Finalized in China

Okay we need to start this blog with Linda slept through the night. Wow is she a sound sleeper. Of course this is after crying her self silly about being in the hotel room with a couple of people she’s not sure about.

Today we “finalized” our adoption in China with a visit to the Jiangxi province Civil Affairs Office and the Jiangxi Province Notary. It is really not much to write about except for the fact that what happened today is it. We are the official parents of Linda! Well, of course we are, but we have the certificate to prove it. Now we wait for her passport and then the trip to Guangzhou for the Visa.

Linda likes going out. Be it in the hallway or the lobby. Outside is outside. You know, freedom! ;-) So as you can imagine Linda enjoyed the trip to the breakfast buffet this morning. She was watching everybody and everything. She is very alert. I even got a small bowl of congee to try on her. Why this is significant is at 9 months her main diet is a mixture of formula and rice cereal given to us by the orphanage. I figured what is the big difference. None! Mel ran upstairs to get a little spoon as the restaurant did not have any little spoons out. I take a little scoop, and would you know, Linda munched down on it like it was nothing. She was even biting the spoon with her little front teeth. Well, the big people were wrapping it up and Mel wanted to try some fruit. I could not find a banana, so we decided on a peach slice. Mashed up real good, we gave Linda a little bit. She ate it, but you should have seen the look on that little face. Eyebrows furled slightly and a little bit of a scrunched up nose saying, “Hey, that was pretty good, but it didn’t taste like anything I’ve had before. Do I like it or not?” Another little scoop and down it went. Again, the look. The conclusion is she liked it but is not sure about it.

After breakfast was the trip to the Civil Affairs office to do our “interview” and get a certificate of completion. Oh, wait, this is not school! We received our Certificate of Adoption! On it is our first official family photo.

Next was off the Notary office. The notary asked a couple of questions and it was all finalized.

A couple across the hall from us, Nancy and Paul (and daughter Drew) said they were going to the supermarket so we tagged along with them. We also decided to look for lunch. Of course once we could all make up our mind we wound up at that gourmet place, McDonalds. There now I can say I had a Big Mac in China.

Linda was tired from all her journeys after that so we laid low. We did manage to give Linda her first bath. She wasn’t thrilled… but she smells and looks a lot better.

That’s it for now.