10/1

When we got home on Sat, I found that our friends (Lisa and Renee) had cleaned my house. AND, Lisa made and left me homemade chicken & noodles and brownies (my favorites). That helped so much. I've had so much to do this week, with getting settled - that was something I didn't have to worry about right away.

Every day gets a little easier. Night and day is finally switched back to US time. Jet lag is almost gone.

Up to this point, Leila has only had a bottle with cereal in it - no 'regular' food at all. I didn't want to try to change anything while still in China though. I thought I'd wait until we got home and then start food. I thought I'd start with cereal, since she has it in every bottle anyway. I figured it would be the same thing - just a different method of delivery. She does not agree with this new approach. We started on Mon. She screamed. Every time she'd open her mouth for a breath, I'd stick some in. But she still absolutely refused to swallow it.
On Tues, same thing, but she merely cried instead of screaming. I thought we were making progess. Today - she actually swallowed a bite! WooHoo! At this rate, she'll be eating table food by the time she's 5.

I took her into Darrell's school today so everyone could meet her. (His 6th grade class has been following the blog.) When we got there, they had a basket full of baby gifts for her! How neat was that?! All the teachers passed her around (and a few students too). Thankfully she didn't spit up on any of them.

I tried to appy for her US birth certificate today, but I got nowhere. There was one particular woman at the courthouse that was just really hateful too. If she didn't know what to do, she could have just said so, w/o being such a witch about it.
Even though her adoption is legal and binding in China, it's suggested that we re-adopt her in the US. Another lady at the courthouse said that she thought we needed to do that first. I don't think so - I think they just didn't know what to do, so it's easier to pass it off on someone else and not bother. I guess I need to consult an attorney and go from there.

So now, I've got to get the insurance straightened out, get her re-adopted, get a US birth certificate, and possibly a US passport. I don't know if that's all or not. I keep thinking - I made it thru all the other paperwork, surely I can get thru this too.
Oh, and someday - I'm going to print out the pictures we took while we were there.

Something else that I kept meaning to mention but always forgot - you don't have to tip in China. Tipping waiters and people like that, is considered insulting. The only people we had to tip was the bellboy. $1 USD for 2 medium size bags is about 'right'. And yet, we got absolutely excellent service at all the restaurants - WAY better than you normally get in the US.