China Update for Monday August 6th

It's Official! I am forever a part of my family!
Mommy & Me!
Lily is already blogging?
The shirt says it all!
Right where I should be at last
"Signing" the offical paperwork







It is now Tuesday morning Aug 7 at 6:30 am and I just finished working out in the gym and Doug is down there now and Lily Jane is fast asleep. I am starving and looking forward to hitting the breakfast buffet.

So here is the rundown of Monday Aug 6:

The first night was a rough one for all of us, very little sleep so we worried how Monday was going to shape up. Of course the first thing we did was eat breakfast (the Chinese make a wonderful fried egg). Then we had to go to a meeting at 10am to go over adoption paperwork and sign our name about 100 times.

Our guides Ricky and Christi took some of us to a supermarket and that was an experience. It was just wild chaos at the store. We walked around the electronics department where there were about 20 people sitting around one of the TVs watching a show very loudly and laughing loudly, as if they were in their own private living room. I was armed with a list of things to buy, such as formula, a nose suction tool, a backpack for Doug, and ponytail holders for Lily and me. The stares we got were intense. Some were friendly smiles accompanied with nods, others were like "what the heck do you think you're doing here". Some were older Chinese women who would come up and talk to Lily and some even tried to hold her. I held on tight though and just smiled and said her Chinese name to them. They were all very harmless.

We returned to our room for a snack and a diaper change. We discovered Lily loves those gerber puffs!

We all met in the lobby at 2:00pm for our bus ride to the office where we would make the adoption final. I am very proud to say that we are the proud legal parents of Lily Jane Tong. It was at the office that we got our first big smile out of Lily. Doug was
holding her and then kind of threw her up in the air. She loved it.
As a matter of fact. She wanted more. So of course Doug and I took turns throwing her in the air and she just giggled and cooed. Great we have a little boy who loves to wrestle and a little girl who loves to be tossed in the air. These kids are going to kill us physically.

After the appointment ended, we all returned back to the room exhausted. At 5:00pm we took a nap, thinking that we would wake up at 6:00pm and go grab some dinner. Well we were all so tired that we didn't wake up until 11:00pm, so we skipped dinner, gave Lily a bottle and bath, and went to bed.

We are already seeing changes in Lily. She seems to be coming around and opening up to us more. You can tell in her facial expressions and eyes that she is gaining more and more trust in us.
When we got on the bus to go to the office, Lily became upset and agitated. We wondered if it was bringing back the memories of the 6-hour bus ride she had Monday from the Institution/Orphanage to the hotel. Maybe that test has given her more faith in us. I'm looking forward to the days ahead and seeing more trust built as well as our bond strengthening.

Today is a free day and we are going to venture on our own a little.

Enjoy the pictures.