Day 2 It's Official

Today is the day the adoption was final.  ChunMing is officially Elisha ChunMing Cook! 

Last night was uneventful and restful.  ChunMing slept right between David and I (Did I write "uneventful"?), cuddling his stuffed toy that we had delivered to him for his birthday.  In the morning we got ready for the day and ate breakfast at the buffet; ChunMing ate a ton of food once again.  We then met with the provincial Civil Affairs Department which legalized the adoption in China. 

We met our guide later for lunch where she ordered vegetarian for David and I and MEAT for ChunMing.  We tried getting ChunMing to eat some of our broccoli, which he refused while eating up his pork balls.  David and I enjoyed our lunch with chopsticks while ChunMing ate with a spoon.  (There's irony for you) For dinner we decided to try the Italian restaurant in the hotel, which was a mistake.  I guess that is what we get for going to China and eating Italian. (Next time I'm adopting from Paris) ChunMing didn't want anything to do with his noodles, but we couldn't blame him; we only ate ours because we paid for them.  The only way we got him to eat was by David eating some bites first; he copies everything David does.

It had been raining all morning, but even after the rain stopped, ChunMing wanted the umbrella

  

ChunMing trying on his Mongolian attire.  It doesn't show in this photo, but he loved it. 
He was beaming when he saw himself in the mirror.



ChunMing is very curious.  He looks in, around, over, under, and through everything. 
He is checking out the condiments at the Chinese restaurant. 
That's before he started running around like a wild man with two umbrellas, making people a bit grumpy. Teaching proper behavior is a bit tricky when two different languages are spoken.  The guide came in handy at this moment.



The street market we had to walk through to get where we were going
.  That's our guide looking back at us.

We asked our guide to take us somewhere we could purchase authentic Mongolian dress for ChunMing.  Of course, we receive stares wherever we go which we expected as Americans, but it is difficult to accept when the stares are directed at ChunMing due to his handicap.  Each time we stopped to contemplate a purchase, the women would chat with our guide, obviously about us.  Finally, I asked our guide what they say about us and if the people generally are negative or positive about two Americans adopting one of their own.  She told me that every one of the individuals she spoke with were positive.  They say we have "good hearts".  She believes that most Chinese think it is good when orphans are adopted to Americans because they value education and know they will have a good education in the US.
As the time progresses, ChunMing gets more and more attached to David.  Due to ChunMing's CP he can't walk far, so he must be held a lot; therefore, we don't wander.   David is getting his workout to say the least.  I think it has been good for bonding. 

ChunMing is curious and loves to play and have fun.  He is ticklish, has a good sense of humor, and smiles a lot.  In spite of all the stares we have played in the fountain, blew our hot breath on the windows, had water fights in the bathroom, tickled each other, and played swords with our silverware, and David even had a yelling match in the bathroom to see who could say, "OK" the loudest. 

So far we haven't seen sadness or melancholy, but expect it eventually.  He has been very well prepared for his new family and seems to have embraced the idea. I am a bit anxious about the orphanage visit though. 

We have tried and tried to Skype the children at home, but with no luck.  Today we phoned them and put the phone on speaker.  I asked each of the children to talk to him while I showed ChunMing who they were in the photo book we sent him.  The children told him "I love you" in Mandarin and with a big smile, he returned the sentiment. 

We are getting good at pantomiming and understanding the unspoken words.  We use a lot of context clues and non verbal language to understand what he wants or is trying to say.  I can't imagine doing this out in the real world as right now we are quite sheltered.  It's going to be quite the adventure.

Tomorrow we venture out to get a few more items in the marketplace on our own and then will go to the grasslands with our guide.