August 14, 2006 It’s Official!!!! Grace is our daughter!
Last night Grace did not want to be put down for one moment, but then why would we do that? She slept in bed with me while her daddy slept in the other bed (glad to have a room with two beds now!) She needed to be next to Mommy all night and I did not object. Grace slept through the night only waking up for a moment then off to sleep she went until 6:00 am. This morning Don and I needed to get ready, get Grace ready, and pack the diaper bag. This will take some getting used to. We needed to have breakfast and meet our guide Katherine in the lobby at 8:45 as we were going to the Civil Affairs Bureau to Adopt our little girl. We fed Grace in between feeding ourselves.
The drive through the city of Fuzhou was a little scary. Cars, mopeds, buses, bicyclists and don’t forget pedestrians going every which way. Once arriving, we were seated in a room where we got to sign more paper work; then were asked questions from the Civil Affairs Officer like, “Why do we want to adopt from China?, and “Will we ever abuse or abandon her”? “Will we give her a healthy life and education”? It was actually hard to give an answer with all the emotions you feel. Thankfully Katherine “coached” us to describe how we “appreciate the Chinese culture”. We signed several documents and placed our thumbprint on each signature. Then it was Grace’s turn to place her footprint on the same documents. Through the entire process Grace was fast asleep in my arms. She even slept through the footprinting for the documents (hers not ours). There were about seven people in the room, papers being passed back and forth and conversations between all the officials, and then Don and I heard the words, “ O.K your done”. We had officially adopted Grace. She is now our Daughter.
After completing the formal adoption process we headed to the store for supplies. We wanted to get some more baby formula, a few snacks, and some juice and sprite. Once back at the hotel we rested for a few hours, with Grace laying on Don’s stomach as they both napped for 2 hours. Once she woke up it as feeding time, CandieGram and Kevin came over to see how things were going and to check in on email. We decided to head down to the pool and see if Grace likes the water. The minute we got in she was hesitant at first, but then started splashing the water with Kevin. Cousin Kevin was blowing bubbles in the pool and Grace got a big kick out of it. We’ve only had her 2 days and she is starting to really show her personality, like when she is tired Grace will play with her left ear, or when she is content Grace will babble. Don plays along with the babble by saying “blah-blah-blah-blah”. This really gets Grace’s attention as she will immediately turn and head and grin. Later on in the evening we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant, food was excellent, and Grace was the center of attention. Toward the end of our dinner we realized a good sized #2 happened and she needed to be changed. When done with dinner, we went to the room to change her diaper and then headed outside for a walk around the hotel. Afterwards we called it a night and decided to spend more quiet time with Grace. Please enjoy the pictures.
