It is Official!

She is officially our daughter today!! At least as far as China is concerned. We will need to re-adopt her in Kansas because Victor did not travel. We would have re-adopted her anyway in order to get a Kansas birth certificate for her.

We've had a great day so far. We went down to the hotel breakfast buffet (which is huge). Xin Yi ate quite a bit and was into everything as usual. Samuel Stinnette was his usual quiet and reserved self, slowly and methodically feeding himself and eating breakfast. My wild child on the other hand was grabbing everything -- moving food from plate to plate -- talking up a storm and generally keeping me busy! We called Victor on the cell phone because they were at a Royals game. Xin Yi talked to Collin for a minute, but hung up on him as I was trying to get the camera out to take a picture.

Then we headed out to the registration office to finalize the adoption. I first talked to a gentleman to register the adoption. He asked me a few questions and had me sign some papers. Then had me put red ink on my finger and stamp my thumb print on them. That was it -- the adoption was final! Then I went to the notary's desk and filled out a quick paper and signed my name. Done! I was able to visit with the assistant director from the orphanage again. He brought the original note found with Xin Yi as a baby. I was able to get a copy of it and was able to take a picture of Xin Yi holding the original. What a treasure that is! Nancy is going to translate it for me later, but I know it says her birthdate. It looks like there may be more information on the note though.

Then we ran to a large store, sort of like a super Wal-Mart, called Carrefour. I bought Xin Yi a dress, a children's music CD (in Mandarin) and a Barbie DVD (in Mandarin). I also bought a bunch of snacks and drinks. She is not shy about telling me what she wants in the store. She points to everything yelling things in Chinese that I don't understand. Our guide said she probably has not been shopping before, so everything is very exciting to her.

Then we came back to the hotel and had some snacks, talked to Victor, and she is now taking her nap. This evening we will meet our guide and go to have the disposable cameras developed. I was able to send two cameras prior to traveling. One went to her in December through CHI and the other was brought 1 1/2 weeks ago by another traveling family. I am very excited to see these precious pictures of her before we met. We are also going on some kind of a boat cruise tonight on the river. Our guide says it is very nice and the other adoptive families really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow and Thursday we will go sightseeing around Nanjing. Then on Friday we will travel to Alana and Samuel's orphanages. They are about 2 hours from here and approximately 30 minutes apart. We will go to Alana's orphanage first and will have lunch with them, then we will go to Samuel's orphanage. Alana knows we are going and we bought candy today for her to give to her friends. Our guide asked her if she ould like to go visit and she said yes. She asked her if she will cry and she said "wo bu ku" (I will not cry). We've been working with her on calling me mama. She sometimes calls me "ayi," which means auntie. That is what she called her nannies at the orphanage. I think it will take a few days for her to get used to calling someone mama.

I've saved the most exciting news for last. I got two kisses from Alana today! First she kissed my hand in the elevator coming back from the store. Then she kissed my cheek when she was sitting in my lap before her nap. I am in heaven! She has been great holding my hand and actually wants to be carried most of the time. She has been letting me kiss her hand and cheek, but I was shocked that she was already returning kisses! She is so super friendly though (just like her two brothers). She was taught to say "bye bye" at the orphanage and was saying that this morning at breakfast and blowing kisses. She did that to the Stinnette family and then to random people in the hotel lobby. It was sweet. She is such a treasure and I am so blessed to be her mommy.