It's Official

Today we had the final "interviews" (How old are you? When did you get married? (Robert got that wrong. TO his credit, he has been great at taking care of me and the kids, and he hasn't been feeling 100 percent today. So I will forgive him. :-) Will you promise never to abandon her? Promise never to abuse her? Are you sure you want her? Sign here ....). We paid the final fees. Now, legally, Ella is ours.

This morning at breakfast she impressed us all by walking several steps, all by herself. She will walk only towards me (big smile of pride) and raises her arms to be picked up. Today she also raised her arms to Robert once, to be picked. He was thrilled.

OK - a funny story. When we got off the plane we saw a man holding a sign for "Jasper Family." Robert immediately went over to him and greeted him, assuming, as did I, that they meant Tadjiki Family and had the wrong name. Then we saw a man behind him with a sign for our agency, CCAI, and realized the first man really was there to meet a family called the Jaspers. Robert and I, in talking about it later, figured out the Jaspers were probably a couple sitting behind us on the plane.

The next day the Jaspers were at the government office where we got Ella. They showed up about a half hour after us to get their daughter. We saw them a couple times at the White Swan hotel, by the elevators. Today they were at the gov office again to pay the fees and make the adoption official. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of Americans in Guangzhou to get their children, but wherever we go, there are the Jaspers. We have made tentative plans to get together for dinner soon.

The three older kids are doing great. Right now Robert is at McDonalds with them. They are generally good natured and having fun. When Maya starts asking when we are going home, that means she is tired and needs to go to bed. Other than that she is great. Yesterday Robert took them to lunch while I napped. They went to a Chinese restaurant (really, Chinese restaurants are not common around here) where they got a ton of food for about $5, including cans of pop. There was a woman there who was enraptured with Maya and ended up feeding her bites of food until Connie intervened by asking Maya if she was full, Maya nodded, and that was the end of that. Maya has been getting a lot of attention, which she adores, and also she loves to eat, so it is hard for her to turn down food. Especially this food, which I guess was amazing.

Everywhere we go, Robert is making friends. One man came up to him on the street and asked if we had been here before ... he owns a shop here and remembered Robert from 3 years ago! They had spent a lot of time talking ... but still, that is amazing when you consider how many Americans this man must meet every week. Today when we were having our second interview, the woman was fascinated to hear about Robert's job and asked several questions about schools in the US and about Oregon. Then she asked if could have our phone number if she ever came to the US! It sounds creepy but it really wasn't -- she was just very friendly and nice.

Well, now that I have my daughter I am ready to come home. I love China, but I am longing to get her home and settled into our life together. I remember feeling this way after the boys were born and I just wanted to leave the hospital and get home .... and also when we adopted Maya.

Oh, one other thing ... yesterday, as though there was not enough drama what with meeting Ella, when we got back from that to our hotel room, a mosquito bite on Maya's neck (lots of mosquitos here, but no malaria if you were wondering) had swollen to the size of half a golf ball. It looked like a goiter and it was really itching her. We threw some Benedryl into her and Robert took her to a Western-medicine clinic at the White Swan hotel. The doctor there looked at her and affirmed the use of Benedryl and also gave us some antibiotic cream. (Total cost: $4.) We are relieved she is okay ... even if you are comfortable traveling, it is hard to take your small children and not worry about them getting sick so far from home.

Stephanie