After SKYPEing this morning with my parents, who are currently keeping our other kids, Thomas and Catherine, I feel homesick and ready to head home with our new child, Matthew. The problem lies in finishing all the documentation here in China to the satisfaction of all the involved government officials.
Matthew slept unbelievably well. After crying for the better part of 5 hours yesterday, hurting so badly from the necessary separation from his foster family, he slept soundly from around 8:00 PM to 6:30 AM. He cried just a little this morning, but at breakfast at the hotel he sat in his highchair and ate everything we fed him: congee, watermelon, fried egg, yogurt (2 of them!), and cereal. We rode the van, with Matthew in tow, back to the WuHan Children Welfare Institute to sit down with Dr. Chen Gang and his assistant one more time for what seemed like a final exit interview, where the same questions we had been asked numerous times on paper were asked again in person. We passed the interview, apparently, and we signed several identical documents in the exact same places and used red ink to make fingerprints next to our names as a sort of seal. Matthew's feet were inked and placed on a paper, too, much to his dislike. We received our own copy of the document, which seems to be evidence of Matthew's official adopted status:
From there we headed back to the hotel. Sarah and I craved a taste of home, so we braved the muddy, busy streets and walked a ways to a Chinese Pizza Hut. We sat down and were greeted by a friendly waitress who provided us with an extensive menu covering everything from unidentified Chinese dishes to steaks to spaghetti. A Supreme pizza was on the official menu which contained pepperoni as one of its ingredients, but when we tried to order a pizza with only pepperoni the waitress turned confused and possibly offended by the fact that we wanted a pizza without vegetables. We settled for the Supreme pizza – which was quite good – along with a dish of rice, ham, green peppers, corn and raisins for Matthew (which he ate, as he does everything) and drinks, consisting of Pepsi and 7-Up for us and a hot chocolate for Matthew (which was prominently displayed on the children's menu and which our waitress assured us was normal for a child to have for lunch).
We're back at the hotel, having completed a long nap for us and we're waiting for Matthew to wake up, as he has slept the better part of four hours. We know he needs it; he cried again after he returned with us to the hotel and his emotions have taken a beating over these past couple of days. Now Sarah tells me he's stirring... gotta get back to my family.
Joe
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