Day 2: Shenyang

Today was the day Joshua officially became ours. We started the proceedings back at the Civil Affairs office in the same room that we received him yesterday. The orphanage director was there, along with a notary who is more like a judge, a few other civil affairs staff members, and our amazing guide, Summer. It included a lot of paperwork. We had to guarantee that we would never abandon Joshua again, never abuse him or mistreat him and make sure he gets a good education. No problem! Then came the money hand over. The US dollar is so weak right now that they wanted most of it in their yuan (Chinese money).

Mr. Notary

The orphanage gave us a gift of engraved glass with info about Joshua's adoption from Shenyang on it. They also gave us a little baggie of dirt from his orphanage, as one's roots are very important to the Chinese people. It was such a nice gesture! We gave cookies (oh, and then we shelled out quite a few Ben Franklin's as a required orphanage donation).

with orphanage director

Then we had a mad dash across town to begin his passport proceedings. We got his passport photo first, then met with the official. According to Summer, he was not very friendly or helpful, nor was he interested in the extra work it would require to expedite Joshua's passport in 2 days. (It usually takes 2 weeks to get a passport.) He refused us, but Summer, as I said is amazing, and she's already been there again to put some heat on him. She'll call the officials in Beijing if necessary.

After we finished everything, we had Hot Pot for lunch, then went back to the hotel for a much needed nap for all three of us! Rusty gave Joshua his first bath.







We went to a local "hole in the wall" restaurant for dumplings, which were delicious! China has a new policy that all the dishes and silverware from hole in the wall places must be sent off to be cleaned. They are returned shrink wrapped. It was quite comforting until I saw the owner's little boy running around chasing the cat, then playing outside with the little rolling pin that the ladies I was watching had just used to roll out my dumpling dough. Apparently it's his toy stick until they need it!! Oh well, mine were fried, so lets hope everything got killed!!

We feel quite amazed, blessed and in love with our third child!!! DNA is soooooo overrated!