She's officially a Burch!

The 24-hour "harmonious" period has expired, all the papers have been stamped and notarized, and Am Xiao Chun is now Anna Joy XiaoChun Burch.  The past 48 hours have been full.  We made a car trip to Anna's birth city, Anyang, which also happens to be where Amelia's pre-K teacher (and our dear friend was born and grew up.  We did not know that when we were matched with Anna - it was one of those fun little surprises that we learned when our friend was reading the referral information with us.  We had to go to Anyang to apply for Anna's passport, but we had the added blessing of being able to have lunch with our friend's mother and brother-in-law, who is a government official in Anyang.  They took us to a delicious hot pot restaurant, and we had a delightful time together.  We enjoyed the trip as we got to see the countryside between Zhengzhou and Anyang.

We also had a full day today.  We had scheduled a trip to the Zhengzhou zoo to pass the time while we are waiting on paperwork to be processed.  It was raining, but that did not deter us.  We visited the zoo in the rain. 


Anna is full of joy. She loves to be loved. She loves for us to hug and kiss her. She has clearly spent most of her time with adults -- she pretends to use the chopsticks like cigarettes for smoking and when we get our drinks at meal time, she initiates the clinking of the glasses for "cheers".
It is also clear to us that Anna is experiencing many "firsts".  Today was Anna's first visit to a zoo.  We are also pretty sure that Anna saw and held a crayon for the first time today and ate in a restaurant for the first time today. 

We are finding that we need to treat Anna like a much younger child.  For example, yesterday, when we ate hot pot, we put Anna in a high chair.  Since the pots are boiling hot, we can't have a little child running all around, or she could be seriously burned. We ended up putting her in Lucy's stroller while we were out walking the streets, just to keep her safe.  Still, we have seen vast improvements in Anna's behavior and communication in even these past 48 hours.  We definitely have a long way to go, but we are so early in the process.  Once Anna feels secure in our family and once she has the medical and educational and behavioral interventions that she needs, there will be no stopping Anna.

For now, we enjoy what we are affectionately calling "the many faces of Xiao Chun" -- the funny faces she makes when she sees the camera, the happy face she makes when we give her something she likes to eat, and even her "angry" face when she bares her black little teeth and makes her jaw go up and down (think chihuahua).

The last photo is just for one -- spicy fish soup flavored chips, anyone?  Or do you prefer lobster cheese flavor?  Sometime soon, I need to do a post of the random things you see in China.  Tonight, there was a lady selling turtles from her bucket on the street.  Today in the supermarket, we saw live bullfrogs waiting to be someone's dinner.  The supermarkets have all live fish and seafood, and the people come in and pick out their fish, crab, frog, or whatever, and they butcher it right there on  the spot.  The Chinese definitely live without the preservatives we put on our food, and there is no table salt anywhere.  We also think it's funny that they don't have soy sauce on the tables, and they never know what we are asking for if we request it.  Baby bottoms abound - you can't walk the street without seeing bare hineys.  They can also fit more people and more stuff on a motor scooter or bicycle than most soccer moms can stuff in a minivan!  China fascinates me every time I come, and yet, this time, I know it will probably be a very long time before I come back, which makes me treasure it a little more.  So much has changed in the almost six years since I was last here, and I know that if and when I return, there will be even fewer traces of the "old" China as it moves as warped-speed toward Westernized modernity. 

If our Internet connection holds, I will try to post more photos.