Second day in Harbin

I had a pretty restless night, between a phone call from our Asian travel coordinator and an anonymous phone call around midnight that went something like this:
"Hello?"
"Uh, herro, um youa havea message?"
"I'm sorry. A message?"
"No, um...er...massage?"
"No thanks"
"Oh, so sorry", click

                                                         

Anyway, today was our return trip to the Adoption Center to finalize all of Nate's paperwork. This visit was accompanied by a trip to the "squatty potty" for him. Now mind you, that trip to the potty occured while the Director of the agency is getting signatures and seals (placing your thumb in a waxy red material and placing it over your signature). The time wasn't stressful enough, Nathaniel had to laba - poo poo. So Ma Ma and one of his teachers go off to the squatty potty and there I sit w/the Director and the head of the orphanage. Talk about uncomfortable silences. With his laba finished, we were able to complete all the crazy paperwork, have more pictures taken and he IS OURS! (Well we still have all that legal stuff, but who's keeping track?)

Back to the hotel (our home away from home away from home) and the sun was actually out so we could take him for a short walk around the local grounds. Our hotel is situated by some form of "lake" where folks fly kites and just sort of wander around. It was nice, but cold. We weren't able to stay out for too long. So, again, back to the hotel where we played w/the balloon for awhile,but he was getting tired and quite crazy! We were able to lay him down for a nap while Denise read her book and I worked on yesterdays blog. As it stands, I'm running about a day late getting these out. It is currently Wednesday @0900 and I'm finishing THIS blog. Oh well, all the days are running together. After nap we went back to Wal-Mart for some of those boil-some-noodles-in-a-bag type things and some bread for our peanut butter. Lunch was in the room, peanut butter sandwiches, water. The rest of our day was taken up w/cars, balloons and much laughter. Nate has really attached to Denise, which is fantastic. We worry that he has attached so quickly, but it seems like his orphanage may have been the exception to the rule. Quite clean, many friends, and just a good place to be in for that situation.
We did try to get Nate some "authenitc" Chinese noodles @the California Noodle King USA restaurant. Man, what a trip. Menus were complete Mandarin and NOONE spoke English or even Chinglish. Fortunately there was a patron sitting near by who had a plate of what we thought Nate might like. So we ordered it up w/some water and he did pretty good. He's adamant about feeding himself and the traditional Chinese way is to kind of shovel the food into one's mouth from the plate. Of course, we're trying to break him of that habit! Anyway, it was McDonalds for Denise and I and back to the hotel for bedtime!