tl;dr: We’re a family of four for good like it or lump it. Elspeth (Xiang Xiang as we’re calling her a lot for now) is a Daddy’s Girl but is starting to open up.
Well the day started with a bit more crying. Hearing Elspeth playing with a ball in her crib I made the mistake of turning on the light. Realizing that the previous day was not a bad dream the tears started right away. We got her up and calmed her down a bit then tried a bottle. No go. I’m not totally sure if it was the wrong temperature or the wrong time. Since breakfast is not served till 7am, we fed her bits of a very salty rice cracker, and the leftover melon from the night before. After that she sat and started to play with Katrine and thus the journey out of her defensive shell began. As we were leaving for breakfast, Heather grabbed the, now slightly cooler, bottle. Well Elspeth’s eyes lit up. Heather, being a smart and experienced mom, shoved the bottle in the little mouth and in a flash it was drained. Breakfast was a bit of a bust because of a full tummy so we plan on giving her the bottle about 1/2 hour before breakfast tomorrow (and make it a bit cooler to start with).
A quick trip back to our room to prepare for the long day of paperwork and Elspeth latched on to me and wouldn’t let go. Well, nothing to worry about at least she chose one of us. Off we went on a 40 minute drive to sit in a un-airconditioned office, with people smoking naturally, to get various bits of paper work, photos done, and fees paid. Unfortunately, Elspeth’s choice in parent threw off the plans and Heather had to do much of the running around from place to place at the office. We did get to meet the director of Elspeth’s orphanage who was quite surprised that we had a friend in common. That, plus the gifts we brought for the other kids at the orphanage, broke the ice and we were invited to travel to Shangrao for a visit. We also found out from the director that Elspeth was close to her foster father and her choice of parent became clear. By 11:30am we were done and officially a family for good. And of course the kids were done as well. Elspeth was asleep before we made the hotel.
Nap time was followed with chips, apple, and other snacks for a light lunch that Heather picked up at the local super market while Elspeth napped. Then we were back in the bus to go the the police headquarters where they process the paperwork for the passports. While waiting on some benches we got to see a real breakthrough. Elspeth started by playing “tug” with me and some link rings. This was followed by the few baby/toddler action rhymes that I remember and genuine smiles and laughs were to be had along with a bunch of funny faces. She also showed that her little legs are working just fine as she climbed all over me and then grabbed Katrine’s hand and went for a walk around the waiting area. Finally we got through and the 5 minutes of paperwork and 2 minutes to take a photo were done and we left for the hotel 2 hours later.
Katrine decided that she wanted to go for a swim so we all went down with a swim diaper on hand just in case. At first Elspeth was quite nervous and just watched with, her now customary, death grip on Daddy’s shirt. Soon though she was feeling comfortable enough to walk around the pool, but once the other little boy came down and went in the pool she was sold and the swim diaper was on. We had a grand old time splashing. playing, and cooling off and she would have stayed for quite a bit longer, but dinner was calling. We went out to a local restaurant, recommended by our guide Tina, and had a wonderful dinner with great service and quite a few more smiles from Elspeth. Back for bed but baths and toothbrushing are low on our list of likes but I’ve now got two sleeping girls and a third who is ready for bed so I’ll sigh off for the night. Tomorrow we go sight seeing, Wednesday we visit the orphanage in Shangrao, and Thursday is our free day. Stay tuned for more updates!