It's Official

Today it’s official…MeiMei is a Peterson. After our favorite breakfast buffet, which MeiMei liked just as much as Lydia, we went to a conference room in the hotel to meet with the dean of the orphanage, a notary, and a civil affairs worker. Together they made it official and we adopted Wang Xuan Yi. She is now Ruth Lois XuanYi Peterson.

We had to sign a bunch of papers and also stamp our fingerprint next to our signature. In China, everyone has a “chop” or stamp that they use for their signature. Since we don’t have our own chop, we have to sign and then use our fingerprint stamped in red ink. MeiMei also had to put her whole hand print on one of the papers. It was all kind of a whirlwind process with a “sign here” and “answer this” that made it all legal. We also had to be interviewed and tell what our jobs were, our income, and also tell the Chinese government that we will take care of her, give her a good education, and never abandon or abuse her.

That was done by about 9:30am and we had the rest of the day free. We came back to our room and tried to get things organized. We unpacked all the sleepers that my school collected and put them in giant gift bags. We also arranged all the rest of the gifts we have to bring to the people in Baotou. After all that we were down to one suitcase per person. Much more like us!

Lydia wanted to FaceTime a bunch of people. She is very proud of her little sister. She spent a good chunk of the morning showing her off to family. She wanted to try calling some of her friends too, but it was getting too late in the US for that.

While we were cleaning up, the girls started playing hide-and-go-seek. If you know Lydia at all, you know she loves that game. Well, we discovered MeiMei is really good at it too. She doesn’t mind small dark spaces and she has a LOT of patience. She hid inside a cupboard for a solid 5 minutes or more while Lydia searched all over for her. We’re in a hotel room, so there aren’t that many places, but Lydia didn’t think she could fit in there. They had tons of fun playing with each other. They also made a “fort” under the desk and put their blankets over it.

We headed out for lunch around noon. We decided to see what we could find a little ways from the hotel. We found another noodle restaurant, which also had rice and some other foods that looked appetizing. They had screens that had pictures that rotated, so we had to wait through a few rounds to point out all that we wanted. We ended up with some meat on skewers, fried rice, noodles that Lydia claimed tasted like her favorite meatball noodles, and some chicken and rice. I was glad for something besides noodles! Fortunately, one of the workers took pity on us and helped us figure out what we needed to do to claim our food and fortunately they had a sign that flashed the number of the receipt when our food was ready. We really enjoyed the food there and it wasn’t too far from the hotel.

When we came back, we knew that MeiMei should take a nap. She has been copying everything Lydia does and wants to be just like her. We have been using that to our advantage. We told Lydia to lay down until MeiMei fell asleep and what do you know, Lydia, who “wasn’t tired at all” fell asleep pretty quickly. We let the girls sleep for about an hour while Brian and I did a little laundry in the tub. We’re hoping that since towels seem to dry quickly and Inner Mongolia is known for it’s dryness (so dry that we have a humidifier in our hotel room), that our socks and underwear will be dry in the morning.

We woke the girls up and Lydia did not want to get up. Aggie, our guide, was coming to take us to a special shopping mall for Inner Mongolian items. Inner Mongolia is kind of like Wisconsin in that it is known for its milk production. Also, since they have so many cows, they also make a lot of leather products. There were a bunch of different items available at the mall to purchase.

We got MeiMei a life lock, which is a Mongolian tradition. Because many babies died in the past, the Mongolian people wear long life locks because they think it will keep their children from dying young. There was one that had an owl on it, and since I love owls, I thought I would get that one. Aggie was not really in favor of that. Owls are auspicious, she said. It is bad luck to wear owls. She couldn’t believe that I would like owls so much, but I explained that in America we think of them as a symbol for wisdom. She said it would be ok for me, since it’s a positive symbol to me, but I could tell she wasn’t feeling it. We ended up with a lock that had flowers and the “fu” symbol for happiness. I think Aggie approved of that one!

