips (though they did not have any large sizes, just small bags), very interesting products that we would never find in the States, and helpers all over the place willing to give aid whenever possible. The most interesting product we found was the “Jackie Chan Anti-hair fall Shampoo,” which is apparently endorsed by Chairman Maio (his photo is on the package so I can only guess). The product definitely brought us a laugh. It was right at this point that daddy was kindly asked to put away his camera because the Walmart in China prohibits photography in their stores. We just got lucky with the few photos we were able to get.








Off to bed and looking forward to another good day. We hope to see some improvement in the Butterfly tomorrow. She really struggled today and cried a lot whenever we were in the room. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a good day!

~~Aloha!