She is Officially Ours!!!!!

On Monday, we went to the Civil Affairs Office which was across the street from our hotel.  We had to cross the street-----it was like playing the game frogger from when I was younger.  There is so much traffic, people riding mopeds and people walking.  You have to be really careful crossing the road because they do not stop for you.  Our guide is a huge help and of course makes me more comfortable crossing.  We went to the Civil Affairs Office to be interviewed and asked questions in order to finalize the adoption.  We went into the office and they took a family picture of the three of us together and then of Piper by herself.  We then moved into an office by ourselves where a woman came in and asked us questions.  She first asked us “Do You like her?”  We of course told her we LOVE her, she is perfect.  Then she asked us “Why do you want to adopt a baby from Ch*na?”  We told her we wanted to expand our family and have always had much respect for the Ch*nese culture.  We love Ch*nese babies too.  She then asked us “What are your plans to nurture her and educate her?”  Then she asked us “Do you promise to never abandon her or abuse her?”  That was an easy promise!!  Afterwards we went out to a seating area and the director from the orphanage was there.  I am guessing that she had to fill out her share of paperwork to fully finalize the adoption and sign their rights over to us.  It was nice to see her there.   We were able to get our picture taken with her.  She reached out for Piper to hold her but Piper would not go. She turned to me and started to whimper a little.  Our guide came out and brought out a red book which was our adoption certificate finalizing everything.  It was a piece of paper inside the red book and it had our family photo on it.  Piper is officially our daughter!!!!!!! 

 

After we were finished we went to the Notary to complete our paperwork there.  Right now there is a lot of protesting going on with the situation with J*pan and Ch*na.  There are military and police officers everywhere.  We were pretty nervous but found out that it is pretty safe here.  Our guide told us that she has lived here her whole life and has never seen anything like this.  I know when we received Piper yesterday, right after everyone left we heard loud noised that sounded like a machine gun but it was only fireworks.  It made me really nervous.  Here they shoot fireworks all of the time!!!  They do them when people are happy, sad or for anything and also anytime 24 hours a day!!!!  When we walked into Notary’s office there was a bunch of men sleeping on couches inside and the women were sleeping in  the back of the office.  Our guide went in and woke them up to get our notary paperwork finished.  Here in Ch*na they work from 9-5.  They take a break from 11-2 where everyone eats lunch and then they all take naps.  Everyone takes naps.  This started to make more sense as time goes on.  I remember getting on both of our planes and looking around at all of the Ch*nese people and seeing them sleeping before the plane took off. They are all used to taking naps!!!!  They asked us similar questions to what the Civil Affairs Office asked us.   

 

 

We then went to the police station where we needed to apply for Piper’s passport.  We walked in and waited a little while and then went in and our guide gave them our paperwork.  They took Piper’s picture and we were finished.  Our guide will pick the passport up on Friday and we will take it with us to Guangzhou where we will wait to get her VISA.

We went back to the hotel and our guide took us into the restaurant to meet.  We sat down and she pulled out some paperwork and information she wanted to give to us.  She had given us copies of paperwork we had filled out before Piper was brought to our hotel room.  She never explained what they were we just had to sign in like 10 places.  She told us that that what we had signed was the paperwork for the orphanage to give us temporary custody for Piper until the adoption was finalized.  She gave us a copy for our records.  She then pulled out a newspaper which had Piper’s finding ad.  It had her little picture and she had translated what it said.  It was an emotional moment just looking at our daughter’s picture in the newspaper and reading where she was found and how she was found.  She was found at a gate of a building in a thin blanket with a bag of formula.  To think about that moment and how hard it must have been for her mother to do that.  I know as a mother I just cannot even fathom what that must have been like.  I also wonder if she thinks of her.  As we walk around here, people stare at you.  I cannot help but think that when these women stare is anyone wondering if it is her baby?    We had also requested to go to the orphanage to visit and hopefully meet her foster parents.  She told us that we were able to go to the orphanage on Wednesday.  I know it will be an emotional and difficult day but we knew we wanted to do whatever we could to get information so that we can show Piper as she gets older and starts to ask questions.  I am not sure how she will do going back but I know it will be good in the long run.  We also were told that we are going to get to go to her finding spot before we go to the orphanage.  I am so happy to have all of these pieces to share with her.  Please pray for us as we journey along. 


Here are some more random pictures that we took.