Odds and Ends

Not much action today. Sophie is downtown picking up Jon Wiley's Chinese passport, and she will deliver it to us in a few minutes. It is the last big paperwork hurdle, as the American Consulate part is a bit anti-climactic. Well, as I typed that sentence, Sophie arrived with the Chinese passport, birth certificate, abandonment certificate, and adoption certificate. She noticed Scott's birthday was wrong on one of them and has already had it fixed. Sophie rocks. We also got a memory book with some pictures in it, including one of Psychonanny. For some reason, the memory book's cover is embossed with Egyptian hieroglyphics, ankhs, and Pharaohs. So is the kleenex box cozy in our hotel room. Very strange.

So no tours or anything today. I'm going to post some random items that I have been meaning to tell you, but which didn't fit in any other narratives.

Jon Wiley's nickname at the orphanage was Qiang-Qiang. The "Q" in pinyin is pronounced like "Ch," making his nickname sound like "ChiyONG, ChiyONG." We are incredibly fortunate that his new nickname "Jon-Jon" sounds so much like his Chinese nickname.

Several of the officials at the Civil Affairs office were calling Devyn Xiao Jie Jie (little big sister), which she likes because her middle name is Xiao-Dorothy.

The Chinese food at this hotel is wonderful. I am going to miss it greatly. There is a Kung-Pao-like dish with chicken, peanuts, cashews, chilis, and lemon grass that we order every night. Mia usually gets a noodle soup with braised pork and baby bok choy. Devyn likes the creamed corn and chicken soup; she will eat two entire bowls of it. My favorite dish so far is the Grandmother Bean Curd in Chili oil. It was so spicy that I think I may have actually seen my (dearly departed) grandmothers!

We were told by the orphanage staff that JW likes baths, "loves the water," in fact. So far, that isn't true for us. His orphanage, Dianjiang SWI is famous for its kooky bathtubs. Maybe ours doesn't look right to him.

We have tried letting him bathe with me, putting him in the baby bathtub, letting him stand on the side while we fill the water, putting toys in the water, etc. etc. It is still like bathing an angry cat. I had hoped to let him get in with Devyn, but when I mentioned it to her, she said, "Mom! He has a weenie! I am NOT taking a bath with someone who has a weenie." After Scott, Eiley, Mia and I recovered from our conniption fit of laughter, I told her I'd like to hear those words from her for at least 20 more years.


Now our provincial paperwork is complete. We have two more nights here in Chongqing. On Sunday morning, we fly to Guangzhou (aka Canton) and stay at the famous White Swan Hotel. I'm looking forward to Guangzhou, as it is so much easier to stroll around the neighborhood there. The White Swan Hotel is on Shamian Island, which still retains some of its feel as a former British and French colony. In Guangzhou, we will complete JWs medical exam and immigration paperwork so that he will automatically be a US citizen upon arrival in Minneapolis.