Today was an eventful day. This morning we went back to the hotel where we received Ridley yesterday. We had to go in front of a government official and answer questions like: Why did we decide to adopt from China? Did we change our mind after last night? Do you promise to treat her as a member of you family? and Do you promise not to abuse her?. After answering all of these questions satisfactorily, we had to sign our name in about a dozen places and had to put our thumbprint in red ink over each of our signatures. Then, Ridley had to put her footprint in red ink. After this ceremony, we received the adoption certificate from China saying Ridley is officially part of our family.
After this ceremony, we were able to sit with two representatives from the Hepu Child Welfare Institute (The orphanage that oversaw Ridley’s foster care) and ask them questions about Ridley and her care over the last 11 months. They provided us with a gift that included several updated pictures as well as pictures of Ridley’s foster mother and foster grandmother. It was obvious from this meeting that they really love these little girls and try to provide them with the best care possible. In Ridley’s case they stated the foster mother and grandmother were really sad about Ridley leaving. Ridley and the foster grandmother had a really close bond they said. Ridley has been well taken care of and is a very healthy little girl. We have not noticed any evidence of any developmental delays. She will be walking soon. She could do it now but still needs the security of holding on to something.
Next, we went to the Notary. There we had to answer basically the same questions we had answered earlier in the morning. We then signed our names in a dozen more places and then we were done. All of the China process is complete. We now have a couple of days of free time while we are waiting on Ridley’s Chinese passport to be issued. This will occur on Friday and then we will fly to Guangzhou to complete the American part of the paperwork process to get Ridley’s visa.
We are starting to see more and more of Ridley’s personality coming out as she is becoming more comfortable with us. She is extremely intelligent and very strong willed. This at times is a bad combination as she can be very demanding and not like to be told no. Even with this however she has been an easy baby to care for and is normally pretty quiet.
As I write this at 11:30 at night, Erica and Ridley are asleep. Ridley after a couple of tries on BaBa’s (daddy’s) part. We are very tired as Ridley after falling asleep late last night decided she needed an hour of play time at 4:30 this morning. We are hoping this does not repeat itself tonight.
I hope you all are enjoying following our journey. We enjoy reading the e-mails we have received. We are getting them. We are unable to go to our website so unfortunately, we are not able to view the postings in our guestbook.
Well, I am going to end here and try to get some sleep. Enjoy the pics. |
