Samuel Day!

It was a very long day waiting for it to be time to go to our 2:30 appointment at the Civil Affairs office of Guangdong Province.  I have seen this room many times in other people's photos and videos, and here we finally were.  Many families had already received their children, and I wished we would have arrived a few minutes earlier to see "the moment".  We did not have this experience with Caylie's adoption, as they brought her to our hotel and we were the only family there.

Samuel's orphanage director had called our guide to let her know they'd be a few minutes late.  When they came in, he did not want to come into the main room.  I don't blame him - it was loud and hot and overwhelming.  So we went out into the hallway and sat on a bench with him, where he was playing with our guide's phone.  He continued to play with it and not pay much attention to us for several minutes, but we just kept talking about what he was looking at, and showing him things on our phones until he got more comfortable.  Soon he was smiling and laughing and playing games on our phones.  When it was time to go to the hotel, he did not want to get up and come, but after just a few words from our guide, he was fine.  

In the van on the way to the hotel.

Our guide came to the room with us and helped us show him around and get acclimated to the place and where everything was.  We filled out some paperwork while Samuel and his new siblings played and were generally being goofballs. By the time our guide left, he was laughing and totally fine.  I asked him, "Ni yao you yong, ma?"  (Do you want to go swimming?) and he was VERY excited about that!  We put our swimsuits on and played in the pool for about an hour.  He splashed all of us continually, but I think it was just his way of trying to connect with us in the only way he knew how in those beginning moments.  We just splashed him back and laughed and had a lot of fun.  

After that it was dinner time, so I asked him if he wanted to get pizza.  He has talked about pizza since we started Skyping in December, haha.  So we got dressed and walked down to Pizza Hut.  When he saw it, he said, "Pizza Hut!" and was very happy.  We had a good time talking while waiting for our pizza.  I tried to use Chinese as much as I could and then say the same thing in English.  I would also say, "Zenme shuo?" (How do you say . . . ?) and point to something, and he would say the word in Chinese and I would say it in English.  I want him to know that it's not just him who is learning another language in order to communicate.  We are doing the same.  :)  He loved the Hawaiian pizza and ate all of Jim's pineapple (bolou!) and any other pieces of spare pineapple he could find.  He talked to the waitresses and helped with the serving, and it was cute.  After we left there, we went next door to McDonald's for some ice cream.  When daddy said we would do that, Samuel said, "Ice cream!  Yes!"  

We came back to the hotel and played around for a bit and then it was time for bed.  I worried that he might not want to go to bed or would be sad or scared, but he was fine.  All the kids slept in the same room, which I think helped.  He slept all night and was cheerful this morning!

Today we went down to the big breakfast buffet, and he was completely overwhelmed by that!  Daddy and Keelan helped him get his food, but I have a feeling that he'll be running the place in a day or two!  He's learned to play Uno today and a game or two on Keelan's tablet.  We went to back to the Civil Affairs office to complete the adoption.  He had to sign his name on the notary's paper - that was fun to see!  As soon as those papers are processed (by tomorrow sometime) he will be an official Altman!