Harmonious Time

The long wait finally pays off. Instead of labor, here's how I spent the last hour before we picked up David.

The Chinese call the time between picking up your child and finalizing the adoption "harmonious time." Our harmonious time began this afternoon at 2:30 at the Civil Affairs office in Chongqing. There are four other families in our travel group, and we all went up to the 14th floor together to meet our children. It was quite a scene. There are 3 toddlers, including David, a 4 year old boy and an 8 year old girl.

David is great. Totally adorable with an enormous, flat head. Every time we've told him that we are "mama" and "baba," he has cried. He fell asleep on the way back from the civil affairs office while we read "Go Dog Go", but that didn't last long. We've enjoyed a snack of prunes and Cheerios, but he is shaking his head "no" at his bottle. So far we've learned that Cheerios are his favorite toy (great grabbing by the handful and dropping all over the place), he can walk with his hands held (though not particularly well) and, according to the daily schedule we received, his bedtime is 10:00pm. Not for long. I hope.

At the civil affairs office

Bus ride back to the hotel

I've been at this for almost an hour. The computer is being very uncooperative. More pictures tomorrow. Sorry I couldn't add more.