Now She's Legally Ours

We completed Zoë's adoption this morning so in the eyes of the Chinese government, she is now our daughter.

After dropping off to sleep at 7pm last night, she slept through until 4am, had a bottle and then napped through until 6am. Not bad at all for her first night after such a tumultuous event. She rolled around in the crib all night but didn't wake up once. This morning we played on the bed for awhile, went for breakfast in the hotel, went for a short walk to the nearby pedestrian shopping plaza and then met up with Helen, our guide at 9:00am. We attended the social welfare office with about a dozen other family's, where we signed lots of papers, paid our fees,and had to explain who we are, why we wanted to adopt from China, and what our educational plan is for Zoë. Then we went to the notary's office and promised that we would never abandon or harm her.

Following that full morning, we relaxed in the hotel room and Zoë napped. Then we went out on foot and explored Nanchang for 3-4 hours. I don't think we saw a single caucasian the whole time. While we were gawking at Nanchang, Nanchang was gawking at us - lots and lots of attention and stares. We wimped out and decided to stay in the hotel for dinner and now we're getting Zoë ready for bed.

So, we've been with Zoë for a whole 24 hours now. She comforts herself by playing with her fingers and making a fantastic cluck, cluck, cluck noise with her tongue. She seems serious (wouldn't you be?) and brave and calm and cuddly. She likes kicking and looking in the mirror (could that be nurture after just 24 hours with Kate?). Her tummy's a bit funny so she's not keeping everything down. And I love her enormously.

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