Day 2

Today our adoption was finalized from the Chinese side of things.  As far as they are concerned, Su Min is ours.  The rest of our trip is getting his Chinese passport and his U.S. visa. Today we went back to the place where we got Su Min yesterday and completed documents, then went to the notary to finalize more papers.  It was an entire morning of walking and waiting and riding in a kind of hot coach bus, but the boys did great.

It's official!!!  I know, Ben is thrilled.

Su Min is doing amazing.  He loves to play, wander and wreak havoc.  He LOVES to eat and requests a snack in hand at all times.  We see smiles often,he already checks in to find me and requests to be picked up.  He will also happily hang out with Baba (Tom).  He is definitely talking a lot, frustrating because we have no idea what he is saying, but is great to know he is already acquiring so much language with his unrepaired cleft palate.  Several people have commented on how loved he must have been, big, chunky, smiley and walking and playing, curious and timid all at the same time. 

Ben is doing pretty darn good too.  He has already realized that little brothers can be annoying, and we are working on overtime to shower both boys with a lot of attention.  This morning he was NOT thrilled that Su Min was still here, but at the same time, Su Min will disappear into the bathroom with Tom for a minute and Ben is asking where he is. 

While our hotel is great and we are getting by, we are already looking forward to our flight to Guangzhou on Saturday when we move to a one bedroom suite in a Marriott with lots of accommodations compared to what  we have- a regular hotel room with limited dining options.  Ben appears to be on a bit of a hunger strike, Su Min is a bottomless pit, and Tom and I alternate between loving the Chinese food and feeling kind of sick from the change in our diets. 

Tomorrow we will take the 2 hour bullet train ride to Xinyang City, apply for Su Min's passport and visit the orphanage and hopefully the spot he was found as well.  Then we have two days of free time while we wait for passports before flying to Guangzhou, where the U.S. Consulate is.  

Interesting side note, while there were 2,000 China-U.S. adoptions in 2013, the average Chinese person is not aware these adoptions exist.  In a country of 1.3 billion (1 our of every 5 people on this planet is Chinese) 2,000 is pretty small. Last year there were about 100,000 domestic adoptions in China, so again, we a big number in some ways but small in the life of everyday China.  At the notary office today, a man followed me, taking a video of me on his I-phone while I walked with the boys. Back when we got Ben, I blogged about the women who stopped our guide in Xinyang to ask her why we had Ben with us. 

For now, both boys are napping and in a few hours we are going to take a walk over the park.  Just a normal day 2 as a family of 4!