A new day dawns.

Today was our first full day with Grace.

She fell asleep last night by 9:00. She woke up at midnight and took part of a bottle and went back to sleep. She woke back up something after 5:00. If I held her, she would sleep. I finally just laid down on the bed with her on my chest and she slept until almost 6:30.

I had to take a shower this morning, so Mike had to take Grace. She cried as I walked away, and then she was fine. He’s been holding her as much as I have today. She even lets Miracle hold her now. They play and laugh together and act goofy. Miracle does stuff just to make Grace laugh.

We didn’t have time to go to the buffet for breakfast so Grace had Cheerios and part of a NutriGrain bar, Miracle had Pop Tarts, I had a granola bar, and Mike had a cereal bar and the rest of Grace’s NutriGrain.

We were at the Civil Affairs Office by 9:00. This was where we got our babies yesterday. We had to return this morning to finalize the adoption. Grace fell asleep on the trip over. We signed a bunch of papers, put our thumb prints and Grace’s footprint on one paper, got our picture taken, and gave away the peanut brittle (an amazing feat: it made it to China without crumbling into tiny pieces!). Finally, she was ours forever.

After the Civil Affairs Office we went to this store called Metro. It had clothes and food and dishes and other odds and ends of stuff. They call it the Chinese WalMart (We didn’t get to go to the real one.). We got Oreos, Snickers, M&Ms, Frosted Flakes. Trix, and bottled water. We also got some more formula for Grace. Thankfully they had diapers and wipes. We were out of wipes, and we didn’t bring enough diapers to last the entire trip. Grace fell asleep in the check out line and slept all the way back to our hotel. She did not sleep once we got here, however.

The weather has been unseasonably cool in Changsha. It’s been rainy and in the 70s. I had failed to bring long pants and socks for Grace, so we walked down the street to a baby clothes store. Miracle’s new friend, Melissa, and her mom walked down with us (they adopted a 3 year old boy). I had put Grace in the Hip Hammock, and she had fallen asleep again. When we got back to our room, however, she woke up. Miracle was going swimming with Melissa’s family, so we decided to get tough with Grace. Hah.

She had decided today that she could no longer sit on the bed or on the floor. Someone had to be holding her at all times. And you could only hold her a certain way (more on that later). We decided she was going to lay down and go to sleep, and we were not going to rock her. Well, she eventually did. We actually got stuff put away and arranged during that brief interlude. And how brief it was. She started to stir, and Mike and I decided we should hide so she wouldn’t see us and cry. So we dropped to the floor on our bellies with our heads beside one another’s. Once we did this, of course, we realized how incredibly stupid that idea was. But all we could do was lay there and laugh hysterically into a pile of dirty shirts. Needless to say, Grace didn’t stay in the crib very long.

Anyway, about the holding deal. Grace decided she could only be held facing us. And we had to be standing up. This wasn’t really working out for us. Mike sat down on the floor with her, and put her on the floor. You would have thought he was killing that child! Later, I sat on the floor with her with my legs crossed and her sitting in the hole. Oh my heavens. This child has a temper!! Her face turned red, she arched backwards, and she cried and cried. She never shed a tear though. Miracle about had a heart attack. I had to get up and do something, so I put Grace on the floor. Miracle picked her up and jiggled her and Grace stopped crying.

That all happened while Mike was getting dinner with some other guys from our group. We had a great feast in our room tonight – McDonald’s!! Grace really went for the French fries. Miracle was thrilled to see chicken nuggets and French fries. She’s had a tough time food-wise, but she’s being really brave about it. She hasn’t whined or complained. She just eats a lot of granola bars and rice. What a trooper!!

Both girls are asleep now. We didn’t rock Grace, Mike just laid her in the crib. She fussed around a little bit, but not much. I think she’s too worn out to fight with us.

Tomorrow we’re supposed to visit the Hunan Museum. That should be interesting. Then we’re going shopping for baby things. I wonder if Grace will sit in the stroller? Somehow, I doubt it. Hopefully, the Hip Hammock will be dry. She’s a chunk and I’m out of shape. My arms are sore and tired!!