Tuesday,
May 9, 2006
It's official :) Today was adoption day and Sophie Lulu JingXiao
is now
officially a member of our family! As crazy as I am about her, I
was
surprised at how grateful and relieved after the proceedings were
over and
that she, in China's eyes, is now legally our daughter!
She woke up quietly this morning, I am sure she was processing
where
she was and who I was when she opened her eyes at about 7:15 AM.
She
slept great, not a peep all night. It was wonderful that she
slept so
soundly, but I sure didn't! It felt like Christmas day with her
laying in
the bed next to me ... this little girl who's picture I have
been staring
at and dreaming of for the last 9 months! I woke up many times
just to
listen to the sound of her breathing, and reminding myself that
it
wasn't all a dream.
At 9:00 our guide came to do the paperwork before the adoption
proceedings. About 9:30 we left for the notary's office and
while I remembered
to bring all the orphanage donations, updated pictures from Guilin
families and all of Sophie's 'stuff', I forgot the gifts for the
officials.
Our guide has been amazing and he had no problem running back to
the
hotel with me to pick them up. Soon we were on our way again and
everything went very smoothly. We met with the orphanage
director again and I
was afraid it would be a repeat of yesterday, with Sophie crying
at
having to leave her again. But she didn't really respond to her
either way,
I think she's just processing everything and she's quite
reserved when
we're not in the hotel room. When we are playing in the hotel
room she
really smiles and giggles, throws her toys to see my reaction
and plays
with abandon. Today she even layed her head on me on the ride
over to
the Civil Affairs office. I know we have a long way to go, but
she's off
to a wonderful start. After all the paperwork was done our
guide,
David, took us shopping. I needed some new shoes for Sophie
since the ones I
brought her are too small. All the clothes I brought fit great,
but the
girl's got some big feet! I think the updated measurements are
pretty
accurate, I'm going to guess she's about 34 1/2 inches and 29
pounds.
We'll see how close my guesses are at her physical in Guangzhou.
She's
been eating great today, much better than yesterday. So far her
favorites
seem to be apple juice, fried rice, noodles and raisins. She
seems to
be completely potty trained and will try to go every time I put
her up on
the potty. It is so cute to see such a little peanut in big girl
underwear ;)
Her verbal ability is amazing. She points at things and asks
what they
are (by saying 'eh?') and when I tell her she often repeats what
I say,
sometimes several times. Today she said 'bye bye' to three
different
people and even waved at the same time. She says 'water' and
'baby' and
'mama'. She also talks a lot in Chinese! She has a great
attitude about
everything, she seems to take everything in stride. She loved
our
shopping adventure today and was so excited to point out things
she liked at
the store. Needless to say we came back to the hotel with a few
more
things than we had intended. Developmentally she seems to be
right on
target, she can turn single pages of a book, and put on her
shoes and
socks. I truly believe that her time in the Half the Sky program
has given
her an incredible head start. On gotcha day I received all her
reports
from Half the Sky, footprints, handprints, and at least 20
additional
photos. I know these are going to mean so much to her when she
is older.
Tomorrow is a free day and I'm looking forward to some down time
with
our newest addition! |
They woke me up for this?
At the Civil Affairs Office for the big day
The adoption is complete!
The face of an angel |
