Adoption Day!

Monday (China time) was our "Gotcha Day" or "Forever Family" day. The day we met Meihua. Before we left the orphanage, they asked us if we were "satisfied" with the child. We said YES and we signed the Harmonious Period Agreement, stating that we would provide for her for the next 24 hours.

On Tuesday (China time), we traveled to the provincial office and they again asked us if we were "happy" and "satisfied" with the child and do we want to adopt her. We stated with tears in our eyes that YES we do want to adopt this child. So we took the oath with Meihua between us.

She is now officially our daughter. What a great day!

We are just waking up from night #2 together. She has slept cuddled up with me both nights.

Today we will do a little sight-seeing in the early part of the day. It is rainy and cool in Chongqing because it is their rainy season. Everyone walks around with an umbrella. It is a busy city, and people are always out. The streets are crowded and the roads are jammed because they are doing a great deal of construction on roads and buildings. It is a quickly growing city. The people are proud of that.

Later in the day we will just hang out in the hotel together.

We ate Subway last night. It was just like Subway back home except for the chips selection. They have their own flavors which include cucumber and "hot pot". Chongqing is well known for its "hot pot"--hot and spicy food. I opted out of chips and went for cookies. Tim, however, did do "hot pot" chips and said they were yummy.

Every morning we eat in the hotel breakfast buffet. It includes Chinese and American food. We fill up there because it is very yummy. The buffet includes waffles, french toast, bacon, sausage (tastes different), hard boiled eggs, yogurt drink, fried eggs, several types of breads, noodles with vegetables, fried rice, congee, and many other Chinese dishes that don't look very appetizing to me in the morning.

I do love Chinese noodles with vegetables. We are happy that our tiny home town has TWO Chinese resturaunts run by Chinese immigrants. Sarah and I often make trips up the street for take-out. I'm sure Joy will enjoy that, although she seems quite happy to eat anything. I did give her a cinnamon mint yesterday. It's the first thing she has spit out, and only did so once I showed her she could by spitting out my own mint. LOL!