It's Official

Monday, June 02, 2008

Words are truly incapable of describing yesterday’s life changing experience. From crying at the sight of a little crib that was the first thing we saw upon opening the door to our hotel in Nanchang, to the nervous quiet on the bus driving to the Provincial Adoption Center, to walking into the baby/child transfer room, to knowing that Ellie was somewhere in the room, and to being the first family called to come forward, Sunday, June 01, 2008 will be long etched in our collective memories. It was a surreal experience, actually. The moment that Ellie was handed to Caroline, the up and down, the ebb and flow of the long three year wait vanished; upon presenting our passports, we were handed this beautiful little girl. It was, and is, a miracle…a true “God thing” as our agency told us it would be. In the 20 hours that Ellie has blessed our lives, we’ve seen signs of both of our personalities manifest in Ellie’s behaviors. It’s truly remarkable.

Ellie has been nothing but extraordinary; slept through the night, ate a hearty breakfast, took a nap on the way to the Provincial Adoptions Center, lost a sock as we had our first shopping excursion-the Nanchang Super Wal-Mart, ate squash for lunch, went poo-poo in the toilet and bedded down without incident for a nap.

We made two official stops this morning. The first was at the Provincial Adoption Center. Here we had a family picture taken, Ellie had her passport picture taken, we were interviewed and we received our official adoption certificate. We are officially Ellie’s parents! The second was a notary office, where we were again interviewed and our official adoption certificate was notarized.

The day’s official work completed, we made our way to Super Wal-Mart; two full floors of Western retail marketing with Asian products and services. As the three of us walked the aisles filling the shopping cart with jars of tomato with fish medley baby food, diapers, burp rags and Tsing-Tao beer, people stopped to look at Ellie and then smile at Caroline and me. Two young girls in their late teens came up to Ellie while we were in the baby food aisle. The two smiled with delight after giving Ellie the once-over, and then said to us, “Thank you. This is very kind of you. We think she will be very happy in your family.”
We both stood there with tears running down our cheeks…such a powerful moment of grace.

Now, back to the poo-poo…

While we traveled to the day’s first stop, one of our adoption guides, Mary, told our group that the babies are potty trained. A half hour after eating an infant is held over a toilet, certain sounds are made and lo and behold, the infant voids fluids and eliminates solids. Mary encouraged us to keep to this schedule. So, after we got home from Wal-Mart we fed Ellie squash, she’d had a bottle on the bus, we undressed her, and I held her over the toilet…and lo and behold…poo-poo plopped into the toilet. Daddy is so proud!

Quote of the Day: Upon hearing that our daughters are potty-trained, Ella’s dad leans across the aisle on the bus and says, “That alone is worth the $4800 Yuan adoption fee!”