Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Well, it is official now. Today, we promised the Chinese government to love Becca forever and never abandon her. We completed the Chinese portion of the adoption process today and received her "Red Book". This book contains her official documentation stating that she is our adopted child. This is the most important document in the entire process - it literally is irreplaceable. We will be able to leave Hefei once we receive her notarized documents and her passport. It was a relief to finally dump the several thousand dollars in cash that we've been carrying around our person (actually we placed it in the safe but I prefer traveler's checks).

Our first night with Becca was a new parents' dream. She cuddled with us, played games and took her bottle well. When we fed her congee, she seemed to be new to a spoon as she would stick her tongue out or place her nose in the congee. Then, Angie decided it was time to give her a bath (perhaps her first bath ever.) The bath was a struggle - I guess I was partially to blame as I was taking photos while Becca was trying to pull Angie into the bathtub. Needless to say, the only photos I have are the back of Angie's head. At 8 PM (an entire hour past her usual bedtime), we decided it was time to stop playing with her and let her sleep. Once she fell asleep, she stayed in bed until 5:30 AM and slept soundly. Around 2 AM, we did give her some water as the rooms are very dry and the children are not used to nighttime heat. We also slept well but couldn't help ourselves from getting up several times in the night just to watch her sleep.

After breakfast, we headed to the CCAA office (not CCCA as previously reported - that should have been CCAA) for the official Chinese adoption finalization. We paid the fees, took a photograph, footprinted Becca and received our "Red Book." This process took about 2 hours and then we headed to JoyMart for some more shopping. Some advice to future adoptive parents - don't let the JoyMart employees help size your child's outer clothing wear. Keep in mind that they will size the clothing assuming she'll be wearing 5 layers of clothing underneath. Once we returned to the hotel, we cocooned ourselves in our room. This gave us all time to get to know each other and bond.

Our little Becca is so petite. She will be 14 months old on February 4, 2007 but is wearing 6-9 month clothing. The pants are short but huge on her little bottom. She is wearing size 3 shoes. But the way she eats, 12 month clothing will be fitting her in no time. She now has 7 teeth and is teething - 4 on top and 3 on bottom.

She is clearly developmentally delayed as was expected. She can sit without support but cannot do this voluntarily. She has little upper arm strength. She coos and has not really said any recognizable words (Chinese or otherwise.) Future adoptive parents, don't fret though as she is gaining on her delay very quickly. We have seen a significant improvement in just 1 day. She also attached to us very quickly. She has to physically be touching us with body contact for her to be content. When we transfer her from one parent to the other, she cries and takes a minute to be consoled. And then she clings for dear life to that parent. So grandparents, please note, she cries at new faces and sudden movements. Becca is really enjoying her freedom of movement. We suspect that in the orphanage she didn't have much unstructured movement. She loves playing with her feet, taking off her socks and having her feet tickled. She is showing gymnastics potential with her splits and high left kicks that she can keep in place for several minutes at one time.

Our entire group has been blessed with beautiful and healthy children. They all appear to have been well cared for by the orphanage. They are feeding, sleeping and interacting well with their families. No child is ill at this time. They do have Mongolian Spots, benign flat birthmarks, which are often mistaken for bruises and none are afflicted with scabies, lice or dermatitis.

Well, though it's 4 AM back home, it's dinner time here so we're going to get Miss Becca some salty Chinese custard or congee.