How could I forget this?

Yesterday afternoon, Pat and Doris went over to the notary office and picked up the adoption documents that officially start our adoption in China! They had an appointment for 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, so they went to wait their turn as they always do. When they got there, they noticed several agency directors and liaisons coming out of the offices with no paperwork.

So, they waited in the lobby, and Doris went to speak to the officials. She was told that there would be no paperwork today, and that she could try to come back tomorrow. Doris is a wonderful lady, she can start up a conversation with anyone, and she's very independent (she reminds me of Mulan, but don't tell her I said that). She told them "No! We were told to pick up the paperwork today - we will wait!", and she crossed her arms, walked out of the office, and sat down in the lobby with Pat and waited. Not too long after that, the notary officials came right out to her with our folders! Way to go, Doris!!

We'll have to show you the folders when we get home, we get to keep two originals. They describe how Olivia was abandoned at a street intersection, and that the police officer (it tells his name) found her and searched for her parents, and that efforts were made to find the parents. Then it says that Christine and I want to adopt Long Mei Ru, and that Michael and Christine are the parents of Olivia Mei Grace Jones.

Olivia didn't get to sleep until around 10:00 p.m. last night, so she was a sleepy baby! She loves her bath though, and she just laughs and plays when we put her in her inflatable tub for bath time. She still doesn't like taking her medicine, but we've tried to make a game out of it and trick her so she doesn't realize it when she's getting the salve. When Olivia wakes up in the morning, she has some big-time bed hair, just like daddy when he had more hair. She enjoys having her hair brushed though.

The other family will take their baby to the hospital this morning to have her dressing changed, and we hope she'll be doing much better.

Olivia really likes that bear you see in the second picture. It plays several songs when you push the button in the middle, and daddy and Olivia have made some fun times with bear. She likes singing and music very much. She's also very inquisitive; she'll look around at people standing near her.

Some of the babies in our group put their legs on the top of the umbrella stroller when they're sitting in them, and that's something that Olivia never did until last night when we were in the Parkson's department store. She usually drapes her left leg off the side of the stroller, but this time, she took her right leg and raised it above the bar, like some of the babies do with both their legs. She got so frustrated though when she couldn't figure out how to get her leg back down! Luckily mommy came to the rescue!

Olivia is just now discovering her feet, and she likes to kick and play with her feet as well as have her feet tickled. I still haven't gotten a big hearty laugh out of her like Christine can, but I know it's just around the corner.

We'll be packing tonight for a morning flight on Saturday to Guangzhou and The White Swan; we can't wait! I do want to take a lot of pictures of the people in Nanning today though. We'll give you another update at the end of the day and let you know what mischief we got into today.

Michael, Christine and Olivia