Lily is Officially Ours

Lily Sara YuFeng is now officially our daughter! Today we went to the civil center to complete all the China adoption paperwork. The adoption center is on the 26th floor of a government building with very little air conditioning! There were probably about 20 families waiting to complete their adoption paperwork in a room with 2 portable air conditioners blowing very little air. It was warm and there was a lot of commotion, but our guide knew what he was doing and moved us through pretty quickly.

First step was a photo of Ruben, myself, and Lily. Next came the interview where we promise to always love and never to abandon or abuse our daughter. Then more paperwork and on to another building to see the notary. More questions and signatures, and then we were done!

Getting dressed for the big day. I don't think Lily has ever worn a dress. She kept pulling on it, and didn't seem to sure about it.
The waiting room
Our photo for our paperwork

Tyler relaxing in the stroller.......he had the right idea!

On our way to see the notary with the Orphanage director

Once we were done, we headed to Super WalMart. The store is HUGE. It is packed with "stuff" and I've never seen so many people in a walMart on a Monday. There were also a lot of employees.....pretty much one in every aisle. We needed to buy another stroller, and we also wanted to pick up some chinese dvd cartoons for Lily as well as a kid's music cd. The DVD's and CD were only $2 each! The boys were each allowed to pick one toy, and we picked up some more snacks. I was again surprised at how good the prices were.

Some familiar items...........

Lot's of coke products, although I miss my diet coke. We've only been able to find Coke Zero.

We conintued our adoption celebration with a trip to McDonald's!! The kids were excited to see that even China has Happy Meals, and everyone enjoyed their lunch.

Guess who loves McDonald's frenchfries??????

Lily was a real trooper this morning. Last night she woke up a couple of times, cried briefly and went back to sleep with us patting her. There were 2 times I had to pick her up and rock her, but only for a few minutes. She did wake up crying this morning, so we took turns holding her while we were getting ready. She was fine going down to breakfast, but cried when she realized we were going back to our room. She will go to either Ruben or I, but is showing a slight preference for me.

She did great at the civil center, and only wimpered a few times. When the orphanage director came up and spoke to her, she turned her head into my shoulder. I took that as a good sign, that she's beginning to depend on me for comfort. We carried her a lot, but sometimes she wanted to get down and walk around, but would hold our hand if we reached out to her. She was very tired when we got back to the hotel, and cried and called out to her nanny before falling asleep. Her nap is very restless and she keeps wimpering, but she is doing better than yesterday.

Something interesting I learned today............it is very common in China not to brush a child's teeth until they are about 5. No wonder Lily's teeth are in such bad shape!