Adoption Day recap (Tuesday, Feb 6th)

So we survived our first night of parenthood. Not that it was at all difficult, Kylie slept without making a peep from about 9:45 pm until 8:30 am when we finally started making a lot of noise and opening the blinds so she would wake up. (We did have to be in the lobby for an official adoption appointment by 10 and we weren't going to miss the buffet breakfast!) I do believe that Kylie was much happier with her reflection when wearing pink! Here we are loading into the elevator to head for breakfast.**Adam and Traci decided to go exploring by foot while we were gone to our appointment at the Civil Affairs office. Turns out they got some great footage of daily life in Guangzhou as they carried the camcorder through the park. It will be great to add to Kylie's video!

As we were walking down the hall of the Civil Affairs office, I kept thinking this baby looked familiar. Then it occured to me, that is the CCAA baby. (Taylor, I know you had to have recognized it too!)
Our appointment today consisted of two interviews. Basically both consisted of asking us if we were satisfied with the child we had (we said YES so emphatically that I think we startled the notary woman) and asking us to promise to never abandon the child. Kylie has nothing to worry about there! She's part of the family now! We also had to get our family photo taken for our adoption decree.
While we were waiting for all the families to finish ther appointments some of us went into the play room. This is where our babies had waited for us the day before.

Here is Kylie "interacting" with one of her former roommates, Kristin. Luckily Kristin's family lives very near Ian's dad (actually in the same town as dear friends Anne & Jim) so hopefully we can get the two together every now and then. We were given a small photo album from the SWI and Kristin is pictured several times with Kylie. There must be some level of baby bonding, because Kylie responds more to Kristin than she does the other girls.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the important part. Because the "harmonious period" ended after about 24 hours, this appointment served as our official adoption. So following our second interview, Kylie was officially a Miller! (Sorry Jen, I was wrong, she was only given to us on your birthday, adoption day is the day after)

Outside (where we almost felt like a freak show~ some of the locals really stopped to check all of us out) Ian and I could see that Kylie is gonna be curious. She just had to check out everything that was going on around her. Nothing as refreshing as a bottle of warm water (and by warm I mean 4 oz steaming hot water to 4 oz cool water ~ she won't take it cooler)

After our appointments, we went to the Friendship Store. I have no idea what makes it "Friendship", but it is a great store none-the-less! The ground floor seemed to be cosmetics and perfumes, I paid no attention at all to the 2nd & 3rd floors. 4th floor was electronics, 5th was like a Bed, Bath, and Beyond with a grocery store in the back, and 6th was children's. We bought Kylie a pair of adorable shoes on 6 and then hit the grocery. There was lots of stuff that was obviously foreign, but some stuff that wasn't. Yep, that's Oreo cookies ~ and they taste just like home. I've craved Oreos far from home before...

After lugging too many groceries (actually mostly bottled water) back to the apartment, we gave Kylie some apple juice and let her take a nap ~ that lasted about 3 hours. While she slept, Adam and Traci played back some of their video from the park and we got our internet connecton in the apartment set up.

Who needs toys, this Oreo (yep, I'm mommy's girl) bag is really cool!

We ended up ordering in from Danny's Bagel, an American oaisis among the yummy, but perhaps not always stomach friendly local cuisine. The macaroni and cheese was really good. During this time, Kylie was working her charm on the entire family. She's playing tug with Uncle Adam, and the expression on his face, while exaggerated, is probably masking some surprise. This girl is really strong!

I still can't get over how much I love this child even though she is still slightly a stranger. She is continuing to let us see glimpses of her bubbly personality between the moments she strong arms us. Don't get me wrong, I'm okay with her defense mechanisims, she's been through a lot lately. But I will say that I can't wait for the hesitation to completely vanish from her.