Kiera woke up seemingly unsure of herself today. She lay next to me in bed completely still with her head turned away from me and I assumed she was asleep. But when I peaked around her head to look at her face, I saw her dark brown eyes wide open. I wasn’t sure how long she had been awake, but it appeared as if she didn’t know if she was allowed to get up or not. Since Chris and Matteo were also awake, I propped Kiera up against her pillow and the four of us hung out in bed for awhile. She wasn’t as shell-shocked as Matteo was his first few days with us, but we weren’t seeing the spunk she displayed the day before. Instead, she sat very quietly and observed everything around her.
Since it was later than we usually wake up, we decided to Skype with Oliver and Soren back home instead of waiting for after breakfast. The kids greeted their sister for the first time with an enthusiastic “Ni hao!” Since Kiera doesn’t talk, there wasn’t much conversation going on between the siblings and Oliver and Soren eventually took more interest in their new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coloring books.
As we did with Matteo, the day after we met Kiera, we returned to the Civil Affairs office to finalize her adoption. Unlike with Matteo, Kiera didn’t have to put her handprint on any paperwork, but we noticed her footprint as we paged through everything. I have no idea when they did that. Perhaps right before we met her yesterday? It looked so big! However, probably only in comparison to a newborn’s footprint, which is what I’m used to seeing.
For such a special day of finalizing the adoption of our daughter, there was no fanfare as we quickly moved from department to department to sign paperwork, notarize paperwork, have our “interview” and have our family picture taken. We were in and out in about an hour and had the rest of the day free.
The rest of the day wasn’t exciting, but I appreciated the downtime. After a quick noodle lunch in our hotel room, we encouraged (then forced) the kids to take a nap. Matteo is getting wilder as he gets more comfortable with us and we don’t think we’ve seen Kiera’s grief yet, so another no-nap day is not going to benefit either kid. One of the hardest parts about being in China is trying to develop some semblance of a routine with two children we just met while we’re so far from home. It’s almost impossible when we’re living out of suitcases, changing hotels, traveling to new cities and attending appointments that aren’t always at the best time (such as during naptime).
After nap, Chris and Matteo went back to the playground and I tried to do some shopping with Kiera. We met Chris and Matteo at the playground before dinner empty-handed.
Back when we were planning what to pack for our trip to China, I had debated what to bring for the kids. I didn’t want to bring too many clothes since we could only guess at the sizes they wore and because we were trying to pack at light as possible on our way over, I didn’t want to bring too much of things we could easily find in China. I eventually decided to bring two outfits, with the rationale that I wanted to have what would get us through the first night with the kids.
Now I wish I had brought more, even if I ended up donating what didn’t fit. Although there are plenty of places to buy clothes, I quickly realized Chinese children’s’ fashion is not my style. For instance, I have yet to see a standard pair of jeans for toddlers because little kids here wear really thick pants. I also expected cheap clothes, but of the few things I’d want to buy, they’re either the same price as I would have paid back home or more expensive. I’m sure there are plenty of options that suit my taste at lower prices, but I’m not familiar with the stores here and I don’t have time to comparison shop or wait for a sale. It’s also not very convenient lugging a child (or two in our case) with me in search of clothes. Our guides are here to help, but they’re not our personal shoppers. Given how long it took our guide to help us find underwear that would fit Matteo, I’m glad we came with what we needed.
The measurements we got for Kiera must have been wrong because I brought size 18-month tops and 12-18-month bottoms based on her height and weight. In reality, she’s taller than Matteo who is in size 2T tops and 18-24-month bottoms. The only reason we’re squeezing her into the clothes we brought is because she has such a petite frame. I had hoped to find some larger sizes since I’m afraid she’s going to grow out of the things we have before the end of the month.
Kiera started to warm up a little more at breakfast, but overall wasn’t as outgoing as yesterday. We aren’t sure if she’s now processing that her life has permanently changed. However, she has yet to cry, not including the single whimper she let out when I washed her hair tonight. The happiest she was was when we caught up with Chris and Matteo at the park and the kids got out of their strollers to run around. Chris commented how instantly much happier Matteo was once Kiera arrived. He gets giddy around her, and when he takes off somewhere, (he loves to run!) she’s off in hot pursuit trying to keep up. I still worry about how our decision to adopt two at once effects them, but an upside has been that they have a buddy.
The park was good for Matteo because this kid has energy to burn. We really need to watch him or he gets into everything, just like a typical two-year-old. Kiera brought with her a box of crayons and while Kiera sat quietly, Matteo grabbed as many crayons as he could and immediately tried ripping the wrappers off them. In the mere seconds it took me to reach him and try to redirect his destruction with the crayons, he managed to draw on the couch. He’s also curious and wants to figure out how everything works, so I know he’ll someday be able to put that energy to good use. He wants to be more independent than his capabilities allow, like when he wriggled out of Chris’ grip so he could climb a huge set of stairs by himself during Guangzhou’s bustling rush hour.
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