Daddy and His Ducklings

Today was a very busy day. We spent the better part of the morning running around Tianjin completing the China portion of the adoption, visiting a notary office, and applying for Clara Rose's Passport. The good news-- we got it all done and we have the certificate of adoption from China! We will pick up her Chinese passport on Friday morning.   Clara Rose had a good night-- after she fell asleep. She did cry quite a bit at her bedtime-- bedtime is often a hard time. Wim and I thought she would wake during the night crying because of all the change she is experiencing-- but she slept the night.   Josie was up at about 3:30 am and I set-up the computer so she could watch Dora followed by Clifford the Big Red Dog. I had time to look through Clara Rose's photo book from her foster family and the bag they sent with her. She was obviously loved and well cared for by her foster family. She has a brand new VERY lovely dress with the tags still attached in her bag along with some new boots that are clearly too big for her-- meant for when she is a bit older.   We also discovered that we have the phone number to Clara Rose's foster mom. Our guide talked to her today and I will be meeting with the foster mom Thursday afternoon-- without Clara Rose so we can talk. The foster mom agreed that it would be difficult for Clara Rose to see her again-- then to separate again. Clara Rose is bonding more to her Baba so I will meet with the foster mom and our guide. We feel very fortunate for this opportunity and are hopeful that we will be able to maintain some contact with the foster family in the year's to come. What a great blessing this will be for Clara Rose as she grows-up.   This adoption is very different from Josie's. We feel a bit guilty-- like we are taking Clara Rose away from a family. We were able to talk to on the ladies from the orphanage today. She explained that when these kids turn 14-years old, they return to the orphanage for either more formal schooling, trade skills those kinds of things.   Clara Rose will interact with me-- she has even offered and fed me some cheerios, smiles, etc. She does not want me to pick her up and she will cry if Wim leaves the room. She is very funny and definitely has a mischievious sparkle in her eye. She will offer something to me or Wim and then pull it away with a smile. She also does this Groucho Marx thing with her eye brows. Too cute!   Josie is doing her best to be a big sister, but there is some jealousy going on. Until now, Josie only had limited interest in her daddy, but now-- Josie is EXTREMELY interested in her daddy and wants him to do the same things for her he is doing for Clara Rose.   For the first time in nearly two years I have been able to do things like go to the bathroom without Josie following me or beating on the door while I am in there. Instead of constantly trailing after me-- she is trailing after Wim and Clara Rose. I sort of feel like I have lost an appendage-- but it is nice to be able to sit back and observe a bit more this time.   This afternoon we had a longer than usual nap-- I woke feeling like a ton of bricks fell on top of me. Perhaps I have broken through the wierdo sleep barrier I was experiencing. We have a free day tomorrow and most of Thursday. Our plan tomorrow is to visit ancient cultural street and maybe the Nanshi (sp) food district.    A good friend of ours adopted thier daughter from Tianjin-- Josie's friend Angeline-- often featured on our blog. Her mom told us how good the local food is in Tianjin and boy oh boy she wasn't kidding! I am loving the steamed buns filled with Red Bean Paste and burger stuffed steamed dumplings this area is known for. We haven't had the chance to try the fried dough yet-- hopefully this evening or tomorrow. There is also a noodle dish with broth where you choose your noodles, vegetables and they flash boil them then add a broth and you add a few more things of your choice like scallions, tiny salty shrimp, some kind of hot paste--- MMmmmmm-mmmm. Wim really likes that-- I do to, but it is hard to not fill-up on those steamed buns.   We don't have a lot of pictures from today-- what we do have are on Shutterfly. It is definitely more exhausting chasing two around than just one-- especially doing all this busy work, but folks here are very nice. Two women in the notary office were asking the ages of Josie and Clara Rose. Josie was giggling and doing her show-- this got Clara Rose giggling, which got a lot of smiles from the multitude of people in the notary office-- several thumbs-up.   And before I forget, Clara Rose has quite the Mandarin vocabulary-- she knows lots of words and talks quite a bit-- clearly, she is able to hear well enough to have developed language and able to speak it well enough that our guide can understand what she is saying.   So much to try to say with limited mind capacity-- OK, both girls want to drink from thier sippy's without the lid and Wim said no, so they are asking me-- guess what I am going to say!