It's Offical

It's official that Miss Hannah is ours and she is a Halvorson. Most of the time this all happens the day after you get your child, but due to an adoption conference in Chengdu, our paperwork was delayed until today. Tina warned us that this appointment could take about 3 hours, but we were done in about an hour and 15 minutes. There were 2 other families there too, so it was nice to see a few other kids become officially part of their families.

We took a picture with Hannah, signed a few things, showed the official a few adoption documents we brought with us, stamped Hannah's footprint onto the paperwork (that's Tina in the picture helping me stamp her foot) then Chris swore that we would never abandon or abuse her." I was worried that Tina would be problematic, but we only had a few minor Tina-isms during the process. At one point Tina asked us if we had a passport for Hannah. Ummmm, no, how would we have done that? One of Tina's tasks is filing the paperwork for Hannah's Chinese passport to be issued to us. She will travel home on a Chinese passport (with a US visa). Once she hits US soil she will become an American citizen therefore making her Chinese passport a one time use item. Cool, huh! Anyway, we need to get some key documents from the Civil Affairs office tomorrow and get Hannah's passport before we leave tomorrow evening. Hopefully this will all go smoothly.

After we made Hannah official we took a picture with the dude that signed off on our paper work. I've included that picture and the pictures of us stamping her red inked foot onto the paperwork. After we were all done I got a good picture of Missy Sassy Pants all ready to go.

After we finished the paperwork we grabbed some lunch at Micky Dees and Hannah befriended the older Chinese man sitting next to us. She gave him some of her fries and then sat down on his lap. He loved it and it really was very sweet. I wonder how much interaction she has had with males. Generally children from orphanages have had very limited contact with men. She seems completely comfortable with Chris and clearly she liked this guy! After lunch we did a little shopping and I got a yummy Starbucks treat. Hannah fell asleep on me as we walked around and shopped. She really struggles when she wakes up from a nap. When she woke up she didn't like being in the baby carrier and wanted out right away. She started yelling to get at me (in Chinese) to get her out but we were crossing a very busy eight lane street and dodging mopeds. So when I didn't get her out immediately she started pinching me like a little crab. Seriously, girl! Other than that she hasn't tried to inflict harm on me today. She did randomly give Travis a mean right hook after officially becoming his sister. I think she knew she hadn't had to use her "skills" all morning and wanted to make sure she didn't lose her mad skills due to non use. Either that or she wanted to let Travis know she was boss. Either are very plausible. I told Travis that I was sorry, but that we were all going to have to take a few for the team as we teach her that hitting isn't okay.

We came home and put Hannah down for a real nap and proceeded with day 3 of hotel homeschooling. She is up now and has just enjoyed a Moon Pie with her daddy. She is a big fan. She brought me the wrapper as if to say I like these, so get more of them. She she's like she is very happy today. We Skyped with Hailey this morning and it was so cool to watch the girls "meet." Hannah has seemed to be quite into me today and reaches for me or keeps me in her sights when we are around large groups. She will reach for Chris and sit with him for a while and then reaches for me again. She seems to be liking me more and more. I like her a lot too. She is spunky, tiny, funny and will give me a run for my money in the parenting department. She is proof that Chris and I are destined to have strong willed children, even when we import them!

Tonight we are eating an early dinner and then going to the Sichuan Opera with Tina! If you can't get a new guide you might as well befriend the one you have, right! She says it will be good, so I hope we all enjoy the show and that Hannah will sit still for it. We are doing great. We miss Hailey a bunch. We just aren't complete without her. She is doing great with my mom, so all is well. We love you and thank you for your prayers and comments!

Blessings from Chengdu!

Chris, Amy, Travis, Chase and the newly Hannah Robyn Halvorson