Day 4: Making it Official

In the Chinese adoption process, you go to the Civil Affairs office for "Gotcha Day" where you sign a couple pieces of paper, answer some questions and then you are handed over your child to keep for one night for a "trial run".  The next day you return to Civil Affairs where the officer in charge asks you if are satisfied with your child and absolutely sure you wish to adopt this child.  We were asked if we promise to never abandon Heidi, to provide for her with health insuraance and promise to give her an education as well,  Our particular civil affairs officer wanted to ask us a personal question as to why we wanted to adopt a girl in particular and also why China.  We told her that we love China and its people, that we had previously adopted from China and wished to do so again.  We told her we were open to both a boy or girl, but that when we saw Heidi's picture for the very first time she reminded me so much of Olivia at taht same age and we just knew shw was ours.

Heidi's orphanage assistant director and one of the caregivers was there again for this day at Civil Affairs and we were able to ask any last questions we wanted to know about Heidi before they left. We were told that Heidi's Chinese name that was given to her at the orphanage means "adorable flower".  The assistant direcotr gave us a gift bag that had a photo album with pictures of Heidi from a baby to more recent and includes notes about her that we will have to have translated later.  She also gave us one more precious keepsake--a CD that is supposed to hvae lots of picutres on it of Heidi while in foster care and at the orphanage.  Lastly, she included a brand new toy still in the box that she asked us to give Heidi later.  All the thought and time that went into putting that album and CD together for us means more than words can say--we are truly touched by just how much they care about her.

After leaving Civial Affairs and making everything official at the notary's office, our guide took us to this yummy local Chinese restauran tin the mall that connects to our hotel.  We had homemade fried noodles, fried rice, springrolls, rose tea and a couple other small dishes.

Later that afternoon Heidi began grieving for the very first time.  She sobbed and sobbed and started speaking in Cantonese.  It was the gut wrenching sobs where you can't even to catch your breath.  It was really hard to watch because there was nothing we could do to comfort her other than just hold her and let her cry.  This happened again last night when we put her down to sleep.  She still laughs and plays with Olivia, smiles at us and seems to be doing well but I think her little heart is also breaking a little inside knowing she has said goodbye to her foster parents without ever even knowing she would never see them again.  She is such a brave little girl!