It's Official!!!

Today was the day we went back to the registration office where we had "Gotcha Day" and received our official adoption certificates. It's official! The adoption is final! At least in the eyes of the Chinese government anyway. Not sure about the US government, but I think for them, as well...the paperwork just has to catch up to them.




It was a very happy time for all the other families. Luckily, it appeared that all the other kids had a good night last night--their first night in their new families. Caden slept like a log from roughly 5:00pm until 6:15am. He decides to take naps at the most inopportune times.




This was him sleeping at the notary's office. He fell asleep on the bus, about 5 minutes before we got there. Slept through us walking up 6 flights of stairs (no elevator). Slept through me handing him to Mom. Slept through her handing him back to me. Slept through getting our picture taken with the notary (sorry...don't have that picture for some reason). Slept through 4 flights of stairs on the way down...until some nice man decided we all needed to hear his side of the cell phone conversation a few flights up. I guess some things (cell phone rudeness) are universal...

At the notary's office, there was a flurry of paperwork signage, just as you would expect. We had to put our complete trust in Yisha, our CCAI rep, as she was telling us where to sign and what to write and where to date the forms...they were all in Chinese. Whatever it takes to bring those precious little guys/girls home...


Next was back to the room for some "rest." I put that in quotes, because Caden has no idea what that means when he's not sleeping. The boy goes full-speed, all the time. Gets into EVERYTHING. I really hope A's got the house child-proofed before I get back, or else we're going to find him in a pile of dishwasher soap, with a lighter in one hand and balancing dishes on the end of a butcher knife with the other.

We decided to hit the noodle shop in the hotel next door for lunch. Caden loved it, eating like a horse as always. I thought it was really good, as well, but it didn't sit too well with Mom. She was down for the count and unable to go on the afternoon's excursion.




After our "rest," we went on a shopping excursion to the Lotus shopping center. It's like an upscale Wal-Mart. No photos from inside...I was too focused on getting the stuff we needed: diapers (the boy's going through 5-6 a day, easily), water (we're all going through much more than the hotel provides), rice cereal, spoons, bottles, laundry detergent (hotel laundry is outrageously expensive), plus some little bread treats that Caden is fond of (thank you Yisha for checking with LOCC on that). I think we're set for the next several days. But the ride there and back was a little scary...



Tomorrow, if the weather breaks (it was raining this afternoon), a trip to the park. I'm sure there will be great pics from that.