She Is Ours....Officially

Yesterday we told you that Lily Mei was our daughter. In reality, she became our daughter officially today.

Early this morning the families were boarded back on the bus and whisked off to the Civil Affairs Bureau once more. This time it was to, first, let the Chinese government know we hadn't changed our minds and wanted to keep our children. (Well, we didn't have to think about that one very long!)

But the primary reason was to sign more official paperwork, pay fees to the government agencies administering the adoption, and to make a very large "donation" to the orphanage. The donation was to cover the costs of their taking care of Lily for her first year.

It was most interesting to see how each child was doing a short 24 hours since they'd been handed over to strangers. Each child was faring differently. Some were acting essentially as if nothing unusual had happened; that they had known these parents all their lives. Others were still withdrawn and seemingly still quite fearful. Others, such as Lily, were going with the flow one minute and then looking perplexed the next.

A big challenge for us has been that little has been shared about her sleeping/eating schedule and her eating habits. And we are discovering more and more about her being behind developmentally. That has left a lot of guesswork for us and an "out of sorts" feeling for Lily. So today was a bit of a challenge for all three of us.

But Lily does seem to be more relaxed with us today. And we are falling more in love with her by the minute!

Tomorrow we travel to visit Lily's orphanage, and hopefully to see her "finding spot", the place where she was found. It's a long ride, but we think it's important for us to see those places so we can tell Lily about them should she want to know about them some day .

Thanks for checking in.

Lily after a nice warm bottle

Playing with stacking cups

With Ms. Tang, the Orphanage Director, and one of Lily's caregivers at the Civil Affairs

Bureau

It was a long morning and Lily finally s

uc

cumbed to a nap

The Bureau of Civil Affairs office where the babies and children are handed off, and where fees are paid