Life in Beijing Monday Mar 23

We have to stay in Beijing for about 9 days to allow for Evelyn's passport to be processed. We're getting out to see the sights as much as possible...with 4 kids :). Monday AM, we had to submit our Adoption Registration through the Beijing Burerau of Civil Affairs. We learned that for all official documentation, the Chinese place a red ink fingerprint right next to their signature. We dipped our fingers in a red inkpad and stamped our signatures. Evidently Evelyn had to sign too. They had her place a full red handprint on the form. That was her least favorite part of the morning.

On the way back to the hotel to pick up the rest of the kids ,we stopped by a supermarket to stock up on some basics. Correction this was not just a supermarket - this was the JIAN HYPERMARKET. Lots of new items. Lori is showing off a dragon fruit. Inside the peel is a soft white mild fruit speckled with lots of black seeds. We chose this over the chicken feet (snack food,yum!).

In the afternoon we all ventured out on a walk to Bei Ha Park which used to be the Emporer's private garden adjacent to the palace.

The park was very pretty with lakes, bridges, and Buddha shrines. Cameron got to ring the bell 3 times for 2 Yuan (about 30 cents) The kids did great but definitetly felt the fatigue on the way home. On the second full day in China their internal clocks were still telling them it was supposed to be middle of the night.

Evelyn has been remarkably comfortable as she gets to know us. Its a lot to take in all at once. She rarely cries and when she does its brief. Naturally, she has grown most comfortable with Lori who has been rebuilding her child-carrying biceps muscles. But even on the second day, Evelyn has started to respond well to all the kids despite how overwhelming and overstimulating they tend to be. What makes this all the better is to see Cameron and Ava so excited about having her around. Once again they have opened their arms to a new sibling and have smothered her with attention. Benjamin is more clueless about what is really going on. His feelings go from curious and friendly to having his status threated by another baby is his mothers arms. Overall, he has been a good traveler. It helps that he doesn't have to be buckled into a car seat each time we go somewhere.