Benjamin is offically ours!

Today, we had to go back to the Civil Affairs office where we met Benjamin to finish all of the paperwork to make him actually ours.  You could tell he was not happy to be there.  He got very quiet, and wouldn't play, look at anyone, and was just buried in Brian's shoulder the whole time.  He got really upset when the orphanage director tried to take him from Brian, so it was good to see that he knows where he belongs now.

Putting his footprint on the paperwork to finalize everything!

Our first full day as a family of 4!

Our guide took us from the adoption office to a kid store to buy some things for Benjamin.  He's much tinier than we thought, and even the 12 month old pants we brought for him were falling off.  He came to use in shoes that were about 100 sizes too big, so we needed those too.  He absolutely will not use a sippy cup, and has been drinking from a sippy without a lid, which, needless to say, has been rather messy!  The prices  here are definitely cheaper - it was pretty reasonable to buy shoes, a few pairs of pants, a cup, and a bowl.

He is doing really well with Brian, and loves him to death.  He isn't quite sure what to make of Christopher, but watches him like a hawk,  I, on the other hand, am the devil's spawn :)  He has a fit if I pick him up, touch him, look at him for too long etc.  I guess this is a preview of what having teenagers will be like. :)

If there is a good side to him only wanting Daddy, it's that Christopher gets Mommy to himself.  He's been a good big brother so far, but definitely had moments where he fell apart because Benjamin got a toy or snack that he didn't.  It's been helpful, in a way, that I can hang with him and try to ease him in to the whole idea of a baby brother.  He got to do big kid stuff today like go swimming in the pool for a while.  The pool here at our hotel is absolultely not kid friendly, so there is no way we'll be bringing Benjamin down there.  Maybe when we get to Guangzhou we'll be able to try the pool at the Garden.

So Changsha seems to be a pretty nice city.  From everything I had read online, it was always described as gritty and dirty. I expected something like Newark :)   It's actually really pretty, and much easier to get around than Beijing was.  We haven't gone out to do much exploring, as we've still been tied up with paperwork, nap schedules, and a little boy who desperately wanted to visit the pool.  Later today, our guide is taking us out to do some sightseeing, and to a local park if it doesn't rain again today.  Christopher needs to burn off some energy, and Benjamin loves to have space to walk around, so this would be great.

We really need to get out of the hotel for a while - I think everyone is starting to get a bit stir-crazy.  And my Dad needs to find some food he's willing to eat.  Changsha is not a meat-and-potatoes kind of city :)

Since I couldn't upload pictures yesterday, here's some from yesterday when we got Benjamin.