On to Nanning

Us with the director of Zach's orphanage (far right) and one of the nannies (far left)

As we signed official documents in China, every signature had to be sealed with a red ink thumb print

 

 

Our trip to Nanning started with a flight delay at the airport, of about an hour and a half.  Molly did great with the delay, sitting in her stroller, and Zach was only mildly annoyed.  We got to Nanning about bed time for the kids.  When we got into the hotel, we laid Molly on the bed to change her into her jammies and all of a sudden we had a different baby.  We had been getting a few smiles, and a small laugh here and there, but this night she started rolling all over the bed, playing with us.  She laughed and laughed great big baby belly giggles, especially when we would stop her rolls and then she would look at us, laugh and begin to roll away again.  We kept her up about a half hour past her bedtime just because she was so fun and this was a whole new side of our girl.  I just don't have a way to express what this meant to us.  Since we didn't have to go get Zach from his orphanage, we got to do most of our paperwork in our hotel with our CCAI guide.  He even got out of one long appointment by telling them we have a baby and it would be too hard on her to go to this on.  We did not get to visit Zach's orphanage, although we would have like to.  There was no quick way to get there and it was a 4 hour bus ride each way.  That would have been too hard on everyone with as much traveling as we have been doing.  One thing I noticed about Nanning, was how green it was.  Unlike the other cities we had visited, there were lots of trees and some grass.  It was still HOT - I don't think I've metioned that in a while, but at least it was pretty.  there was even a river view from our hotel room and they would light up the river at night with colored lights.  Mike and Zach had to go to an international health center to get Zach's orphange physical updated, since his had expired in the 2 years he has been in the USA, and Molly and I stayed in the hotel.  They met the director of Zach's orphange there, and she brought a bag of snacks for Zach that she remembered he liked from his time in the orphanage.  The following day, Aug 14, was Zach's adoption day at the registration office.  Just like with Molly, there was a set of families there from several different agencies.  As Mike walked around talking to other adoptive parents, we found one family who only lives about a half hour from us.  Small world.  His orphanage director was there again to sign papers and she brought Zach a gift of a "love ball" or "friendship ball" - something unique to his province.  It was confirmed for us that Zach's region is Cantonese, which was what Mike thought.  We went out for Cantonese food, and funny enough, Zach didn't seem to like it as well as the rest of us did.  Since we didn't have to wait for Zach's passport to be processed, we left for Guangzhou on Friday morning.