First photo as a family of 5!
The girls woke up at 5 am and wanted Dani to be awake so bad!!!! But we made them come in the bedroom with us and play quietly until she woke up. Starting at about 6:30 Nadia was reading the clock and giving reports. “6:36, 6:39. 6:45, when is she going to wake up? 7:02, 7:04, 7:06, when is she going to wake up?” It was adorable. By the time Dani woke up we were all dressed and ready to go to breakfast. We got her ready in a hurry and headed down to breakfast because our guide was going to pick us up at 8:30 to do all the paperwork required for Jiangxi province.
Sweet girl at breakfast.
Looking out the window with her big sisters.
After breakfast we grabbed everything we needed for a morning of paperwork and met our guide and the Butler family downstairs. We walked across the street to the Civil Affairs building and we all crammed into the elevator and Dani started to cry. She is not fond of elevators in the first place, but she really didn’t like it jammed full of people. The first thing we did was wait in line to have our family photo taken for the “Red Book” (basically the proof that she is ours) and they took an individual shot of Dani for her Chinese passport. Then we went into the big room to wait around for more paperwork to be done. All the Jiangxi families that read this will recognize this room. Our experience in this room couldn’t be more different than when we came for Nadia. This time it was really cold with no heat and about four families. Last time it was over 105* outside and jammed with families and screaming kids and no A/C.
I love this photo so much!!!! Dani had a great time walking all around the room with Mike. I filled out our paperwork while Dani and the girls sat with Mike. We promised to love her and never abandon her and to give her an education once we return home. We had to fill out another form telling China why we wanted to adopt her and confirm that the records we received about her were correct. They gave us a porcelain pen holder with some cool artwork on it and we gave the gifts we brought from America. Our guide Maggie returned with our paperwork and our Red Book and we left the building.
Once downstairs and waiting on the van we saw the orphanage director again and Maggie told us that we could ask her any questions. We thanked her for taking such good care of Dani and she thanked us for coming to China to adopt her and give her a good home. She also told us that Dani was very smart and popular and given a lot of love. We asked if Dani was in the orphanage or with a foster family and she said that Dani spent her days at the orphanage and then went home at night with foster parents and five other children to spend the evening and sleep. We were told that the foster families live on the orphanage grounds. I had never heard of anything like that before in all our time in the adoption community and I found that pretty cool. She also told us that there was an email address in our paperwork and asked if would we please email them updates of Dani in the future. Then in typical Louanne fashion (because I was so overwhelmed with gratefulness for our precious girl), I hugged the orphanage director! (This is not common in Chinese culture) She seemed surprised, but hugged me back and laughed.
Our next stop was the notary and they asked us a series of questions to confirm the answers we had given on Gotcha Day. That went really quickly and we all loaded up in the van one more time. Our last stop was the passport office and just one parent and the new child got out and the rest of us waited in the van.
Nadia was cold and sleepy in the van and this was her solution. Once we returned to the hotel we had lunch in one of the restaurants there and found that Dani even likes broccoli. This made Nadia happy because Amelie has never liked it 🙂
The girls played for a little while before having a nap. After their nap time we decided to go to Walmart to get some diapers and more Coke Zero, so we headed out and quickly found it was way too rainy and cold, and that we would need a taxi. Mike put Dani in the carrier and she got so excited!! She was smiling and laughing, and while we were outside for a bit the rain was on her face and she just giggled and laughed like it was the most amazing thing ever. She started to talk and babble and make lots of happy noises. Her little voice is so cute!
Look at that adorable smile!
Mike was playing a little game with her while we waited on the taxi and she just laughed and laughed and laughed. After taking a taxi to Walmart and back we had dinner in the room and got the girls to bed. Dani cried again when we put her in the crib, but Mike sang and I rubbed her belly and she calmed down very quickly.
All day Mike and I were telling each other we couldn’t believe how well she was doing and what a delight it was to see her smiles and laughs. On the taxi ride back to the hotel Nadia said, “This is the best day of my life. I don’t know which one is the worst, but this one is the best!”