China Day 4 - Officially Ours!!

As I type this, Cong Cong (Stella) is supposed to be resting and Sean would really like to be resting.  But instead of anyone resting, Cong Cong decided to imitate Sean snoring.  So now there is a big pretend-snore giggle fest going on. 

I took a video of the event.  She is laughing so hard.  She does a pretty good imitation of Sean too. 

This morning started with a return trip to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize the adoption.  We signed the papers and put our red thumbprint on top of our signatures.  She got to put her stamp of approval on the deal with a handprint.  She occupied her time while we waited by mastering my camera.  We finally had to take it away when she started taking pictures of everyone.  So if anyone is curious who else was in the office that day, let me know, we have pictures. 

Once the official business was over, it was on to fun.  We needed to do some shopping.  None of the underwear we brought for her fits.  The pajamas we put on her last night were more of a compression outfit than pajamas.  She had indentions on her arms from the seams.  Yes, we are working on the parents of the year award.  Fortunately we have some larger pajamas with us.  But we needed some underwear.  So we went to the market.  Oh my goodness.  Let me see if I can begin to explain this market.  This was bigger than other markets we’ve seen in China, and that is saying a lot.  Imagine 4 good-sized malls all side by side and instead of one store deep, each level is 5-6 stores deep.  But they weren’t really like stores, instead they were like stalls you might see in an antique shop crammed full of stuff.  One such mall was all shoes, not fabulous shoes, pretty cheap shoes actually, but shoes.  Another mall was all swimsuits and undergarments, several stories of swimsuits and undergarments.  It was crazy!  Needless to say, in a building full of underwear, we were able to locate some for Cong Cong.  We also managed to find her some new shoes.  She is thrilled!

After a nice lunch out, we are back in the room resting.  Well, not really.  Now she is playing on Sean’s phone.  Today we are seeing more of her personality.  She skips down the hall to the elevator or races us to the room as we return.  She knows what she wants and doesn’t want.  This morning at breakfast she let us know when she didn’t want something.  She also told us yes or no on the shoes.  She has laughed loudly.  She also speaks loudly even though we don’t understand.  This morning the orphanage director asked Cong Cong if we understood her when she talked.  Of course we don’t.  So then the director asked how Cong Cong communicated with us and she said sign language.  She is trying to get us to understand Mandarin today though.  Loudly. 

Last night we had a chance to ichat with Kate and David, Isaac was sleeping at a friend’s house.  She was excited to see Kate again and enjoyed seeing David.  But she didn’t like when David wiggled around a lot because it messed with the pixels on the screen.  She yelled at him and kept trying to wipe off the mess.  But she loved talking to the kids.  I actually think that helped her open up to us a little bit. 

As we go through the city we are noticing some trends that I suggested Sean could bring back to the states.  For example the man-purse, it is very popular here.  Also men’s capris, I realize some are already trying this trend at home, but it is much more common here, especially if you wear black socks and loafers.  But my all time favorite is the way men cool off on these steamy days.  They simply lift their shirts over their bellies.  As a bonus, Sean pointed out that he would actually get some sun on his belly with this trick.  So far, he has refused to imitate these trends at home.  Honestly, I’m ok with that.

So with that I’ll sign off from Shenyang.  Many thanks to my friend, Krista, who is posting these blogs for me.