Finally A Forever Family

For some reason I can not get the pictures loaded today. Bummer, I know that is disappointing for everyone. Will try again in the morning. Today we had another great day! Every minute we fall more and more in love with this little guy. He has such a sweet personality. He loves to laugh and giggle. He is very curious about everything and looks at you and the world with these big curious eyes. He doesn't get upset much, he is very easy going and laid back guy. The only time he cried today was when his mama tried to hold him. He is definitely a daddy's boy. But by the end of the day we made huge headway in that area, he is now running to me and playing with me. He let me feed him all his meals and give him a bath. But still likes his daddy for bed time routine.
Tai is also a great sleeper! Woo Hoo! He fits right in with us! He slept last night - ALL NIGHT - for nearly 13 hours! We had to wake him up this morning b/c we had to be at our first appt at 9:30 AM. We started off the day at the hotel breakfast buffet. Tai didn't eat much, just mostly played with his food. But he sure loved the cheerios. Jenny came and got us at took us to the civil affairs office to do all the official paperwork and pay all fees. It was crazy in that place. There were so many families and babies there. Most babies were screaming. But not our Tai he was chillin with his daddy checking out the sites! Anyway, there were all these rooms down the hallway and Jenny would run us in and out of each one for the different tasks. She moves like the speed of lightening, but seems to know what she is doing. So we just followed along and did what she told us. We took family pictures, did our interview where we promised to educate him and never abandon him. Then it was to the office to pay the fees. We gave gifts to the people in each office and in return the civil affairs gave us a gift too. It is a beautiful porcelain holder for calligraphy pens. Then we signed alot of forms and put our fingerprint over all of our signatures. Then it was Tai's turn, he put his whole hand print on some form. Guess he decided he would keep us too!!!!!!! Then after all of that, Jenny handed us a document and said Congratulations He is yours.... Forever!!!! Yeah! So in the eyes of the Chinese Hong Tao Ming in now officially Tai Alexander Fenton! The best thing was that our guide rocks and she had us in and out of that place so fast, the other families that were there before us were still there when we left! We LOVE our guide! We also saw the orphanage director and the assistant director over the children again, we took a picture with them and got to ask a few more questions. We will see them again when we visit the orphanage on Wednesday. The next stop was the notary office. Again we had an interview and paid some more fees. The funny thing is that no one can figure out how to translate "perfusionist". It is kinda funny, so by the end of the day after numerous interviews we settled for calling Jason a cardiac technician. Poor guy all that education only to be called a "technician". While at the notary office we met some nice girl waiting. She spoke great English, she told us she learned it watching American horror movies! She told Jason he looked like a movie star. She was eating this package of crackers that Tai obviously wanted. By the end of our visit our son had eaten her whole package! oops! Guess that's what we get for letting him play with his breakfast. At some point we may need to work on the stranger danger thing! After that our last stop was the police station to take a photo of Tai, for what I am still not sure. But the other adoptive families we saw before were there. Once again, we were in and out while they still sat there!
When the paperwork was done, it was off to the Wal-mart. It is just like in America, crazy and so many people. It was 2 story! They have this special escalator thing that you put your cart on and it goes up to the next level. Kinda cool. Anyway we stocked up on things we needed or forgot to bring, diapers and junk food and those crackers that Tai apparently likes. We forgot the Cheerios though. Oh no! We are almost out of our stash. We gave Tai the little bowl with the handle full of cheerios on gotcha day and he hasn't let go of it since! He loves that thing. We strung cheerios all over Nanchang today. He loves to feed both of us cheerios too. The Wal-mart has KFC on the ground floor, so we opted for a bucket of chicken to go for lunch. It was way past nap time. Tai once again slept like a champ. Nearly 2 1/2 hours. We also got a good nap in. After nap time, he was a whole different kid. So happy and playful, laughing and loving on BOTH of us! It was great! We spent the whole afternoon, just the 3 of us as a family. We played and played and played some more. For dinner we gave Tai a box of noodles (just like Ramon) that our guide suggested we try. We hit the jackpot with the noodles with chopsticks. Finally, this kid ate for us. He couldn't get enough of them!
After a long day of playing. Both boys are sleeping soundly. I of course am not sleeping. Seems to be the trend these days. Tai goes down like a champ. We turn down the lights, Jason reads him books which he looks at so intently, then we play some music and he is off to sleep in his own bed. Hopefully tonight he will sleep good again.
We are having a great time here in China and feeling more comfortable. We feel so lucky to have our very own guide. Jenny is the best! She told us that she had a group of 23 families a few weeks ago. Yikes! She said she couldn't even talk to some of the families b/c she was so busy with all the paperwork and other stuff. She also said that GWCA is her part time job. She works for other agencies in other countries. Last week she had families from Iceland and New Zealand! Seems so crazy huh? Jenny has a 5 yo son, so she has been a huge help to us first time parents. We will forever be grateful to her!!!!
So tomorrow is shopping day. She is taking us to a "department store" to shop for Tai. He needs some shoes, the ones I brought are way too big. He also needs a few clothes. Crazy I know when you look at the closet. But I didn't bring enough 18 mo size clothes with me. Plus, anytime you mention shopping - who am I to say no.
I am sorry again about the pics. I will keep trying. We miss everyone! And of course we love the emails and notes. Please keep em comin - we look forward to checking them everyday.