They also had a bunch of leather work to buy. They had some really pretty and unique paintings on leather. We purchased some of those – one of which we can put in the girls’ room. We also got a traditional Mongolian dress, hat, and boots for MeiMei. We bought one that is big so that we can give it to her later for her to wear. We also got a vest for her that fits her now. She’ll have something special to wear for Chinese New Year. We bought a few other items that are special to Inner Mongolia.

It’s really neat to learn about the history and culture that is special to this specific region here in China. There are so many things that are special about the culture here. I’m glad that we will be able to have some special things to give to MeiMei to help her appreciate not only being Chinese, but also being Inner Mongolian.

When we first arrived at the shopping mall, they treated us to a tradition of a special scarf. The girls weren’t so into shopping, but they had fun playing with each other and finding different ways to wear their scarves. 😊

On our way home, it was rush hour, so the driver took us a “back way” home. Aggie was annoyed with the traffic, but I thought it was so fun to see the way of the people. So many people were coming home – riding their bikes or motorcycles and walking. There were carts along the street with foods that people were buying on their way home from school or work. The sheer number of people continues to amaze me. And Huhhot is a “small” city in China. There are only about 2 million people here – Just to put that into perspective – that’s the same size as Chicago, and it’s the third largest city in the US. It’s just crazy to think of how many people there are in China.

When we got home, we could tell that the girls were getting really tired, so we headed out for supper right away. We had passed a restaurant on our way this afternoon that had chicken sandwiches and stuff like that. We decided to try it out tonight. They had a menu we could point to, so it was much easier than some places. They had a family pack that had 2 chicken sandwiches, a wrap, popcorn chicken, chicken nuggets, fries, and 3 drinks for less than $10. We decided to go with that and we had our fill of chicken. Just when we were almost done, they brought out a steaming rotisserie chicken that was apparently part of our meal. Since it’s rude/gross to the Chinese to eat things with your fingers, they brought us plastic gloves to pull apart and eat the chicken. Lydia wasn’t so sure about any of the chicken, since it wasn’t McDonald’s or Chik-fil-A all-white meat chicken, but MeiMei ate it all up. She’s definitely a meat girl like Lydia was when she first came home. Brian and I both enjoyed something that wasn’t noodles again!

We headed back home and since it was so busy and dark, we were walking 2 by 2 – me and MeiMei and Brian and Lydia. I could tell that MeiMei was getting tired, so I tried to carry her, but she would have none of that. Only Baba was good enough to carry her. It brought back memories of Lydia wanting to be “bobo-ed” all the time. I don’t think MeiMei will want it very often, but after being on her feet all day and trying to keep up with our big strides, I think she was happy to be carried. One thing about Chinese children that seems strange is that they don’t hold on when you carry them. It seems like it would be a natural thing to cling, but they just sit there like a sack of potatoes! Well, Lydia wanted to join in the bobo-ing fun, so I carried her piggyback for a while. She’s getting to be quite the load! She also tried giving MeiMei a piggyback ride in the hotel.

Lydia wanted to blog tonight, but she is sleeping. We told her to lay down so MeiMei could fall asleep. Brian asked if I wanted to bet on who would be asleep faster…Lydia won, by the way! Another long day in the books for the Peterson four.
Last night it took me almost two hours to get the blog written and posted, because the wifi and VPN kept going out. I decided to write on Word tonight, so I don’t end up getting the blog partway done and not getting it to save. Here’s hoping we’ll have fast internet connection! I can’t believe that tomorrow is the day before Thanksgiving. If we were home, I’d be stressing out about making pies and thawing the turkey. I hope everyone is enjoying the day!

Matching Matching

More Matching Matching

MeiMei enjoying the breakfast buffet

Our huge stack of money!

Stamping our signature

Sisters

...But I'm not tired!

Looks like Wisconsin!

The shopping mall is shaped like a Mongolian hat.

Mongolian dancer statues