DAY FOUR:  Nanjing -> Yangzhou

Today, our second day with little Shane Fu in our care and part of our lives every moment, was less of a "vacation" and a little more tedious.  Shane Fu has done his part by keeping us on the run and completely wearing us out...he's got us parents on HIS sleeping schedule, because we know that that is the only chance we'll get for some rest of our own!  As advertised, Shane is very active, lots of fun, but can be quite demanding and resistant at times (the write-up we received from the orphanage described him as "hot-headed" and "naughty" - and now we know what they mean, but we just LOVE that about him...he is a wonderful little guy).  It's quite hilarious in our traveling group -- there are nine little baby girls that sit in their parents' laps and look peacefully at them most of the time...and then there is Shane, who is running and climbing and hollering and generally disrupting any peacefulness that this process might normally entail.  None of this in a bad way...most of the parents are probably looking at us and are very glad they are not the ones running and chasing their children all the time!  

There was the time that Kevin let Shane hold a piece of bamboo that we found and had him riding on his shoulders as we walked near our waiting bus....and he promptly whacked the front of the bus with it.  The bus driver almost leaped out of his seat in surprise and I quickly whipped out one of two Chinese phrases that I know -- "dway-boo-chee," which means "I'm sorry."  We could go on with many funny little stories, but Shane will be waking up soon (he IS an excellent sleeper) and we can't be doing THIS without him demanding to use the computer...

As for our stops on Monday, we started in Nanjing and spent a couple hours in the office of the Registrar completing some adoption paperwork.  Nanjing is the capital city of the JiangSu province and so this was the "state level" paperwork.  It WAS the step that made our adoption of Shane legal and official in China.  After going back to the hotel and packing and checking out, we grabbed a quick bite of lunch (which is getting more adventuresome all the time what with the food itself and now with Shane's involvement in it!) we took a 2 hour bus ride (on which we did find out that Shane is capable of taking a nap!  Woohoo!) to the city of Yangzhou.  This is the city where Shane was found in 1998, so it is assumed to be his birth city and it is also the location of his orphanage.  We spent most of the afternoon in the office of the Notary (city officials) for more paperwork.  According to Helen, we completed most all of the paperwork yesterday, so we're glad about that.  It is a challenge keeping Shane occupied and happy while confining him to small office spaces with so many things to grab and destroy!

We are now checked in to the Grand Metropole Hotel of Yangzhou, and once again, it is a beautiful and almost brand new place.  While the beds seem to be hard everywhere, these hotels are all absolutely comfortable and wonderful.  We will stay here for two nights, with the highlight of Tuesday being a visit to Shane's orphanage here in Yangzhou.

We wrapped up Monday with quite an adventure.  We decided to take a little stroll after dark around 6pm (well after dark), and to try something different from hotel food.  Well, more than either of the previous two cities, Yangzhou is much more devoid of English signs and we were pretty clueless.  We stopped into a "grocery store" looking for some bottled water and maybe a toy or two for Shane.  We found the water, but no toys...and Shane found quite a spread of candy, so we let him pick some out.  At one point in this store, someone said "hello" to Jocelyn, and when she responded, we guess that confirmed that we were Americans.  Within seconds, we were surrounded by about a dozen store employees giggling and looking at Shane and wanting to hold him, etc.  No words could be exchanged because they would have been useless...just lots of smiles and laughter and that "oh, isn't he cute" expressions on their faces.  Next, we continued on to find a restaurant for dinner.  This story is WAY too long for this web page, but in the end, Jocelyn was rather embarrassed while Kevin thought it was hilariously fun.  If you ever speak with us, make sure to ask us about the "Yangzhou restaurant story".  We DID survive and made it back to the hotel and called it a night.  I was too tired to connect the camera and download the photos for the day, so this posting is late by a day.

Photos from today:

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