She is officially ours...forever!!

Today we woke up early and headed down to the breakfast buffet. Maeve ate well, though not as good as last night. She is drinking a full bottle of formula well, so that may be curbing her appetite. I guess we will leave her on the formula until we get home and then discuss transition with our pediatrician. After a quick breakfast, we ran upstairs to Skype with the boys, my family and Susie's parents. Maeve was asleep last night when we Skyped with them, so they wanted to see her awake. She was very active for the camera and loved seeing herself on the screen.

After talking with the boys, we ran downstairs with all our documents to catch our van back to the civil affairs office. We went to the same place we were yesterday in order to finalize the adoption. It was a much better experience today. We were worried that Maeve would get upset seeing her nanny and orphanage director again, but she did great. We made our oath to never abandon or abuse her and answered "yes" to the questions of "Are you satisfied with this child?" and "Do you want to keep her?" It was so strange, but everything is very frank with this adoption and the Chinese government doesn't spare any words making sure they are clear what is expected of the adoptive family. It was actually a very neat process and again a bit emotional as we officially became the parents of Maeve Jiajun!! The orphange director gave us some very precious gifts today. One was an official certificate with our names and a "thank you" for helping the orphanage with our monetary donation. The second was a CD full of NINETY-FOUR pictures of Maeve dating all the way back to 4-10-08. We couldn't believe it when we got back to the hotel room and loaded it on the computer. We feel so blessed to have these pictures and to have a glimpse of Maeve as she grew up over the past year. We can tell she was loved very much and she is in the majority of the pictures with her foster mom. It gives us so much comfort to know she was doted upon by this woman. What a great gift!! The third gift was a gorgeous silver bracelet with Maeve's Chinese name engraved on the inside. It has a Chinese saying on the outside that we don't have translated yet, but it is beautiful. It was all so touching! Another amazing experience!!

While at the Civil Affairs office, we were waiting in a room with lots of toys. There were big balls that rolled quite well and Maeve really came out of her shell. She was walking/running all over the room!! It was so great to see. She was laughing and having a great time. We had not seen that side of her yet and it gave us a great amount of relief.

After the Civil Affairs office we made a quick stop at the notarization department for another round of questions and then headed back to the hotel. We hung out in our room for a bit then headed to the Chinese restaurant again for lunch. Another great meal for all three of us for about $5!! I love this place!! After lunch we walked to the local market and picked up a few odds and ends, then came back to the hotel. We walked around the lobby a bit and let Maeve look at the waterfall. She loved dipping her hands in the water. We then headed up to the room for nap time. She has been asleep for about 2 hours now. Our plans for tonight are to catch a cab and head back into the city/shopping area. We are craving some "western" food for dinner and want to get some shopping in.

Maeve is doing wonderful. She is still a little unsure of Susie and doesn't want a whole lot to do with her. She plays with her and teases her, but when it comes to being picked up or hanging out in our hotel room, she will not let me out of her eyesight. We know this will get better everyday, but it is definately hard on Susie to be the parent who is pushed away. I'm wondering if Maeve had such a strong bond with her foster mother, that she wants nothing to do with other women. She will laugh and smile at all the other dads in our group, but won't give any of the moms the time of day. Good thing she has three big brothers to play with at home. They will love all the attention from her!!

I will post some pictures later tonight.