At the adoption office.
Signing and fingerprinting our documents with Dennis our coordinator.
Meiting's turn!
When it was all done she gave Baba a big kiss! Actually she has been giving him lots of kisses.
It's official!Today we spent our day (a total of 8 long hours) making our adoption official. It was a long and grueling day which took us to 3 different locations. We began at the adoption office where the "official" documents are drafted and where we register the adoption. We were asked questions regarding WHY we wanted to adopt Mei and we had to promise not to abuse her in any way. We had to sign many documents and give our fingerprints. The adoption papers are not finalized until Meiting gives her approval that she wants to be adopted. This is carefully explained to her. An older child must sign their name, but a younger child must provide a handprint. She did not hesitate for a moment. We have some pictures to show the long process (this took hours). When the adoption was registered we went to another location to get the documents notarized. This would seem like a quick process but it was not. Last, we went to the passport office to apply for Mei's passport. We managed to sneak in a wonderful lunch and ate some delicious Chinese food. I had my first dumpling. YUMMY! Mei is a good eater, but very messy. She will need to be taught to slow down and not put so much food in her mouth. At breakfast she eats fruit and yogurt, but will not drink juice. We tried to give her rice and noodles but she would not eat them for breakfast. She scolded Jeff for giving them to her and made him take them off her plate. She LOVES vegetables. We watched her eat almost a full plate of cucumbers and broccoli. She likes this fried corn dish and noodles (for dinner). She went crazy for the dumplings and wanted them all. She is not much of a meat eater and picks the meat out of her noodles. She told Dennis that he does not like chicken. She pushed Jeff's arm away when he tried to give her shrimp. She likes spicy food which really surprised me. Her favorite thing is sugar. She got mad at us when we would not let her eat the sugar cubes for our tea. She had her chopsticks at the ready and was trying to snatch a few as the lazy susan rotated around. I am doing pretty well with the chopsticks. I am guessing not good enough by Chinese standards because a waitress brought me a fork at lunch today. Mei is also a great sleeper and sleeps soundly through the night except for some tossing and turning. She is getting used to taking baths. The first night we could not get her to sit in the tub, she would only squat. Now she gets right in and sighs with satisfaction as we wash her. I wonder what she must think of all this attention. She is not getting one bit sick of it and gets more loving each day. We had a breakthrough last night with her bonding with Jeff. The first night she would barely go near him and push him away. They have spent several hours playing which has brought them closer. Yesterday she sat in his lap and held his hand but would not kiss him. She let him pick her up and he carried her across the street. She didn't like it at first and now she is hooked. She insists that he carry her and she just loves it. We will indulge her while in China while they continue to bond. She now showers him with kisses and wants him all of the time. He of course is eating this up and thrilled to death. They fell in love last night and today the bond grew stronger. I am thrilled because it gives me a bit of a break. The only issue is the bathroom. Now that she loves her Baba, she does not want to be away from him. Dennis had to explain to her that Baba cannot take her to the bathroom because it is for LADIES only. She was not happy with this. Since today was so long and grueling, we will take tomorrow to rest and play close to the hotel. Saturday we will visit The Great Wall of China and will visit one place each day until we leave Beijing. Many of the tours are set up as full day excursions (10-12 hours)with several stops. Mei cannot handle more then a few hours each day of touring. We decided to break it up a bit so we could enjoy it more(and so could she).
Keep those emails coming. We are missing home, family and friends very much. The hardest part of all is being away from Parker. We love you!
