Monday was a wonderful and completely crazy day. We all got up and kind of looked at each other. We tried again with the bottle to no success, but no worries! There was a Western/Eastern breakfast buffet in the hotel. Mak was showing a bit of a preference for me at this point...daddy made her cry (although she got over it quickly when I disappeared). I put Makena in one of my favorite little outfits and it was so fun to see if on her! We've (okay, I've) collected clothes over the last four years for her and it is wonderful to see them fit! At breakfast we tried eggs, congee, and bread. They were all big hits! Yay! We got food in her belly! The formula thing really caused us some concern and we also had issues with water. After trying every combination under the sun...cutting the nipple hole bigger, trying a different bottle, trying a sippy cup, adding a bit of juice, adding a bit of sugar (very common here)...Ugh! We were going to dehydrate the girl in less than 24 hours! Help!
At 10am, the orphanage director, Mr. Zhong, sat down with us to speak and to answer our questions. As it turns out, Makena has spent her first year with a foster family! She had a late-40s foster mom and four foster siblings. Her oldest foster brother worked construction, so they were pretty high in the economy. Her foster mother loves baby girls and only takes a foster child once in a great while. We also discovered the daughter of our new friends, Becky and Alex, lived nearby to Makena and they knew each other. Mr. Zhong talked about foster care and about how much the mothers love the babies. There wasn't a dry eye in the house, including his!
We got take out from the hotel and ate in our room. Makena loved pizza crust and Gerber puffs...I know, not the healthiest, but we were just trying to bond! That afternoon we all headed on a bus to the civil affairs office. Muggy doesn't even begin to describe how hot and sweaty and humid the office was. The one win we had pretty quick was that we discovered that our girl simply didn't want to drink water from a baby bottle..she prefers drinking straight from the Evian bottle! A girl after our own hearts! We had three tasks at the office. First, we took a family photo (!). Second, we paid the fees. Third, we got interviewed. We had to promise not to abuse, neglect, or abandon our daughter and promise to love her forever. That wasn't hard! At the end of a very long three or so hours, we all received our adoption certificates. It was official! Makena was a Brown!
Then it was a bus ride to the police station to get passport pictures taken. That was actually really nice because there was air conditioning and it was quick! Who knows what her picture will look like, but we were proud that they didn't have to take it more than once! Monday evening we did a group dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. It was great...Veronica ordered steamed egg and vegetable congee for each baby. Turns out, Makena is an eater! She went to town! Mama didn't get to each hardly anything (she would only let me touch her at this point), but it didn't matter. She was eating! Yay! Back at the hotel it was time for another bath, another bottle (which she still wouldn't take), and bedtime. After that great meal, it only took a few minutes to get her to sleep. One of the things that was on her lifestyle sheet was that she cried before sleep. They were not kidding! She screams and then collapses! Very endearing...Charllie and I also crashed...Tuesday was going to be long too!
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