When we went to wake Yong up he had had diarrhea. There was mess all over him and all over his bedding. He was quite upset. We carried him crying and struggling to the tub. Before he would let us take his clothes off, we had to show him the clothes we were going to change him into.

After we got him cleaned up he was pretty happy.....

.....until, we were leaving for breakfast. Hou Yong didn’t want to leave the room. He would scream and drag his feet as we tried to get him to go out the door. We decided that I would stay with him while Paul and Jen went to breakfast. They would bring us something back to eat. I turned on the television while we were waiting and we watched cartoons in Chinese. Yong especially liked the one about dinosaurs. When Paul and Jen came back, Yong and I quickly ate breakfast. We needed to go back to the Civil Affairs office to finalize the adoption. We carried a kicking and screaming Hou Yong out of our room and downstairs into the hotel lobby where our guide was waiting.

Eva talked to Hou Yong and he calmed down enough for us to get in the van and drive to the office. When we got to the building he was still unhappy and wouldn’t let me put him down, and he wouldn’t go to Paul. I carried him up all the stairs to the 6th floor Civil Affairs office. It was a good thing that I didn’t have to go quickly.

Yong was a lot happier than the day before and Jen managed to keep him occupied with the water dispenser while we finished the paperwork. We then had a short ceremony where the adoption was pronounced finalized. Hooray! We then went to the passport office to apply for Hou Yong’s passport. It should be ready on Friday. That is a pretty quick turnaround for a passport.

After lunch and a rest we went exploring around the hotel. The weather was cool and overcast, but it was good to get outside. There is a huge indoor swimming pool here. We will probably go swimming there tomorrow. Jen and Yong had a good time in all the water features. At the front of the hotel there is a pond with rocks all the way around it. Jen and Yong were climbing all over them. Jen said that she wanted to be "king of the pond." We spotted a few small goldfish in the water. Jen yelled “Nemo”, and Yong yelled “Nemo” right after her!

For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant up the street with our guide. Jen said she only wanted rice and watermelon....and true to her word, that was all she ate. Yong tried the noodles, but didn’t seem interested in anything else until I started feeding him the sea cucumber stew. He really enjoyed that (I didn’t). We walked back to the hotel in a light rain. Again Hou Yong wouldn’t walk and wouldn’t let Paul carry him. I hope my arms hold out on this trip.

Bath time went off without incident. Yong enjoyed his bath with bubbles and lots of toys. He even laughed as we tickled his feet when we put lotion on him. He and Jen dressed in their “Superman” pajamas and jumped on our bed.

They jumped and fell and laughed and had a super time. When it was time for bed Hou Yong fell apart and cried and cried. After about 20 minutes he finally calmed down, but was not happy about going to sleep. We are all taking baby steps, and things are getting better.