Signed, Sealed and Delivered!

Well, yesterday we had about four hours of complete bliss playing with the happiest little girl we could have imagined. For 2 hours straight we sat on the floor in a triangle and she would walk back and forth to each of us smiling and giggling. Connor is a great big brother and he has been very understanding about letting Mom and Dad have their time with little Lizzie too. He wants to do everything for her!

We gave her a bottle and she had some real problems with what we think is acid reflux after the bottle. The poor little girl was so tired and every time she would drift off to sleep, she would wake up trying to cough something up and then the crying would start again. Finally after a solid four hours of that routine she fell asleep for good and slept 10:30 to 6:30 am without a stir. Today's feedings went better and we switched up the formula we were given for her. She also has four good size molar teeth coming in, so between that, the bad formula, and a new family, it was the perfect storm!

This morning we took her down to breakfast and though she might like to try something different from her bottle. We got her a little bowl of rice cereal with a bit of milk and sugar and she wanted nothing to do with it. She makes the "that's sour and disgusting" face with anything so far and really does not want to put anything in her mouth but her bottle. And here I thought I was going to be the most loved Dad because of all the Cheerios I brought! She liked smashing her fingers into some mango that I was eating, but that was as close as we came.

At noon today we went over to the bank and exchanged our large sum of dollars into RMB to pay all the fees and obligations related to the adoption. After that, we went over to the Adoption Affairs office again and had our formal swearing in. It was really a touching ceremony and we agreed to not neglect or abuse our little girl and put or thumb prints on our signatures. It was one of those surreal moments that is hard to explain, but we decided it was absolutely one of our third happiest days of our lives. We feel so blessed to have her officially be ours now! I included a picture of our thumbs up in red ink.

We also had our final chance to "interview" Lizzie's nanny and ask her lots of questions. We are so amazed at how caring and compassionate she is. She obviously loves the girls that she cares for and her face lit up to see Lizzie again today. Lizzie started giggling when she saw her too. I asked her if she had a favorite lullaby that they would sing to her and the nanny said that there was one, but she said that Jiji prefers cartoons to music. Lol! We wondered if the kids had seen any TV because last night JiJi was pretty fixated on the plasma screen in our room (not that I'm not!) Her nanny also asked us to send pictures of her as she grows and to stay in touch. Jiji held up like a trooper most of the day and I she has sudden bouts of crying now that are either a little bit of grieving, or some serious teething. (As you can tell, we are still calling her Jiji for all intents and purposes, but I'm sure we will all transition to Lizzie soon enough.

Ok, so two other little notables from today. First of all, my arms were a little tired from carrying Jiji and she was getting a little agitated and grumpy. I thought it would take her mind off things if I put her on my shoulders and let her ride there for a little bit as I held here. She was loving it, and so was I until Andrea pointed out that people were starting to point and gasp. Hmm, maybe that is a "no go" in China???" So, we took her down quickly to avoid freaking out any more Chinese people. I guess we will wait for the states to ride on Daddy's shoulders. The other incident today was when we thought we forgot our binder with ALL of our important documents in it. I had handed it to Andrea at some point as we were trading around backpacks, camera cases, passports, envelopes of cash, oh yeah, and a new baby. Apparently our guide offered to help carry it and Andrea forgot. So I went sprinting back across this crowded square like a man on fire. My heart was in my throat and I was already wondering how much it was kind to cost in FedEx fees to replace the documents. Luckily the father in the other family we are with came running after me and told me that they had the folder. Disaster avoided…..phew! And I got a much needed run in. J

Now we are just settling in for a night back in good old room 2006. Connor and I are in charge of the entertainment for tonight, so we are off to look for some more DVDs. My Dad has forwarded all of the wonderful comments from the blog. Thanks for all the words of encouragement from everyone (and fun to know somebody is reading it!)