July 17, 2007 - Registration Day - Shopping at Wal-Mart.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

We awoke around 7 a.m. and Jenna was still sleeping. She is a good sleeper just like her caretakers told us. We woke Jenna up just before we went down to the breakfast buffet. New hotel – same great breakfasts except this place had even better breakfast buffets than the Novotel. I know that I never left breakfast wanting and often ate enough that lunch was usually unnecessary. It was pretty clear that Jenna was bonding with Cheryl before me (which is typical and quite expected) so Cheryl minded Jenna while I fetched the food for us all. I’m not complaining because Cheryl pretty much had to carry Jenna everywhere we went to help facilitate the bonding process, and also because Jenna didn’t like to walk much – she likes to be carried. Cheryl had her carrier and Jenna is very light, but it still gets hard sometimes I’m sure, but Cheryl is not a complainer. We soon verified that Jenna loves to eat fruit and vanilla yogurt and a little bit of everything else. We could definitely tell that having so many choices of things to eat was new to Jenna and she was taking full advantage.

When we were finished at about 8:30 a.m. we went to the lobby to meet Shirley and we entered the Toyota van to head back to the Civil Affairs Office. Another hot & humid day in the 90’s in Changsha but the AC was working in the van. We arrive at the C/A Office around 9 a.m. and there are 3 other families in the waiting room. One was a mother with a 3-year-old daughter with short hair, who seemed to have cerebral palsy. The mother wasn’t a single mother; the father had to stay at home in North Carolina to watch the rest of their children. Another family there was from Alexandria Kentucky and had 2 Chinese daughters – one who was 4 or 5 whom they previously adopted, and a 4-year-old daughter that they were adopting this trip. It turns out this daughter was from the same orphanage as Jenna and knew her well. There was another family there who had a young biological daughter and they were adopting a 3 or 4-year-old daughter (we never spoke so we don’t know anything about them). We all took turns doing the adoption registration. This waiting room (like many other place in China that we noticed) had air conditioning blowing cold air in, but they also had the windows open which allowed hot air from the outside to also blow in. They don’t seem to be aware that not only doesn’t this allow the a/c to work but it is really inefficient power wise. The only cool place in this room was standing right in front of the a/c vents. The waiting room had wooden benches around the perimeter of the large room and row of wooden benches in the middle of the room. I remember it also had several maps of China on the walls, and a drinking fountain with warm water.


Jenna and Cheryl in Changsha's Civil Affairs Office.

When it was our turn we went into an office with 2 young ladies, one of whom is very pregnant. It appeared like the pregnant lady was training her replacement. They took a picture of the 3 of us (which later appeared on our adoption registration) and they asked us some simple questions like will we promise to always care for our daughter and meet her needs. Then we had to sign some paperwork and Jenna had to put her foot on a red ink pad and give them her footprint. Then they congratulated us on the successful adoption of our new daughter as we wiped the ink off of Jenna’s foot.


Jenna's footprint on her adoption registration.

Then we had to go back out to the waiting room to wait to get all of the necessary papers notarized. We found out later that Shirley was busy working at getting us the necessary governmental approval that would be necessary for us to visit Jenna’s orphanage. It seems we only had the orphanage director’s permission but we also needed the government’s permission to visit the orphanage. Soon we went into a large fancier office with leather chairs and long tables and a young man in a military uniform was behind a large desk. He was the notary and apparently I had to pay him some money before he would notarize our paperwork – 600 yuan ($80). So I paid him and he notarized the necessary paperwork. Then the army notary congratulated us and we were finished with Jenna’s adoption from her province! Now it is about 11 a.m. and soon we are in the van riding back to the Dolton Hotel. On the way back I noticed a small shop that had stuffed animals in its front windows. Cheryl & I both noticed that it had a couple of stuffed Pikachu’s. Pikachu is a Pokemon character that is our son Alex’s favorite. In fact he brought a stuffed pikachu home with him from Korea and he loved it – he took it everywhere until he finally wore it out. We asked Shirley & the driver if they could turn around and go back to that shop. So we went back and Shirley & I went inside this shop. It turns out they sold children’s beds here at this shop. I asked Shirley to ask the lady shopkeeper if the Pikachu’s were for sale. She replied that they were just decorations, but that she would sell them to me for 150 yuan ($20 – or $10 per pikachu). I agreed and paid her 200 yuan ($27) and told her to keep the change, and I thanked her because obviously she could’ve easily said “no sale.” So now we had 2 new stuffed pikachu’s – one pikachu for Alex and another for Jenna.


The Pikachu's we bought in Changsha.


A recent picture of Alex and his Pikachu Army.

So we left Shirley in the lobby back at the hotel. We were going to meet up with her later for a trip to the local Changsha Wal-Mart so we could shop for some toys and clothes for Jenna, and some supplies for us. Back at the room we just had snacks for lunch and we decide to take Jenna to the playroom that they had at this hotel.


Jenna in the Dolton's playroom.


Jenna's friend from her orphanage.


A view of Changsha from the 33rd floor playroom.


Same view from a different direction.

