Family Day

Yesterday there was a short ceremony at the Civil Affairs office where we officially became Noah's parents.  Then our guide took us to a crowded office to notarize the paperwork, to another crowded office for Noah to have passport photos taken and finally to another crowded, large building to apply for his passport.  It was a lot of waiting and Noah handled it pretty well.  Luke and I were tired and frustrated but trying to be flexible since that's what our adoption agency has recommended through out this whole process.

China and being away from home and our other children is wearing on us.  We have eaten plenty of rice and noodles.  We are being looked at funny everywhere we go.  There are no other Americans at our hotel.  The internet is slow and i can't blog daily without taking time away from our new son (which I am not going to do).  Although our guide speaks great English as the days go on we feel like we are not her first priority and we paid a lot of money for her services.

The bonding with Noah continues to go well.  He is happy and so smart.  There are lots of cute things he has said/done to share but the funniest of all was during all the waiting yesterday he told the entire staff at the crowded passport office "don't worry-when i get to America with my new family I will buy you each an iPhone 6".  Yes, seriously.  The guide laughed as she translated for us.

Here he is trying ice cream for the first time: