Tuesday, 11/25: Shay Adoption Day!!!!

Today was  the day we officially adopted Shay!!  Both girls slept wonderful last night.  In fact, John and I laughed because they were both out at 9 within 5 minutes of their heads hitting the pillow.  That's not likely to ever happen again.  Ha!

Shay and Emily had fun splashing in the water and getting a shower this morning!  Baths are always a great bonding activity, but our apartment only has a shower.  Nevertheless, lots of squeals were still heard as they played in the water.  Shay is very independent, but still allows me to help. We then went downstairs and had our first breakfast together as a family of six.  She eats pretty much everything!  And smiles the entire time!  Her beautiful smile is just contagious! She is trying to learn the English words and mimics what we say like a little parrot.  It's so sweet.  She can already write her name and has learned to write Emily as well.  She has obviously written English letters before.  We also received a video of her doing math in school. 

The girls played in the playroom afterwards and were cute playing hide and seek! At one point Shay came running over to me, hugged me, and turned my face with her hands to kiss me!!! Oh, my heart!  Needless to say, that made me tear right up.  What a brave and amazing little girl we are privileged to call daughter!!

At 1:30 we met our guide, Laura, who took us to the Civil Affair office.  We've known that this meeting may be very difficult for Shay as it would be the last time she would see her caregivers and would need to say goodbye. She smiled when they walked in and she saw them again, but still wanted to be held by John and I.  She is heavy!!  Of course we are used to carrying Emily who is a peanut, so Shay is really not heavy for her age.  Our old arms just aren't used to carrying 47 lbs!!  And this girl loves to be held by us, which we are grateful for and will carry her for as long as we need to help with bonding!

 

 

We signed our paperwork, Shay stamped her hand, and we again took tons of pictures.

 

The orphanage that Shay is from is new to international adoption, so the caregivers and asst director took lots and lots of videos and photos of Shay and our family.  At the end, they took a video of Shay and asked her questions....we found out later that it was to take back to our friend's daughter that will be adopted next week and was Shay's "foster sister."  Our children there have had such wonderful care.  They have prepared Shay so well for us.  It is obvious she was cherished and loved.

 

Kyle in the meantime was awesome and occupied Emily by taking pictures and playing games!

 





 

At the end, it was time to say goodbye.  Shay still wore her huge smile, and bravely looked back and waved goodbye.

 

We know the grieving will come eventually.  In fact, later today, she was playing on the iPad and found an app that looked like a phone.  She hunted for her purse and pulled out a phone number and proceeded to dial the play phone.  Once she realized that wasn't working, she ran for the hotel room phone.  Yikes! I'm not sure who she was calling, but she sure knew.  Oh, boy.  We may need to block international calls on our home phone for awhile!  Ha!

We had fun swimming in the pool tonight too!  We have a little fish on our hands who was much braver than we expected. 

 

She tries to talk to us in Chinese all the time and at this point hasn't shown frustration that we don't understand what she is saying, but again I know we are in the honeymoon stage.  She has really been very good- obeys us and listens when we want her to stop, etc. for the most part.  Emily has had a tougher day sharing her mom and dad, but has been great sharing her "things."  All typical sibling stuff and really minor so far. We are looking forward to tomorrow.  Our itinerary changed and we are going to see the Pandas tomorrow!  Thanks for your continued prayers!  We appreciate them so much!