Gotcha Day Number One - Perfect

This morning we arrived at the Civil Affairs office a few minutes ahead of the orphanage officials who escorted Rosie. I was worried that she would be reluctant or afraid. As you can see from the pictures, she was a little nervous (as were we !) but she quickly recovered and enjoyed having her picture taken and being in the spotlight all day. We signed our names dozens of times - in hotel rooms, notary offices, civil affairs offices; added our red fingerprints, and Rosie even gave a red footprint. We gave statements about why we wanted to adopt her and promised never to abandon her. Since she is over 10, Rosie was asked privately whether she really wanted to be adopted by us. By the end of the day we got the official red document saying that as far as China is concerned, Rosie is now ours! It will be 11 more days before the American consulate agrees.

When we stopped by the hotel in the middle of the day and I showed Rosie the clothes I had brought for her, she asked if she could change into something. She loves pink! hooray, my favorite color! She wanted to do her nails immediately but I told her that would have to wait until after dinner.

She also loves bling. I wanted to buy her some cute, comfortable sandals (her feet are 2 very different sizes but she walks much better than I expected) and it was almost impossible to persuade her to try anything that wasn't shiny pink plastic. I finally gave her the choice of anything from a certain rack but she still managed to pick some that could not possibly be called comfortable. They do match her dress perfectly, so I'll give her points for that :). She is now playing with Ric's leapster - electronic things seem to cross all langauge barriers.

Thank you for all your prayers! Keep them coming! The support is SOO encouraging.