Days 3 and 4 in Guang Zhou

So sorry that we didn't blog yesterday - the jet lag hit me hard around 5 PM and I couldn't do much of anything except take care of Hannah. I'm still not sleeping much - pretty much waking up at 3 AM every day and lying in bed until 6 waiting to start the day. I'm sure I'll adjust to the time change 2 days before we come home and I'll be in the same boat for another 2 weeks. Whatever....let's talk about the amazing Hannah En Ming!! She continues to surprise and delight us and we're proud to report that we can get her really giggling up a storm with our expert "tickle monster" skills. Thanks to all the kids back in Cold Spring who gave us a lot of practice over the past few years. Yesterday, we traveled to the Security Bureau of Guangdong Province to finalize our adoption. On the way, our guides discovered that the Bissinger family picture that they took on Tuesday did not make it onto our paperwork. Instead, the papers had a photo of a different couple who had adopted a little boy. We were a little nervous that this was going to delay everyone else but one of the guides literally got off our bus in the middle of traffic to go fix the problem. She did and met us at our destination no problem or Mei Wan Ti as they say here. We were a little early for our appointment so our other guide, De, took us to the supermarket in dowtown Guangzhou to buy formula and candy for the orphanage visit tomorrow. This was an experience. I have never in my life seen so many human beings crammed into one store all trying to shop as quickly as possible. A claustrophobic's nightmare. Imagine Shop-Rite on a Sunday afternoon and then quadruple the amount of people and turn the air conditioning off. Lovely. We got out with formula AND a little cool teething rattle (Go Rob!!) and then it was back on the bus. The traffic, by the way, is completely nuts in the city - no rules to speak of - everyone just drives when and where they feel like. Not for the faint-hearted. Did I mention no car seats for the babies? Yeah, we're now doing a lot of walking. Once we arrived, the scene at the Security Bureau honestly resembled a large DMV. Oficers were seated behind a long counter with digital signs over them and digital signs with numbers for who was next. The only weird difference was that everybody there was adopting a Chinese baby, so the room was packed with a very different demographic than your average American DMV. Bizarre. We were in and out of there in about 15 minutes thanks to our guide who is an older man who is obviously afforded a lot of respect as Rob and I were allowed to cut a LOT of people in line when all our papers were in order. This is clearly the kind of thing we've paid the agency for and I have to say when you're carrying a squirmy toddler in a sultry room, it's well worth the expense. So, with no fanfare at all, Guan En Ming officially becomes Hannah En Ming Bissinger and it's back on the bus! I gotta say - everyone should adopt a baby - it's a trip in more ways than one! We are settling into life at the White Swan and starting to establish a sleep schedule for Hannah. She's been sleeping great through the night (about 10 hours - wish I could do that!) but her naps have been kind of all over the place so we're trying to make sure she's in the room most days around noon to rest. We're so impressed with how good she is in terms of going with the flow. She actually loves going out for a stroll and now walks over to her stroller in the room and points to it a lot. I guess the 2 days of BabyBjorn didn't grab her. I'm ok with that in this heat, though. It's incredibly humid here, so you sweat profusely every time you leave the hotel. We had a very funny dinner last night - ordered scrambled eggs and white rice for Hannah and when the rice was put down in front of her, the reaction was as if someone flipped the "extrovert" personality switch. We were laughing so hard because not only did she finally let us feed her from a spoon(Yea!) but she started to "talk" to us nonstop and became very animated for the rest of the evening. The kid LOVES rice. Who knew? I know, I know, she's Chinese, duh, but we just hadn't gotten around to ordering it til then. Now we know. We finally Skyped Riley and Grandma and Grandpa succesfully with video and everything! It was so great to SEE Miss Riley Jane if only on Rob's laptop. Hannah cried the whole time because we had to wake her from a too late nap so they could all see her and she was not too cool with that idea. It was more than worth it - we can't wait to do it again tonight. Today we did a lot of walking around Shamian Island and also the lower part of Guangzhou. The island that our hotel is on became a British and French concession after they defeated the Chinese in the Opium Wars and so it's full of old decaying colonial buildings some of which are quite beautiful. Check out the pix we've posted. After crossing the footbridge and walking around Guangzhou, we're so grateful to be on this much quieter and manageable island with our new baby! You'll be able to see a real difference in the pictures. Hannah continues to fight off her head cold and I'm beginning to think the air conditioning in the hotel is aggravating it. Anytime we're outside in the heat and humidity, she's fine. We go back to the room and her little nose runs, she starts coughing and her breathing gets phlegmy. We have the thermostat in our room set at its warmest but I think it's the dryness that's getting to her. We've been giving her an extra bottle of formula to keep her hydrated because that's all she'll drink. I clocked her today and she downs that 8 ounce bottle of VERY warm formula in about 90 seconds!! She continues to eat well and she is just so adorable that we truly are having a good time but still cannot wait to be home. It's going to be a loooong 9 days. Tomorrow we go to Hannah's old digs - I will blog again once back from our journey to Dongguan Children's Welfare Institute.