Guiyang Day 5 - When it rains, it pours ...

David here.  We woke up to a wet and soggy Guiyang today, at a bright and chipper 6:15 AM :>)  Andrew slept through the night without so much as a peep (and was the one that woke up at 6:15), Hannah on the other hand tossed and turned and cried out in her sleep about every 2 hours ...  We think it was a triple whammy: stress from Gotcha Day (and having an instant brother), she was probably hungry (we didn't do such a good job of picking a place where she would eat well last night), and the cold-then-warm nature of the room.  Whatever it was, it didn't seem to dampen her spirit today, though we did wake her up at 6:30, just trying to keep both children on the same schedule ...  We had breakfast, played in the play room, then headed back to the Civil Affairs building to finish the paperwork and make everything official.  I am happy to say that everything is now official, Andrew Nathanael Cooke is now officially our son as far as the Chinese Government is concerned!  We traded gifts with the Orphanage staff, took some official pictures, got the all-important red book (the adoption decree, I think) and then headed back to the Hotel room.  We received a beautiful Batik of the Huangguoshu Waterfall, and the children each received a different doll representative of the people of Guizhou (it was a very generous gesture to give Hannah a doll along with Andrew :>).  When we got back to the Hotel, Lois started lunch for Andrew and Hannah (instant noodles--Yum!), and our guide took me on a quick tour to show me where we could buy some shoes for them :>)  He also showed me a place where we could eat dinner relatively inexpensively.

After naps (well, Andrew didn't take much of a nap), we played in the room for a little while, then went back to the play room (it was still raining).  Though small, we are very thankful for that play room :>)  We met Molly at 5:00 and headed to dinner (at the restaurant our guide had shown us).  Dinner went much better this evening - we had beef noodles (this area of Guizhou is known for their beef noodles), kung po chicken and rice, and praise the Lord Hannah ate her fill :>)

After dinner, we had, what we feel like, was a pretty major breakthrough with Andrew.  We have had to start correcting him today - he is definitely pushing the boundaries to see how much he can get away with.  Anyway, in the elevator, he pushed the alarm button (not the first time), so I picked him up and told him he couldn't use the electronic key to open our door (he and Hannah fight over who gets to used the key to open the door).  As we stepped off the elevator on our floor, he started to cry, and then went into full-blown uncontrollable, inconsolable sobbing for about an hour.  Lois just held him and sang to him and cried with him.  It was hard to watch, but in a way, we believe this was a good thing - we think he is beginning to work through the grieving process, and the whole elevator thing just kind of kick-started it.  I know many of you are praying, and we believe this was an answer to those prayers.  After about an hour, he started playing with a few toys, then I gave him a bath, at his request (I gave Hannah a bath while he was crying, it helped Hannah deal with the whole situation).  Afterwards he seemed like himself again, playing and running around the room.  Thank you for all of you prayers, blog comments, facebook comments and emails.  We appreciate them all and will answer them as soon as we can! 



The official ceremony picture - that's the batik we were given



Hannah and Andrew with their Guizhou Dolls

Brother and Sister :>)