The day after Gotcha Day, we had to head back to the Civil Affairs Office, finish out the paperwork we had started the day before and pay our big donation that we had to bring with us. We also met the director of the orphanage that Theo was technically with, even though he was in a foster home that is only made possible because there are volunteers to take the pressure off the over crowded orphanage.
We were there for a while, Matt took care of most of the paperwork and the payment and I just kept Theo busy and out of everyone's hair.
We received our official Adoption Certificate with our picture on it and his NEW name. Jiang Qing Jie officially became Theo Qingjie Heinekamp on February 14, 2017! We still had quite the road ahead in our 1 1/2 weeks left in China, lots of paperwork to be processed so lots of waiting but in the eyes of China, his first home, he was ours.
We left...after waiting half an hour for an elevator...they plan these huge high rise buildings without taking a lot of matters into consideration...like a mom holding a 3 year old for half an hour waiting for an elevator to get back down to our car!
After rest and lunch we decided to try another attempt at finding the Walmart, we found out from Jackie the reason we never found it was it was underground. OOPS...so I got out the carrier we had borrowed and strapped him in. He refused to walk outside of our hotel room and my arms were feeling it already from holding him everywhere. So we started out with our backpack mostly empty so we could carry stuff back. Their Walmart looks a lot like ours but with a butcher counter and meat hanging up and BIG fish tanks. We picked up water, some noodle bowls, snacks, and new tennis shoes for Theo. He slept in the carrier the whole time we shopped. He started waking up once we were checking out and that was not pretty, he didn't know where he was and he started pushing and clawing his way out of the carrier so I had to hurry out of the store get him out of the carrier so he could fully wake up and remember where he was. Then I put him down outside while I readjusted for the walk back and got super yelled at by an older Chinese woman because as I was putting him back in my carrier his pants were pulled up and he didn't have the approved layers of clothing on, even though I was carrying him so I was sweating and had my coat and his 3 shirts on :( Oy I was so mad, if you touch another person's kid in America it can get you a punch to the face but luckily we had Hong (the teenage girl pictured above) and she was able to talk to the lady while I got him snug and ready to keep walking...quickly...back to the hotel. Oh yeah, did I mention we got lost on the way back to the hotel underground in the street crossing tunnels ... with all of our stuff. Always an adventure!
(I totally should have worked out before this trip!!)
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