Day 6 - Adoption Finalization Day (Tuesday)

Day 6 - Adoption Finalization Day

So Mia and Sophia slept until about 5:00am...Mom and Dad, not so much.  We had another great breakfast with a wide spread of both Western and Asian options.  Jonathan sampled a few unknown things (maybe one was a buffalo-sauce-flavored chicken foot?!?!) while Brittney and Sophia stuck to some Western familiar foods.  Mia stuck to her favorites...noodles and fruit. We’ll see how Jonathan’s stomach holds up bhaha.

We knew it was coming, but didn’t know when or how it would express itself. Grief. Sadness.  It started when we noticed Mia not eating much at breakfast.  And then the tears started.  Our sweet girl’s heart is broken.  Even though she couldn’t communicate it to us in words, it was obvious.  She missed her foster mom, her foster brothers, her “aunties”, her friends.  She had been loved so well that her full heart now poured out grief because she got it.  She was leaving.  She wouldn’t likely get to see them again for a long time, if ever.  In the middle of the breakfast room we simply cried with her.  Hugged on her.  Loved her.  Played with her.  Joked with her.  We know more of these grieving moments are ahead.  We can’t anticipate the when and how.  But we know Jesus can heal a broken heart.  His love never fails. Psalm 136.  Jonathan’s T-shirt of the day was a reminder of those needed truths. We all needed this reminder in that moment. 

Adoption Finalization time!  So although the paperwork was started on Gotcha Day it is not finished formally until the next day.  We journeyed back to the adoption office where we signed a few more pages, paid some fees, and have a traditional donation to help the orphanage continue to help orphans find forever families.  Although the process involved some waiting, the girls did great playing together.  It has been so precious to watch Sophia and Mia hold hands and skip around together wherever they go!

Wang Yang Ming.  Ever hear of him?  Neither had we! But apparently he was a famous teacher who came through Guiyang hundreds of years ago and taught on a rock in the midst of the Manming River.  The Jiaxiu Pavilion now commentates the history of his teachings and is a beautiful assortment of traditional buildings in the midst of a large modern city.

This short excursion is designed to helps us bond with our new daughter and to enjoy some of the culture of her home country.  These trips also help pass the time between government appointments.  Even though Mia is now our daughter in the eyes of both China and the US, we still have several procedural steps left involving medical testing, vaccination, paperwork certification, visa issuance and more before we can return home (in 10 days!).  We wish we could come already but we understand the purposeful steps that are still in front of us :)

We returned to the hotel with an order of Chinese food placed by our guide.  We were shocked at what $8 can buy!  We were so thankful to see Mia’s appetite return with some white rice and noodles.  She’s an expert at using chop sticks and she’s tried  teaching us, but our skills are still clumsy at best!

After a hotel room lunch we rested for a bit, letting the girls watch a movie together.  We then ventured out to attempt to find a mall about 1km away.  We wandered through a few tunnel crossings beneath the intersections and eventually found the mall we were in search of.  Surprisingly the prices were pretty high end, $100-200 bathing suits, shoes, and shirts a plenty.  

We found a grocery store (like a mini Walmart) in order to give Mia a chance to pick out some snacks and foods that she’d prefer.  Her top choices?  Lays chips (cucumber flavor), spicy chips, and dried strawberries and mangos (her two favorite fruits).  We had a weird experience with trying to buy a few snacks and some pens that they wouldn’t let us buy for some reason.  It was a bit frustrating but we couldn’t figure out what to do in order to purchase the items.  We left before creating too much of a scene.

Although this is a big city (around 4.5 million), out of the thousands of people we’ve seen we’ve maybe only seen two Westerners ( at a distance ).  It’s strange being in a place where everyone looks different than you.  We draw lots of stares, especially with a blonde haired child holding the hand of her Chinese sister.  It’s been a good reminder for us though, of what Mia will experience over much of her life, being looked at as different from many of those around her.  I love the reminder from the story of King David in the Bible that God doesn’t look at the outward experience like people do, He looks into our heart.  Even with that Biblical truth we know it will be uncomfortable for Mia in many ways in the future.

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." - 1 Samuel 16:7

After returning from the mall, the girls swam once again then ate leftovers for dinner. They enjoyed making a craft with Brittney. Mia loves to color and do anything artsy so she is fitting right in with the Carl girls! After craft time, both girls were very sleepy(maybe the 5:00am wake up did it?!?!?!) and they fell right asleep. So did Jonathan and Brittney!