Chloe is Officially Our Child - According to China

We have now completed the Chinese portion of the adoption and Chloe is officially our daughter according to the Chinese government. Today we had two appointments to make this a reality.

Our first appointment was back at the Civil Affairs Office. So, all climbed back onto a bus for the jaw-clenching ride. The appointment began with the interview process. Each family had to be interviewed one family at a time. The types of questions that were asked were “How was the baby last night?”… “Do we know how to take care of a baby?”… “Are we happy with this baby?”… “Why did we choose to adopt from China?”… “Do we promise to love her and never hurt her?” During the interview Chloe was just smiling and playing. It was adorable.

After all families were interviewed we moved back into the room where we received our babies yesterday. A government official gave a speech and then called each family up one at a time to give us our adoption registration. As each family walked up to get their registration the Director from that orphanage also came up and gave the family a gift and a packet of pictures of the child back at the orphanage. In our case the gift was a handmade Chinese bag that was made in the city where Chloe is from. As for those pictures, they are priceless. There is one photo that must have been taken the day she was taken to the orphanage. Other photos are of Chloe playing in the orphanage and there is even some photos that we think are of her home city. The city photos have some captions written in Chinese and we need to get them translated.

Once we all received our adoption registration the government official made one final speech telling us that we are now the parents of our little girls and congratulations. Then we paid all of the fees associated with the orphanage. I have never been so happy to part with money in my entire life.

Next we all loaded back onto the bus for the drive to the Notary Office. Again each family had a short interview; this time with the Notary. These were questions such as “What do you do for a living?”… “What year were you married?”… and once again “Do we promise to love her and never hurt her?” Then we were done.

All-in-all, the appointments took us just under four hours. Chloe was a trooper during this whole time but again she remained in Ted’s arms and not mine. When we returned to the hotel we had lunch with several other families. Chloe ate some rice and even a tiny bit of egg drop soup. (At breakfast this morning she chowed down about half a bowl of congee.) Then we went back to the room for a nap.

Chloe is eating well and she loves to play. Ba Ba (daddy) will make a tower out of the stacking cups and she will knock it over. She doesn’t seem to like things neatly put together and it is her mission to turn order into chaos when it comes to toys. She is absolutely beautiful. She smiles and giggles a lot. She even started singing again today. She likes to suck her thumb. She sure loves her daddy. Sometimes when he holds her she will rest her head against his chest. It is so precious! Ted still can’t leave the room without her erupting into the biggest tears I have ever seen.

Now to the difficult part… at least for me. Chloe LOVES her daddy. She still won’t let me even hold her. I can’t give her a bottle and I couldn’t spoon feed her at lunch today. Occasionally she will let me place a Cheerio in her mouth, but most times when I try and will stop me and take it out of my hand and do it herself. While we were at the appointments today she would at least smile at me. Now after nap this has all changed. She will be completely fine sitting by daddy until she looks up at me. If I smile at her she beings to cry those big tears and she reaches for daddy. She wants absolutely nothing to do with me. This rejection is heartbreaking for me.