Today it's official; Corey & Orli in their pink boots

24 November
Tuesday in Chongqing

Today it's official.

Or at least in China it's official.  After a fairly decent night of sleep last night (only one smallish melt-down at 2:30 a.m., then straight sleeping until EIGHT a.m.) we went down to have breakfast along with three other families.  Orli didn't like egg.  She didn't like the specifically-for-her egg custard.  She wasn't a big fan of the oatmeal .  So after all of those misses, we made her a bottle and that was that.

Although we both had hoped for a mid-morning nap, Orli didn't quite have that in mind. Instead, we all sat on the floor in our hotel room and played with stacking cups, plastic keys, books (thank you Shukiar family), and various other distractions of great interest.

Then it was off to the building next door again, the Municipality Office of Adoption Registration.  We were called up one by one to show the officer our baby, and they looked at the paperwork to make sure we had the correct baby.  Then we took a "family photo."  None of us really knew what the day was about.  We basically just go where we're told to go and do what they tell us to do.  Our guide from our agency, Anita (Wang Sam is her Chinese name) is really fantastic.  She has been with us since picking us up from the airport in Chongqing and stays at the hotel with us.  She is there if we need anything at all, and like I said, she has been great!

So Anita suddenly ushered us into a small room and one family at a time took an oath for a Chinese Notary.  It was full of slightly dressed-down pomp and circumstance.  We each thumb-stamped our names on a document, including Orli, who actually ended up three-finger stamping hers.  J  And then the notary announced that it was official and that we were now the legal mother and father of Orli, who as I type is sitting on the floor so sweetly playing with stacking cups and plastic keys.

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OK, first apologies to those who wondered where our blog was yesterday.  We were so exhausted from the day that we couldn't even stay up another minute last night, not even to put up the above post.  And I guess we were all exhausted, because Orli's head hit the pillow at 10:30 and we had to wake her up this morning at 7:00--she slept straight through!  (Adopting a 9 month old ROCKS when it comes to sleep!!)  J

Today was a little less draining.  This morning we went to the Chongqing zoo to see the pandas!  Orli slept through most of it, and we think the zoo was more for us than the babies, but it was still fun to see all the pandas so up-close.

Whenever we are out and about (or at breakfast, or in the hotel lobby) the local women come up to check out the situation on all these Chinese babies and American parents.  The response is mostly positive with an occasional look of skepticism.  The zoo was full of  interactions with the locals.  At one point we were bombarded by a group of about 8 women.  Anita asked us to show them our tags that say why we have the babies (see our first Chongping post), and they were all smiles and huge and repeated thumbs-ups for us.

This evening we had a celebration dinner at a fancy restaurant.  We even had a "birthday" cake (to celebrate the birth of all the new families for the babies) with a rather pyrotechnic candle that lit up like a firework, then lit a bunch of candles, simultaneously creating a spinning flower that played music.

Tomorrow we're going to walk around a bit by our hotel.  We are in a fantastic location, within walking distance from anything we could need.  Tomorrow afternoon we'll go tour the Old City of Chongqing.

Incidentally, we are unable to receive our Verizon email here, so if some of you are replying to our posts in your inbox, we aren't able to receive them.  It will likely be the same in Guangzhou, as so many sites are blocked in mainland China.  So if you want us to be able to see your comments (when we return), you'll have to post them to the blog.

Sending everyone very Happy Thanksgiving wishes.  We're not sure how we'll celebrate, but we are certainly full of thanks for this new little life that has entered ours.