Day 5 – It’s Official! She’s ours!

Today, she is really ours. At 9:30am, we returned to the registration building and received the document that made Tian officially ours! Prior paperwork stated us as just her guardian. We received the paperwork in a small, short and sweet ceremony. Afterwards, we then headed to the notary to apply for Tian’s Chinese Passport.  At that point our day of official paperwork was done.

 

 

 

 

This afternoon, the other families traveled to their child’s home city for more paperwork. We leave tomorrow.  It’s a 3.5 hour drive there, about 30 minutes of paperwork, then 3.5 hours back. Us and the Smiths have the longest day journeys in our group. We’ve decide not to take Tian back to visit the orphanage. Although the exchange went very well, it’s not worth the potential tears and unrest for Tian.

This afternoon, the Phillips and Smith families, went for a walk through a nearby park. Turned out to be a significantly larger park than we thought. Even had some kiddie carnival rides. We’ll go back again before we leave. But McDonald’s was our destination. Even Kerry was happy to see those golden arches. Tian was two fisting French fries. Hunter had a cookie shake. Me, a BigMac. All is good in the world. Amazing what fries and a coke can do for your psyche after days of noodles and hotel food.  

 This evening, Tian and I went for a walk. Just the two of us. We found the indoor pool on the 3^rd floor, ran into another family down our hallway and finally back to the room. Time to wind down with some stacking cups and plastic rings. Tian is now getting a bath. More smiles and love from her today. She waved at Kerry for the first time! Kerry loved that! She still has a slight fever, but you’d never know by her appetite and activity.

 

A very easy going baby. Only a few fussy moments, but nothing that lasted more than seconds.

 

 

And it’s been so great seeing Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt and Uncle on Skype. It’s 7am there now, so we are excited to see who we get to chat with tonight. The little girl with Hunter is Hanna Smith. What a sweetie. She’s going to be a great big sis. As you can see, Hunter is working on his “Swag”.

 Love from China!