Thursday, March 29, 2012

The spot where we first saw Sam
Our Friends from Holland with their new little boy

The Oath/Adoption Ceremony

Being Presented with the Adoption Certificate

Sam couldn't stay awake for the whole thing...

This is not a photograh it's an embroidery of FDR!

More embroidery...I think it is interesting that they used caucasian models...

John wanted to purchase this one....it was $8000. All he got was this picture I took!

A cute dalmation embroidery...and a cute boy!

Riding back to the hotel in the van

Lobby of the Hotel

Lunch!

Sam loves his bottles!

Today was a good day. We were so tired from the orphanage visit yesterday, that we went to sleep early and then slept in this morning. We went downstairs to eat and met Amy at breakfast. Then we went back to the CAB (China Adotion Bureau) to take the official oath of adoption. Our understanding is that this is a new step in the process just implemented a few weeks ago. It was nice, though- just us and the other couple from the Netherlands. We were presented with our official adoption certificate at the ceremony.

Since it was raining, we skipped the park and went to the embriodery factory. Hunan province is known for its fine embroidery, and the works we saw there were just amazing. Some of the embroidery is even double-sided. On the super fancy ones, it is a different picture on each side! I cannot even comprehend how they do that! The factory is government run, and there were lots of women working there. It was interesting to see a Chinese factory at work and the patience that these women have. There was one embroidery that had 14 women working on it at the same time!

After the factory, we came back to the room and talked quite a bit with Amy about chinese culture and tradition. Then she took us to a traditional chinese restaurant. It was SO GOOD! We had eggplant, some vegetables we hadn't heard of, beef with garlic and onions, and then Amy ordered some chicken blood soup for herself. I think it had some liver in it, but I really didn't get close enough to check for sure!

This afternoon we all took naps and started packing up our things. We are flying out tomorrow afternoon at 5 to go to Guangzhou. We will check out of the hotel at 2:30 to pick up Sam's visa and then go to the airport. I am sad to leave Changsha as it is a really nice town, but this hotel room is beginning to get a little small....and the Garden Hotel is calling my name. It is WONDERFUL!

That's all for now. By the way...so far, Sam is still taking 2-3 hour naps and sleeping through the night.... Perfect baby??? probably...

Blessings-

Meredith