Official Adoption Day

Emily slept all night and woke up about 6:45 this morning.  We had been awake for a while because the horn-honking that seems to make up all traffic here had begun around 5-ish a.m.   She woke up and cried some, but not nearly as much as yesterday.  She wouldn't eat breakfast food, but did drink her bottle and eat some puffs.  She let me dress her and then she warmed up and played stacking cups and repeated some of the things I was saying like "oh no!" or "yea".  Smart girl!   Here she is with the puffs.

 

 

Our guide came at 8:30 to collect our paperwork so that we could walk to the civil affairs office to make the adoption official.  We got there at 8:45 - no air conditioning anywhere and lots of second-hand smoke - and the guide asked the orphanage people to stay in one room so that Emily couldn't see them.  She was doing pretty well with me, so Justin handled the paperwork and I darted in periodically to sign things.  Emily is on the move!  She ran from room to room and tried to pull over the flags of various countries and to perform other acts of destruction.  We took a family picture for the adoption decree (very poor picture of the picture below) and had her passport photo taken.  We were finally finished around 10 a.m. and then were told that her passport picture would not "pass" scrutiny because she looked "too white" against the white background.  What??   This new development meant a 30 minute ride downtown to another government building in which there were easily 300+ people.  The line for a new passport picture was about 100 deep.  We waited 2.5 hours for the picture and then had to do about 20 tries because she was not looking straight ahead, closed her eyes for the bright flash, etc...etc... I had literally sweated through my clothes by that point.  We then waited another hour for the picture to be developed before getting in another line to complete the passport application process.  By almost 1 p.m., Emily was DONE.  She was tired and hungry and sweaty and mad.  Since we thought we would only be gone an hour, I had packed only a package of puffs and some water.  She ate most of the puffs and threw the other ones all over the floor.  She didn't care for much water and spilled a good bit down my already-wet shirt.  I let her feed me puffs with her dirty hands that had been all over everything all morning and carried her inside and outside and sang songs to try to keep the peace.  Although we have been second-guessing our decision to keep the boys at home, today was enough to convince us they were far better off having fun with family at home than melting with us and an unhappy toddler for hours in a packed building.  In good news, she was great in the van (although every ride is a harrowing experience otherwise).  She's finally napping now.  My arms and back may never be the same.  Although I play with and sometimes pick up big boys, I am not used to holding 30 pounds for 4 straight hours!!  Luckily, she does already come to me and look for me.  She is not afraid of Justin, but would prefer me to hold her.  She made some funny faces at us to make us laugh and put a bowl on top of my head and thought that was the funniest thing in the world.  She is calling me "mama," but I'm not sure if she means mother or just a term of endearment for a lady who takes care of her.  Still - it's a good sign.  Our guide commented that she is doing well with me.  This is hard, hard work - but it will be worth it in the end. 

Not many pictures from today since our hands were full all morning. (sorry some are sideways - not sure how to fix that from here)