Day 2 with Audrey

Now that I've had some sleep and some time to start processing I thought I'd report a little bit more on our Gotcha Day...

We were picked up at the airport by our guide, Lily, and drove about an hour to our hotel. This is a huge city and they are having a lot of construction done so traffic was terrible. We finally got to our hotel, checked in and because it was getting late, Lily said we could have about an hour to rest up in our room, she would go get Audrey and the official from the orphanage, and then bring her back to the hotel. We would go to our appts from there.

Jason and I went up to our room and unpacked a little. We were very nervous but right on time we headed down to the lobby. Lily was in the lobby and ushered us outside where Audrey was laying in the arms of the orphanage official sleeping in the van. So not wanting to wake her,me jumped in and drove to the photography studio where they took our first family picture for the adoption decree and Audrey's photo by herself for her passport. She woke up when we got there and they just simply gave her to me. She was fine with me holding her, didn't cry at all. One thing I thought was funny is that after they took her picture for her passport, they photoshopped it. They filled in her hair, shortened the length of her face, etc. Funny :-)

We then headed over to the Civil Affairs office to do more paperwork. We sat in the room and our wonderful guide went through everything and just told us where to sign. We were interacting with Audrey who at this point, was still relatively happy to play with my iPhone (which she picked up how to iWork that immediately) and some of the other toys we brought. We even got some smiles and laughs when we pulled out the bubbles.

Here is a picture of Jason holding her while he fills out paperwork. Overall, she is fine to go to either of us, which has been great for me so I don't have to hold her all the time. Although now she is starting to prefer me...

There is one point where you have to put your fingerprint on the documents. They require the child to do this too. Audrey didn't like it ;-)

We left the Civil Affairs office and went to the Notary's office. We did more paperwork there and then Lily (pictured above helping Audrey give her fingerprint) had the driver take us back to the hotel where we could rest and eat and she stayed to finish up the paperwork for us. And then around 7 she came by the hotel and dropped off a bottle and some milk for Audrey, some snacks, a huge case of bottled water and some cokes (big brownie points earned there) for us.

The rest of the night was spent crashing - Audrey into her sadness & grieving, and us into exhaustion and yes, some sadness too. She slept in her dress and shoes, clutching the other dress and little diaper cover she came with because she did not want to take them off :-( They represent the only things she "owns" and what her life was. I did not ask her to part with those now...

The morning she woke up crying, which we expected, but we were able to get some smiles and laughs with the bubbles again.

We had breakfast, then went tot the police station to start the paperwork for her passport. This is the only piece of paperwork we are waiting on now. Our guide took us to the grocery store to get more supplies, then we walked around the city a bit. She then took us to a WONDERFUL Muslim restaurant (yes, we are in China but this province has a heavy Muslim influence) where we had some fabulous food. After that we headed back to the hotel to rest (Audrey took a 3 1/2 hour nap) and then eventually some dinner and bed. We have some fun things planned today so I'll try to fill you all in later. Here are just a few shots I took while walking around today...