Day 4- Registration Day

Today we were free until around 1pm and it was so nice to not have to do anything in a hurry.  We lazily ate breakfast and played outside on a playground.  

We explored a nearby mall and found a toy store.  Theo instantly wanted EVERYTHING!  He kept saying something over and over as he put tons of toys in our cart and I’m pretty sure he was saying “I want this and this and this”.  Sweet boy!  He ended up with one very nice orange car that unfortunately, we learned after opening it that is makes lots of noises!  The big kids, of course, also picked out something fun.  So we went back to the hotel and played with our new toys while we waiting to meet the rest of our group at 1pm to go to the civil affairs office.

Oh the civil affairs office.  Lots of papers to sign and relieving forms that we had acquired during the adoption process.  Lots of sitting and waiting…but ya know, the last time we were at Jinan’s civil affairs office in Jinan for Miley’s adoption we didn’t have air-conditioning so we could not complain!  

After the civil affairs office we went to another office and signed more papers and handed over the legal fee payment.  Lots more waiting for the kids, but they were champs!

Bottom line: Now Theo is a Bostrom!

That evening we ate dinner with the other families we are traveling with.  We just picked a restaurant randomly, because we have no idea what any restaurant is or what they serve so it doesn’t really matter.  After trying to order for about 10-15 min the waitress finally took our order back to the cooks.  We caused such a ruckus that we attracted about 5 other employees who just stood around and watched us try to figure out what they were asking us all while taking photos of the strange looking American’s with their tiny Asian kids.  We were thankful when our order was finished.  Always an adventure!

After dinner, we went to the room to change into swim suits.  Theo completely refused to change into a swim suit so I took it with us down to the pool.  I so wish I had had my camera, because the second he saw the pool his eyes about popped out of his head and he dropped his pants to jump in.  I laughed and quickly pulled his pants back up.  Oh my this boy!  We did get his suit on and he was convinced that he could swim on his own like an olympian…except he couldn’t swim..haha.  He kept jumping in and saying “Mama!” or “Baba!”.  It was just beautiful!  He also kept saying a phrase over and over and I know one word he was saying was “water”.  We are pretty sure he was saying, “Let me swim, let me swim”, but we will never know.  He was just hilarious how excited he was to be swimming.