Today we became a "Forever Family". We returned to the Civil Affairs Office to register the adoption with the Chinese government and apply for her Chinese passport. We had an official family picture taken for the records. We were asked if we underwent this adoption willingly, what plans we had for her education and why we wanted to adopt a Chinese baby. We must have passed because they let us take her. We then went to have the adoption notarized. This is like going before the judge. He asked us if we were satisfied with Dallas and if we wanted to keep her. YES. Just try to take her away from us! We promised him we would love her, never mistreat her, never abuse her, never harm her, and never abandon her. She is ours now and is officially Dallas Gabrielle ChaYan Hodge.
Dallas started getting cranky in the afternoon and generally wasn't feeling well. The bump on her head is getting better. She isn't eating to well. She doesn't understand what is going on and she is still grieving the loss of her foster family. Our group had a chance to meet the orphanage director and ask questions. She was removed from the foster family Sunday morning right before being brought to the Civil Affairs Office. We were told the name of her foster mother. We were told that Dallas was loved very much by them. The orphanage director and I hugged and I thanked her for having taken such great care of Dallas. I asked her to thank the foster family for us. She took a picture of us to show the foster family.
John and I aren't too crazy about the food here so we ate Kentucky Fried Chicken for Lunch and Pizza Hut for dinner. It was very good but still tastes quite different than at home. I went to a Chinese grocery store today. I got totally lost in there. They do have many of the same foods we do. I spotted Budweiser and Cheetos right away! Thank you for all the emails you have sent. I will answer them all when we return home. We do have internet connection in our room but is is very slow and I can't always send emails out.
