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We woke fairly early - before the alarm clock rang. We had to be at the Civil Affairs Office by 9:00, so at 8:30, four sets of expectant, well-dressed parents and 4 soon to be big sisters, met in the lobby for a group photo. The
Civil Affairs office is across the road from the hotel, so we navigated the
congested road and made our way to the 3rd floor conference room.
Occasionally he wandered off
in the direction of the
Director, just to make sure that he wasn't alone in the world. After the paperwork was completed
the Director and his assistant left, quietly and without Daji noticing. We'd given
them the clothes and the Lego bricks that we'd brought with us, but on seeing how much Daji had grown since
the medical information that we had received, he could have taken more with him (we eventually left
it in Beijing for Christina to give to an orphanage). Daji was still happy, playing with the video camera, Lego or eating candy. As we were about
to leave he noticed that the Director had left and he went hysterical (on the first
of many occasions during the next week or so). Despite
only being slight of stature and weight, he was fairly strong and fought against
being taken out of the room. Next
stop was the photographer, which was just a few hundred meters away. Daji calmed down for the walk, but was
again very upset as we entered the new building - again using
all his strength to stop being taken upstairs. After a lot of coaxing he’d calmed down
for the
family photo (see the picture on the left below).
Unfortunately they didn't take a photo of the whole group. Whilst Lene and Yanmei went back to the hotel, Daji and Steven went for a short walk
by the lake. He seemed happy, relaxed and secure as he held Steven's hand and watched the boats on the lake and not least the cars on the road. Again he
went hysterical as we entered the hotel, calmed down in the elevator - this
was something new and different.
Back
in the room, we let him play - he was especially interested in a wooden dog, we had something to eat and
we changed his
clothes. He fell asleep around 13:00 and we let
him sleep for an hour (we’d been told that he usually slept in the afternoon).
The Director had told us that he was potty trained, and this certainly seemed to be the
case. Each time he wanted to go to the toilet, he came and took Steven by the hand.
We
decided to go for an afternoon walk after his sleep - and even more visits to the
toilet. However, 30 minutes later we realised that he was wet – back to the hotel and start
using nappies! The family picture wasn’t supposed to have Yanmei on it, so we had to go back to the photographer. Yet again Daji was upset going into the room, but again calmed down when the picture was to be taken - he almost looked happy.
Back at the hotel, Daji's mood changed between calm, loud laughter and hysterics. He was calmest whilst watching cartoons on TV. His only contact was with Steven. Dinner
was at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel – a real improvement compared to the
western buffet. Daji
couldn’t eat with chopsticks, as we’d been told; but could eat rice and egg
pudding with a spoon. He flatly refused to eat anything at all that was green!
His "table manners" were excellent - he could eat alone, without dropping
food from his spoon. Back in our room, we waited for the visit of the Chinese doctor. An middle-aged Chinese lady examined Daji and said he was in good health, "a cheeky boy with good teeth!" (she actually said naughty, but we took this to mean cheeky). Her verdict was that she didn't find anything in particular to be concerned about. We put him to bed at around 21:00, and he fell asleep about 30 minutes later. Steven had to lie next to him, he certainly didn't feel safe enough to be sleeping.
We were left in a hotel room
in Hangzhou, To characterise him after the first day, we had the following observations:
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Daji arrived at 9:45, close
on the heals of the Institute Director, looking very scared and shy, head at an
almost 90
degree angle to the rest of his body. Yanmei offered him Donkey (from Pooh)
and some Lego figures – no takes. Gradually he warmed up a little and was
willing to play Lego with Steven. He laughed excessively and loudly,
especially at the silly things like hiding a Lego figure behind the camera and
"magically" bringing it back. This was very different from our experience with
Yanmei - she didn't even smile during the
first 36 hours. 
