It's Official!

This morning we got up early to eat, pack and check out of the Holiday Inn in time to be picked up by the driver at 8:00. We drove to the China Civil Affairs office for a 9:00 appointment to register our adoption of Wade. We were the first appointment of the day. It was an exciting time and we could tell that Wade was nervous.Here Rich is signing some forms from the orphanage that he was unable to sign on Friday. Wade wants to know every detail. We are waiting to go into see the adoption registration officer.

We were asked why we wanted to adopt Wade and then asked to promise to always take care of him and never abandon him. Wade was also asked by the officer if he wanted to be adopted by us and he eagerly answered yes! He is signing his agreement on the forms. The officer was friendly and efficient and we were done in less than a half an hour. We found out that our paperwork would be ready for pickup on Wednesday morning. Rich had planned to go back with the kids to Shanghai but changed his plans to stay in Beijing with Wade and I instead of flying back up tomorrow evening. This meant that our kids had to fly home without us. Boy were they excited! I was a bit nervous, but knew that they were absolutely confident and unafraid. Stacia said that she has been waiting to fly on her own for a couple of years now.

Before we needed to go to the airport, we had a couple of hours of free time. We decided to go to a beautiful park near the Forbidden City called Bei Hai Park. There was a large lake, temples, trails and rocks to climb. The sky turned cloudy and the air was hazy so the view from the tops of the hills were not quite so spectacular but everyone enjoyed scouting out the place and running around. Wade doesn't slow down. He is jumping, twirling, climbing, skipping and running at every chance. He also likes to do martial arts moves. Did I mention that he told our guide that he wants to take Tae Kwon Do lessons?

A hazy view from the top of a temple tower. This is probably a more typical picture of the Beijing sky in winter and spring. The past couple of days were beautiful, sunny spring days. We were very grateful for the mild temperatures and absence of sand storms. Just last week they were having terrible sand storms in Beijing and two weeks ago, they had a bad snow storm.

We encountered the Monkey King on our adventure in the park. Evidently Elise thought he was a loser!

This is one of the beautiful buildings (temple) in the park over a gazillion years old. Today Wade started to call me Mom. He is so happy to finally have a family. He was clearly feeling a bit more comfortable today with us. He seems to be at ease with just being himself. He was even doing cartwheels down the hotel hallway. We will need to get this kid into some activities that will keep him moving! It is precious to see him connecting with the kids little by little. Lance and Wade have even been getting a bit physical at times goofing off.

After sending the kids off at security in the airport, we went to a new hotel nearer to Rich's office in Beijing and to the Government offices for our appointments on Wednesday. Thank goodness it had a pool because Wade absolutely loves to play in the water. He really wants to swim and is trying so hard to kick and make himself go in the water. Rich was trying to help him but of course communication is a slight problem. We plan to get him swim lessons at our pool at home asap!

Later that evening we went walking outside to look for a restaurant. We found a small Thai restaurant that appealed to Rich and I but didn't know if it would appeal to Wade. We decided to go for it. We ordered Pad Thai, chicken satay, broccoli, spring rolls and pineapple fried rice. He really went for the noodles, chicken and broccoli. He tried the rice but said he didn't like it. He passed on the spring rolls. I am still very impressed with his determination to try new things. After dinner, we went to walk around in a very large underground mall. He would just look around in wonder at things. Of course I don't think he had ever been in a mall before. Knowing that he liked ice cream, we stopped at Coldstone Creamery and he ordered a 'love it' size chocolate with waffle cone. He dove into it immediately. With his love of ice cream and chocolate, he will have no trouble fitting in with our family! We give thanks to God for another full and blessed day.