Day 3: Hurry up and Wait

Today was that kind of day.  We had to go to the bank to exchange more money which is quite the ordeal here.  We had a scheduled appointment back at the adoption affairs office for 2 o’clock to finalize Noelle’s adoption so Tom, our guide, thought it a good idea that we just head over there and wait for the appointment. 

 

I wish I had taken some pictures of this building.  You would never know from the outside of it that anything adoption takes place in it. When you enter the lobby you are certain that you’re in the wrong place.  No heat or lights are on.  The only thing lighting the place up is the little but of sunshine peering through the windows.  It’s all tile and with very high ceilings and so when you talk everything echoes so then you whisper and that sounds even stranger.

 

Then Tom leads you to the creepy elevator and you know that someone has been there because the floor mat in the elevator had changed from Sunday to Monday.  Such a weird detail…they took the time to change the floor mat in the elevator?

 

You take the elevator to floor 6 and when you get out on floor 6 you feel like you’re in some sort of Stephen King Novel.   It’s very eerie, still no lights and no heat.  And because we were early, the adoption office was locked and closed.  Tom just had us wait right there in the lobby of creepy floor 6 for 45 minutes and chat about Gone with the Wind.  I’m not kidding.  He just read the book and wanted to talk to Dan about it which was hilarious because Dan is soo not a reader but luckily he has seen the movie a number of times so he pretended he knew what Tom was talking about!  Meanwhile, Noelle and I are playing hide and seek in the creepiness of floor 6.  I’m sorry for the overuse of creepy; there just isn’t any other word for this floor 6 or this building.

 

2 o’clock finally came and we could get down to business.  During the appointment we had to answer a few questions about ourselves and Noelle.  Noelle had to sign in Chinese that she accepted this adoption and write her name.  This is the thing, Noelle doesn’t write Chinese all that well for Chinese standards and they kept having her rewrite her name and acceptance comment because she wasn’t writing the Chinese characters correctly.  I was more than a little irritated with them for being so picky but our gal seemed to think it was fun and for as boring as this appointment was I can see where maybe it was for her. 

 

I don’t know why I’m telling you this additional boring detail other than I just can’t get over how weird this office was but the only toy that they had in there for kids to play with were one pair of roller skates.  Yes, roller skates!  And since all the other children were babies Noelle got have the roller skates all to herself and didn’t have to share any of the fun that roller skates provide.

 

We were finally finished and Noelle is officially ours.  Today she officially became a Meister right there on floor 6.

 

We then headed out to have her passport picture taken but apparently you don’t just have your photo taken anywhere you have to have it taken at the passport office which is across town.  We got there, took the picture and waited for 30 minutes.  Once her picture was approved, SHE had to sign her name again on the passport application and once again her Chinese characters were not up to snuff and once again Noelle just smiled and had fun practicing her Chinese characters.

 

Even with all the hurry up and waiting going on today, Noelle was all smiles and still seemed to like us.  She was particularly fond of her daddy today. 

 

Sorry for the long post of nothingness….it was one of those days.

  

Tomorrow should be a fun day.  We are heading out the see the Terra Cotta Warriors and to visit some museums.

This is the director of Noelle's orphanage.  She was there when Noelle arrived 8 years ago and gave Noelle her Chinese name.