One Less... and One MORE! Day 4

Well dear friends, it is with great joy I tell you that in this world of 147 million (and climbing) orphans, today, in our hotel room there is one less!!!!!!  Our family grew to be a "party of four."  Yahoo we will have one more around our table.  It is official, I am no longer a mother of 1.8 children, but a mom of 2!  For sure and for certain... well you all know it won't feel certain to me until we are through customs in Chicago, but it is a done deal!!!!

Let me back up and tell you about the rest of the day, actually I am sure you would like to see a few photos from before bed and T sleeping last night, right? 

I can sit all by myself (sometimes)!

She stretched out to grab these cups for an "almost crawl."

First bottle with mommy!

How can we not take a photo of our little sleeping zebra?

Sweet T slept very well last night.  She woke up before 6:00am, but we had been awake for hours so it was fine. We were able to introduce T to several family members via Skype this morning.  She met my parents and grandma and later met Brandon's parents and sister and her family.  What a special gift to introduce her to special people.  We didn't get to Skype at all while in ET for M's adoption.  In fact even our internet was spotty and we could not even get on FB.  I still marvel at technology sometimes!  There are many things not so great about the internet, but when we are able to talk and see our family on the other side of the world, that is something to be thankful for.

This morning we met a lovely American woman at breakfast.  Our first conversation with an American in a couple of days.  I also worked my way up to 3 hard boiled eggs and an entire plate of plain chick peas.  It felt so good to eat protein!  I also got lots of tasty fruit.  T ate  congee very well and also tried little bits of bread.

After breakfast we rushed upstairs to get ready for Civil Affairs and change a stinky diaper (praising God all the way for the stench if you remember my prayer request post).  Wow, I think I am a bit out of practice when it comes to messy diapers on little girls.  We got down to the lobby and rushed over to the office.  We moved from room to room signing things everywhere.  Then we were interviewed by a very kind judge.  Her first question was if we liked our daughter.  Um, yes we do!  The questions were very straight forward and soon we were done!  We were given a gift from the province and also a beautiful official document!  More than that of course we were given a daughter.  The gift of adoption is such a beautiful thing! This afternoon we go to the notary and police station for more official things. 

Part of our family with the SWI director at Civil Affairs.

Looking cute in new clothes from my mommy's sweet cousins!

Great Aunt Val, I like my hat, sorry I am not very photogenic.

We are planning to go to lunch at a local place.  This time we are taking our guide.  It is such a blessing to have her.  As we went through the civil affairs process this morning I can see why guides are essential!
------- part 2------
Well our day is coming to a close and I finally got blogger to upload the photos.  The internet is still working, but going quite slow at the moment.  Our lunch is quite a story to share.  Our guide did walk over to the restaurant with us.  She talked with the waiter and the cook and ordered food for Brandon and for me!  She told us what she ordered, sort of. Sadly, she was meeting a friend and couldn't join us for lunch.  Yep, we were on our own and quite clueless.   At the time we didn't think too much of it as she did order for us, right?    Then the photo below arrived at our table. 

 She told us that she ordered me cabbage, but didn't say that it would cook in a small wok on our table.  The waiter lit it and left.  We didn't know if we should stir it, if it would stop at some point, if it was ready to eat, if they would bring us plates etc.  So we mainly focused on keeping our VERY BUSY daughter's fingers away from the flame and hot wok.  Soon a second dish arrived, see the photo below.

 The little orange balls (lots of them) were a special dessert for Brandon.  We think they were filled with some sort of fruit.  There were a lot of them.  We were wishing we had something to take some home in.  At this point we knew more was coming because our guide told us I was getting something with eggplant and steamed rice and Brandon was getting something with beef.  Brandon started eating and then assuring me that it was sauce free I also ate.  It was very tasty.  Then Brandon's beef plate came.  See photo below. 

 At this point we were thinking, what are we going to do when more food comes?  Luckily, no more food came.  Sadly, we are not sure what we paid for as we know other things might have been ordered that were not delivered.  It was not a super cheap meal, but we both ate, and we know that what Brandon got was too much and that if we want to we could take a ziplock bag in and bring home some left overs!  We motioned to the waiter when it was time to go and he told us our total.  We paid and then watched others leave.  None of the others were leaving tips so we didn't either.  We hoped that was OK.

After lunch we got back to our room just as it was about to be cleaned.  We decided to go down to the lobby to hang out for a few minutes.

Still adorable... still not smiling for the camera just like big brother!

Totally holding her own!!!  Sitting is hard, rolling over impossible, but standing is easy!

Seriously, she is a happy baby she either got big brother's camera gene or our camera convinces small children to stare and not smile.

She loves my hair... a lot! 

 Next, we went to the police station for a photo scan and the notary.  The police station could not read the photo that was taken in the morning so a new one had to be taken.  More time and money, but all was OK.  The time at the notary was very quick and then we were able to come home.  I had no idea that the police station was so far away and got quite motion sick in the car.  We decided that we should take a family nap when we got back to the hotel.

T wasn't convinced it was quite nap time (though she was almost sleep while in the car) and decided to show us that she is quite flexible!  She is also showing how tiny her socks are.  So glad I brought Robeez to keep her socks up and on. 

 After nap we (the big people) were so very tired.  Our bodies thought it was the middle of the night and we so wished we could just sleep and sleep, but our daughter was up and ready to play so we got up too.  Amazingly our room was cold!  I had to turn the heat up.  Typically the rooms here are very warm.  It is quite chilly today and our windows are stuck open a crack and I guess that was enough to keep it cool. 

I laugh like crazy when mommy puts cups on my head. 

Daddy caught them falling to the bed.

Hysterically funny every time!

OK, I better get this post up before I fall asleep!  We love you and miss you M.  We hope you have a great day today with K and J!  We are very very blessed to have Sweet T in our family!  One MORE tonight!