Adoption? : Jan 19th - signing the papers, she's officially ours!!!!

Tuesday January 19, 2016

This morning after waking up Lucee from her 13 hour night of sleep, we skyped with the kids and mamaw and Gumpa. Lilee and Lucee seemed to hit it off well. Lilee was eating a sucker and Lucee had a container of cookies. They were trying to share with each other through the computer screen. It was so cute to seem them smile and interact with each other. Noah and Gavin were trying to speak chinese to her and Mamaw and Gumpa seemed amazed to see Lucee sitting with us. Their 9^th grand child.

We realized we were running out of time and quickly went downstairs to eat breakfast before meeting our guide at 930am. Lucee really liked the yogurt and noodles. She also really liked the bacon, but we didn't have much time to eat it, so I wrapped it in a napkin to bring with in the van. We went back to the social building that we met Lucee at yesterday to finish the paperwork, getting things notarized, her passport picture taken, and finalizing the adoption. During the notarization, Ben and I both had to stamp our thumbs on a piece of paper in red ink. Lucee had to stamp her hand on it in red ink. What a memorable moment that we are officially, forever becoming family in that moment. It's official, Lucee Shan You Zacharias is ours!!!

I stayed upstairs with Lucee, while Ben and Ashley went downstairs to pay the orphanage donation and other paperwork fees. (FYI:They call it a donation, but it's really a required payment to the orphanage. Rather than saying we “paid” for our child, it is viewed as a donation to the orphanage to care for the orphans that are still there and will be in the future.) Lucee and I walked up and down the halls and played in the play area while waiting. It was so cute because also while we were waiting, Lucee would wander around saying, “Baba!! Baba?! Baba...” She was looking for him, wondering where he went. This was great for attachment reasons, as well as just super adorable! When he came up, she ran to him and gave him a hug. When we got in the van to drive out of the parking lot, Lucee spoke some Chinese. Our guide, quickly turned around and said, “She very clearly just spoke, 'We are leaving, we are leaving'!!! She spoke it so clearly!” He was very surprised, but it just proved again, how smart she really is. We had already seen glimpses of this yesterday, as anything we did, she would copy us exactly. She also was beginning to copy some English words and repeating the little sign language we were teaching her. This is such good news as before we were matched, the international doctor in Cincinnati said that her IQ score ranked her in a very low category, indicating that she would never be able to live independently. This is always a possibility, but becoming less likely the more we get to know her.

We went back to the hotel for lunch and more playtime/bonding time. We went for a walk to get water and some fresh air (not really fresh as there is a lot of pollution in the big cities in China, but it was still a nice day and not too bad of pollution today.) We found a park across the street and played for a bit. We are so much in the minority here, that it is so common for people to stare at us as we walk by. I'm sure they are staring at us, not only because we are white, but also that we have a Chinese kid. ( Or maybe because we are wearing jeans and Ben is wearing tennis shoes, ha ha, we've noticed most Chinese people dress very nice in dress shoes and black slacks/pants.) We asked Ashley what the impression that most Chinese have when they see 2 white people with a Chinese kid and he said it is usually that the child is lucky because they will get good care in America and any family is better than No family. They also will wonder “why” would they come all the way here to get a child. We were hit by this in Beijing. We told a couple ladies while shopping that we have 3 kids at home and are adopting a 4^th. They'd say, “Why? You already have 3! Why would you want more?” Some days I'm sure we'll ask ourselves this question too ;)

That night we ate in the hotel room again, Ashley had written down on paper the Chinese characters for “Not Spicy!!!!” so we could add that to the other characters he gave for suggested dishes. This time, all of the food was very enjoyable and we loved watching Lucee eat her dish of beef and noodles with chopsticks. This girl can go to town with chopsticks :)

After dinner we again got ready for bed and prepared ourselves for a rough night. (It always seemed like with the other kids, the first night in the hospital was a dream and the second night was a nightmare ha ha, so we were bracing ourselves for this to be the same, I know, we're weird. :) ) however, this night was just the same as the night before. She fell asleep great, we didn't put her in a diaper because she said no when I tried and she slept 13 hours the night before without wetting the bed and drinking a ton of water, so I thought it'd be okay, and it was. We woke her up 12 hours later. She again, fell out of bed at like 2 am, but this time we had put pillows down there so I actually didn't hear her fall. I happened to wake up at 2 and realized she wasn't in bed, then looked in the crack and there she was, sleeping peacefully on the pillows. We moved her back into bed, again without waking up at all. This girl is a heavy sleeper!