Adoption Day

May 9 (morning nap)
Today we had a big morning. We met the group at 8am and went back to the Civil Affairs Office for Adoption Day. We had a brief interview with the same woman who matched Mae’s face to her paperwork yesterday. Then they stamped my thumb over my name and Mae’s right foot (which she didn’t appreciate). All the babies were hot and tired so we gave her a water bottle and she fell asleep on Susan for about 40 minutes. We transferred her to me when the Orphanage Director, Asst. Director and a staff member came in to talk with us. She is asleep in the pictures but I wanted her to have a picture with them. I asked them about the congee recipe but Daphne said they are all the same, just boiled rice. All the Chinese so far love to shake her little foot, although they were quick to notice that she didn’t have her right foot sock on. We came back and she is taking a real nap. I am pooped! We will go out with the group to a local restaurant tonight at 5 to celebrate. Mae is OFFICIALLY ours!!

(7:15pm)
Mae is asleep for the night. She loves holding and sucking on the corner of the pink blanket. It took her a while to settle down tonight and I think she had eaten too much at dinner and had a too-full tummy. It was egg and I discovered that she was comfortable being fed with chopsticks, so we went with that and she loved it. She also has refused her water bottle today so I decided to have her suck on a watermelon slice rather than end up squeezing all the useful juice out of it by chopping it up. She thought that was great too! What a cutie. After her 3-hour power nap this afternoon, we went back to the local store to stock up on formula and diapers and attracted a lot of stares. Two older ladies tried to talk to us, but we couldn’t follow. Luckily our lanyard says CCAI’s name on it in Chinese. Dinner was a delicious restaurant 2 doors down..yum! Corn with pine nuts…interesting combination and yummy too. I finally had a dish that was too spicy for me-first time all trip! It was Hunan spiced sugar snap peas. Luckily we had local beer to help with the zing. I think I uploaded the video in the wrong format, which is why people can’t get it. I am going to try tonight or tomorrow afternoon to reformat it, so try again tomorrow and hopefully it will work. G’night!