The playroom was up on the 33rd floor and had a large panoramic view of Changsha from the front of the hotel outward. The playroom had a lot of toys of all types and Jenna enjoyed herself every time she played here. One of the families that we met at the C/A office was also at this playroom. Their names are Tim & Jackie (the ones from Kentucky) and the 2 Chinese daughters. The daughter they just received (Gracie) was 4-years-old and her and Jenna were from the same orphanage and they knew each other. Gracie’s special need is syndactyly (webbing of hands and feet). Her hands were corrected but her feet still had some webbing. Gracie is a very cute, active, and a sharp child. She is roughly ½ year older than Jenna but significantly more advanced mentally & physically, except Gracie had very skinny arms & legs (maybe related to having synactyly). The kids had fun playing and we talked with this family for awhile. They were also going to visit the same orphanage – but since we are with different agencies we have different guides and drivers. They were still waiting for the government’s permission to visit (like us). We would run into them often – sometimes at breakfast and sometimes at the playroom on the 33rd floor. We even ran into them once in the lobby of the White Swan in Guangzhou. Cheryl actually had e-mail contact with Jackie a couple of months before we came to China through a Zhuzhou Families Yahoo website. Tim mentioned that they arrived in Changsha the same day we did, but they received Gracie at the C/A Office before we were there to receive Jenna. Jenna was there earlier while they were there and he introduced himself to her. Our paths just kept crossing again and again it seemed.

At 3:30 p.m. we met Shirley in the lobby and we went to the local Wal-Mart. It wasn’t a very long drive – only about 10 minutes. The Wal-Mart on the outside looked like any other shopping area in China (except for the familiar blue & white sign saying “Wal-Mart”). Inside it looked like a normal Wal-Mart except for it had 2 or 3 floors and it had escalators between the floors. The carts were slightly smaller and they had grooved wheels which allowed the carts to ride the escalators securely. So I’m pushing the cart and Cheryl is carrying Jenna in her carrier, and she is being a quiet trooper as always. We looked for toys for Jenna – bath toys such as rubber duckies, balloons, a talking cell phone, a doll, etc. We bought her some Chinese music CD’s and some kids DVD’s popular with Chinese children (according to the salesperson). We bought her some cute outfits and pajamas. We bought various snacks and beverages. We bought another piece of large rolling luggage with a lock and strap (we are allowed to fly with another checked piece of luggage now that we have Jenna). At one point while we were there a young girl (maybe 14 or 15-years-old) came up to me and said hello to me and I replied “hello, how are you” back to her. She giggled and ran off. A little bit later someone came up behind me and slapped me hard on the back - I was wearing my backpack so it didn’t hurt or anything. I looked to see who it was and it was that same girl running off again. Kind of a strange occurrence – maybe she was doing it on a dare or something. By the time we were done shopping we had a cartful. The total of the bill was 980 yuan ($129.80) and I had wanted to pay by Visa card. Turns out Wal-Mart in Changsha doesn’t accept Visa so I had to hand over 1,000 yuan. We were able to load everything up in the suitcase and we just rolled it out to where our driver parked. It’s not like they have a parking lot where you can wheel a cart out and load up your vehicle with groceries.

I remember while we were shopping at Wal-Mart it was the first time I had the conscious thought of ‘hey – I’m a white guy in China’ - it just didn’t occur to me before. Probably because this is the first place we went to in our trip where I was aware that we were being noticed way more than normal. We are accustomed to being a couple faces in the crowd where hardly anyone notices us and we are comfortable with that. I’m also not really conditioned to use race and/or color as a qualifier for any person. People have both similarities and differences and often race/color is one of many differences between people. Now here we are in a place where we are unusual enough to be noticed a lot – we are a White couple with a Chinese child. It felt kind of weird but it’s certainly not the first time I’ve felt that way. I understand why we are a puzzling sight for them to see. Everyone has their own opinions about what is normal and it is just human nature to be curious about something or some people who are different from their idea of “normal”. I remember once someone asked me how I can raise children that are all a different race/color than me. I basically replied that their race/color isn’t even a factor – I don’t think of them as being a different race/color, I just think of them as my children whom I love dearly. It’s the same with the fact that they are adopted – I know they are adopted but I don’t think of them that way. It is absolutely a non-factor – they are our children “period”. If others feel the need to add the qualifiers such as “race/color” or “adopted” that is fine for them but for us it is unnecessary. I don’t think I’m in denial – I just think that qualifying words just muck things up. I like to keep things simple whenever possible and it’s almost always possible. The bottom line is all the feelings that we have in our hearts for our children made such qualifiers completely unnecessary and useless.

Back at the hotel Jenna had fun playing with her new toys, especially her cell phone. We ordered room service again – Cheryl ordered a rice dish of some sort and I just ordered a hamburger with fries. I like rice as much as the next person but when it has too many other things in it that I can’t identify then I have a problem with it – however Cheryl & Jenna have no such hang-ups. Jenna once again helped us eat with much enthusiasm. Jenna later took a bath with her 5 new little rubber duckies and again with all the splashing, squealing, and laughter. Jenna loves it when Cheryl holds her in her arms and spins around; she also likes to throw herself backward so she ends up upside-down, then Cheryl lifts her back up. Jenna seems to love to laugh so she should fit right in with our family. So far our hotel room seems to be Jenna’s favorite place, she becomes visibly excited every time we come home (or the closest place we have to a home in China). Tomorrow we are going on a tour of an embroidery museum. The Hunan Province is famous for its world class embroidery art and clothing. It is also well known for its extremely spicy food and as the birthplace of Chairman Mao. So how could we not visit an embroidery museum? I was looking at a book that was in our hotel room about the Hunan Province and it showed a lot of scenic pictures and had some interesting information about China & the Hunan Province. I later asked the front desk if these books were for sale and they said yes – for 100 yuan ($13.25) – so I bought it for us, and so Jenna could see these beautiful pictures of where she lived her first few years and probably her homeland (we assume). Once again Jenna slept through the night no problem.