Nanchang Day 2- Family Day

This morning before she woke up we just had to snap a few pictures of the sweet baby sleeping!

















This is Family Day! We went to the Civil Affairs Building for Adoptions and made it official!















The Orphanage Director came today to finalize everything. He was a really kind man!















Anna Claire & I went to all our stops this morning together and she really liked being close.


















One of our first smiles. We like the progress!!


Today started early. We didn't get much sleep last night, but not because the baby didn't sleep. It is hard to sleep here anyway and then having her for the first time made it even more difficult. I guess we just didn't sleep as sound just making sure she was OK! We had to be downstairs at 8am to go to several buildings to make our adoption official. This day is known as Family Day in the Adoption World. All three families loaded up in the bus to make our first stop which was the Center of Adoption Services for Jiangxi Province. It was a very cold & rainy day and the wind was fierce too so we had to bundle the babies up real good (even though the Chinese people don't ever think we have enough clothes on them). When we arrived, there were about 20 or so other families that had just received their babies doing the same thing that we were doing. We waited until it was our turn and they took our picture as a family and then Anna Claire's picture. We later went to an office where an official interviewed us and made us promise not to hurt or abandon her. They ask questions about our professions and then they asked are you satisfied with your baby. It is funny when they ask these questions. It really makes me want to be smart and say "no" especially when they asked us "Do you like your baby?"It would be funny to say "well, she's OK!" What do they expect you to say! Anyway, this was a several hour stop while our next 2 stops were quick. We went to the police station to have her passport picture made and then to the notary office where she asked us if we liked her.

Then it was off to Wal-Mart! It is so different. This was in downtown area and it was several stories tall. Everything is so cramped that they just build up. You can even take your buggies on the flat escalator! We all got a few items that we needed while still being amazed at our surroundings. Have I mentioned how different EVERYTHING is here. We all took about 30 minutes to go to our rooms to do a few things for the baby and then we went to the 2nd floor for dinner. Another adventure each day is eating. The service is amazing and they try to talk you into stuff to eat and point at the menu, but we have no idea what they are saying. And the picture menu really helps very little since nothing looks like anything we have ever seen. We finally figured out that pork is the meat of choice here, not chicken. Not good since we eat a lot of chicken. But our group got fried rice, a beef and noodle dish, and broccoli. It was the best Chinese meal we had eaten so far and we really enjoyed it. It ended with a quick exit for us because Anna Claire threw up all over Steve. Oh yeah, we have talked about how we forgot how bad second hand formula smells. She is still just not doing well with her eating and digestion. I told Steve I prayed about many things before we came, but sickness was not really one of them so he said we can start now and we did ! We went to bed around 11 and felt good that we had a free morning the next day!