Day 6: Paperwork and more paperwork...

This day was a day filled with more paperwork.  The only good thing about it is that we had our guide holding our hands and telling us exactly what to do...all we have to do is blindly follow and sign our names where she tells us to sign.

We left the girls behind at the hotel with Erica and got on the bus again for to the same Civil Affairs office. 

Here, the official (lady with pony tail) starting handing out the adoption certificates.  This is done the next day because technically, the 1st 24 hours are a "trial" period where the to-be parents are allowed to change their minds and give the child back.  Of course, no one did that.

 Here it is...he's officially ours!

 The obligatory picture in the Civil Affairs office.

 Then we had to get our paperwork notarized...

 So we filled out more paperwork...

In the meantime, the girls went out with Erica to find a merry-go-round that we had heard about.  They turned it on just for the girls.

It goes on for a full 6 minutes...

 Then they found a McCafe where they had sundaes.

And they stopped at a cafe where Erica grabbed a coffee.  It turns out that coffee is available in China in more places than we thought.

We came back around noon and headed downstairs for lunch in the hotel restaurant.  Everyone here thinks our girls are quite cute and they are not shy about asking to take a picture with them.  Here are hotel employees with Karina.

We tell the girls that they are superstars!  Karina takes it in stride and Eliana guffaws because Chinese people can so silly!

Here is Karina helping put on a bib.  Xiao Yu tries to tear it off...he doesn't like wearing bibs.

 But he does like to eat...

After lunch, the boys took naps. It is nice that we are back on some semblance of a schedule so that they can get their naps in.  Also, everyone in the family has pretty much adjusted to the time zone now, thank goodness.

In the afternoon, we went off with two other families to apply for our children's passports.  Here, the kids must apply for the passport in the town they are from.  Xiao Yu is from this city.  Other families who have kids from outlying cities have to travel, sometimes 3 to 5 hours by car, to do the same thing.

Xiao Yu takes a passport picture and gets a good one on the first try!

Unfortunately, we have to wait in front of the passport office for over an hour.  This is because there is a regulation that the picture must not have red eye in it.  However, a family with us is adopting two albino toddlers.   They have no pigment in their eyes, so of course, their eyes are going to show up as red.  Our guide that to argue/cajole/plead with the officials for an hour to let the passport pictures be printed.  Meanwhile, our boys played with Chinese safety cones.  They are out because this stretch of sidewalk doubled as a parking lot (!!!).

We then went to the passport office to apply for a passport.  We, for some reason, got a head of the line pass.  There were other folks there also applying for passports or visas.  One guy had been waiting for a day and a half for his turn.

We got back to the hotel one hour later than we were supposed to, because of the snafus.

The girls had a good time swimming in the pool with cousin Erica.  Erica may not want to see another swimming pool for a long time after this trip is over!

For dinner, we headed off to a place called Turtle Restaurant.  They serve turtle soup there, but we stuck to noodles and rice.

Tomorrow we have a free day to spend by ourselves, while our guides do what we did today with the other families in our group.

We are getting to know Xiao Yu a little more.  Laid back would be a word to describe him.  He is a go-with-the-flow kind of guy.  He is always exploring everything and curious about everything.