Day Five: Yesterday afternoon we made the same bus trip back to the local Civil Affairs office to complete Madison's adoption. After our harmonious period or "free trial" we decided we would keep her. It actually took far less than the one day to make that decision - more like seconds. We fell in love with her instantly!
The trip back to the Civil Affairs building was interesting. All of the children had just expeienced a life changing traumatic event there the day before and their memories were still fresh. Only one day prior, they were torn away from everything the had ever known, given to strange looking people who looked different, smelled different and sounded different than anyone else they had ever seen. Most of the children had a hard time going back to this place again.
At the civil affairs office we had our first family picture taken with Madison as part of our official Certificate of Adoption. We then visited, one family at a time, with the Adoption Officer who asked us a series of simple questions - "Are you married?" "When were you married?" "Do you have any biological children?" "Have you ever adopted before?" and the most important "Do you promise never to abandon or abuse this baby?" We gave her a small gift as a token of our thanks and we were done. After that meeting and waiting for the other familes to complete their interviews, we all met with the notary at one time to fill out another form and to give another gift to the notary officer.
While we were waiting on the other families to complete their pictures and interviews we did have a chance to meet with two officials from the Lujiang SWI (Madison's Orphanage). They werevery nice and were able to tell us that Xia Ye was a "busy" and "very curious" little girl. We agreed! They also told us that whe was a good eater and because of this she had never been sick. We can confirm that she is definitely a good eater. After meeting with them, we gave them ea ch a gift, one for the orphange director and one for them to take back to the Nannies as our sign of our immense gratitude for having cared for Madison this long.
This second trip to the civil affairs office was far less rushed and chaotic than our trip the day before. We were there for about two and a half hours. The building was quite warm and the only relief to be found was to stand by a window that was able to open about 5 or 6 inches and to catch as much of the cool breeze as you could. All of us were happy to leave by the time we were all done. And the children were all happy to be leaving with the same person they came in with. We left with Madison and our official Certificate of Adoption.
Day Six: This was suppose to be a sightseeing day in Hefei. However, a nearby typhoon is causing rain all day today in Hefei. Since our agency had a bus and driver lined up for the day, we did make another trip back to a local market. We were able to buy Madison some new shoes. They ones she was given to us in were already too small for her. We also purchased a few outfits becuase we were running out of clothes that fit her. Right now she is wearing 18 month clothing and very close to 24 months, depending on the style and manufacturer. Of course those numbers mean nothing in China. There is no universal sizing here and each manufacturer uses their own system. We just had to hold thing up to her in the store.
Tomorrow, the rain is supposed to stop and we are going to try and make up for our missed day of sightseeing by visiting a local musem and temple. One family in our group is going to visit their daugter's orphanage. We have decided not to make the two hour trip to and from Madison's orphanage for many of the same reasons the other families are not going to theirs. Madison had a somewhat difficult time seeing the familiar faces of people from her orphanage and we felt to make the long trip their would not only be very tiring for her, but would move us back a step in the bonding process for her to see her Nannies again. We have also been very blessed to have received a lot of information and pictures of Madison's orphanage from antoher family who adopted from their recently. Because of this and having met with the two officials from her orphanage, we feel that we have plenty of information to share with Madison about the place she spent the first months of her life when she is ready to hear about it.
We are in Hefei for a couple of more days, while we wait on Madison's passport. The weather here has been very tollerable, other than the rain. It is somewhat cool outside, but inside most buildings it can get very warm and stuffy. The hotel has a good air conditioning system, but it still gets fairly warm in the room. When it is not raining and the breeze is blowing we visit the outdoor children's playground area on the sixth floor and cool off. After we receive Madison's passport we wil be on our way to Guangzhou for her visa. Then we can bring her home!
God Bless,
Angie and Mike
