She's officially ours...

Wednesday, May 7

Today we went back to the Hunan Province adoption office to finalize the adoption with the Chinese government. We had to bring our passports, some other official documents which we had signed and had to put our thumbprint in blood over our signature (just kidding, it was red ink but I wonder if they used to put their fingerprints on official documents in blood - hmmm)

We also had to answer some questions and promise that we would never abuse or abandon her and that we will make sure she gets education. We said yes - we can handle that.

So as far as the Chinese govt. is concerned she is officially our child. Now we wait here for their bureaucracy to process her passport - it is supposed to take 7 days.

This photo is us with the orphanage staff who brought Abby to us. I think the guy on the left is the driver and the other 2 are the nannies. We found out later that she cried the whole way here - we suspected it since she was sucking air when we got her like she was still recovering from a long cry. I think they were in a hurry to get out of there in case we changed our mind.

Nix on the orphanage visit.

The bad news is that we don't get to visit the orphanage. We had requested that we go after we got our referral and they told us we could work it out when we got here. When we started asking about it they kept telling us how it is so far and it would cost a lot of money and I asked if we could take the train and they said no, the adoption center has to make the arrangements and they said we had to take the bus. They also kept saying Abby gets car sick and it would be a 6 - 9 hr. drive each way. Then they said we could go but we coudn't see her room, and we couldn't go inside the orphanage. After we still wanted to go they finally came back and said the request was denied. They said it was because of the virus that is going around and has killed several children in the Anhui province. I'm not sure how that relates but there is no provision for appeal so I guess we're not going. We'll have to get photos from others who have been there so we can show her when she gets older and asks about it.