Today was Cara's actual adoption day. She got dressed up in her little dress for her adoption picture. In one of the pics shes showing off with big sister's pink purse. We have to find this kid a purse! I must say, she thought she was hot stuff today with her pink Chuck's and her bow. It was pretty funny. She slept well last night. She went to sleep around 9:00 pm and woke up this morning at 6:30 am. She hasn't cried since yesterday when she saw her nanny leave. I'm quite surprised. Just waiting for the other shoe to drop; it's been too easy so far.
This morning we went upstairs to the notary office, which is on the third floor of the hotel. We had to double-check the spellings on all of our paperwork in order for it to be processed. Most of you know our last name is Funk. They did misspell Cara's new last name as a four-letter, not-so-nice word! Needless to say, I had them correct it, but I did take a picture of the first version! Didn't really feel like that photo should make the blog, though! ;) The notary official asked us why we wanted to adopt a Chinese daughter and asked what we thought of her. Of course, we said she's perfect! We then had to put our thumbprint in red ink over our signature and Cara had to put her thumbprint on the paperwork as well. We then headed to the next room to take the oath where we promised to love and care for her as if she were a biological child and to never mistreat or abandon her. We had a family picture taken and then left to go to the other notary office about 40 minutes across town.
At that notary office we just signed another paper and they gave us Cara's shot record. The orphanage director said, "She's yours now." and that was it. Next we went to see Cara's finding spot. The address was 311 Tianmu Rd, which doesn't really exist. There is a big plaza there with shops and it's right in front of the Shanghai Train Station. We took pictures of the plaza and of J and I under the road sign. It's a very busy area. I would like to believe that Cara's birth mom thought she would be found quickly there. I can't imagine leaving a 15 month old child with pneumonia in the middle of a busy plaza. I'm glad I've never been in a position to have to make that kind of choice, but on the other hand, I'm so very thankful she did.
Next we went to the silk factory and learned how silk thread and comforters are made. It was interesting, but I sort of felt like the whole reason we were supposed to go was to give us the hard sell on buying a comforter. They are pretty expensive, and quite frankly, I already have a comforter. There were fancy Chinese dolls in the store. Cara pointed to one and said, "I want that one!" in Mandarin, so of course, her daddy bought it for her. She conked out on the way home right after she said she wasn't sleepy. She's resting now and tonight we will go see the Chinese acrobat show and do a little shopping.
For those of you waiting to go to Shanghai, Cara was very well-prepared for her adoption. She has seen the photo book we sent to her many times and can name everyone in the pictures. The scale in our room is broken so I don't know if her weight is accurate from her paperwork, but she's as solid as a rock! She is a good eater, but doesn't gorge herself. She tells us when she's full. There has been some questions recently on the Adopt Shanghai Yahoo group about the accuracy of age. She looks and acts 3 to me, which is what her paperwork says. So far things are going very well!
Our son sobbed the first day but never again. There is no doubt that he was traumatized and petrified and there are still occasional times of very real fear-where am I in the crowd type of thing-but we have never had the other shoe drop and it has been almost two years. He is happy, healthy, etc. He was adopted at age 4-1/2.
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