Updates

It's been a couple of busy days, as to be expected with a 14-month-old. She's doing very well despite having her entire life changed in a matter of hours. Her little personality is really starting to show and she babbles quite a bit. She doesn't cry nearly as much now as she did in the beginning, which we are VERY thankful for. At first she didn't want us to put her down at all and would get upset if we would even sit down while holding her. Our guide told us that she didn't feel safe at first which was why she was getting upset. Such a change - yesterday she was even feeding us Cheerios. One of the waitresses at lunchtime wanted to hold her and Julia reached back for Jason which is a very good sign of ongoing bonding progress.

Almost all of the babies seem to be adjusting very well so far. One of the babies, a 2-year-old, is grieving particularly hard but the parents are doing a great job with her and being very patient. Another child, a 5 or 6-year-old, also is giving his new mother a run for her money. It's pretty amusing on our hall of the hotel and I feel sorry for the other guests. At any given time there's usually a baby crying somewhere.

The day after we got Julia we went back to the civil affairs office and finalized her adoption - she is officially ours! We're done with the China paperwork and just waiting for her Chinese passport so we can go to Guangzhou and complete paperwork for the U.S. so we can go home.

Yesterday we went and visited the orphanage where she stayed for a short time before going to foster care. We were able to take some pictures outside of the orphanage buildings but once we went inside we had to put away the cameras for the privacy of the children. Most of the children from this orphanage are in foster care and most of the ones that are still there are young babies that have not yet been placed in foster care or severe special needs kids. It was sobering to see the conditions there. It was very clean and the kids appeared to be well-cared for but it's still an orphanage. It's hard to describe what it was like unless you see it for yourself. There was a nice therapy room for the special needs kids which was good to see. Doctors were actively working with several of the children there. One of the things that Jason and I are keeping in mind is that what we saw at the orphanage is what China wants us to see. There are other parts of the orphanage that were off limits so we don't know what else may have been there. The orphanage director was very gracious though and seemed to be pleased that so many children now have homes.

After we left the orphanage the bus driver took the families to the finding spots of their children. Julia was left at a children's hospital so the bus took us by there so we could take pictures. I think these pictures will be valuable information for Julia as she gets older and tries to understand what happened.

Overall things are going very well here; better than I could have hoped for. I can't wait for everyone to meet her. Here are some pics from the last couple of days.

She's ours!! We're at the civil affairs office holding her adoption certificate that makes it official.

This is a close-up of the certificate.

On our way to see her orphanage.

We're going to the babies' room at the orphanage. These are some of the only photos we were allowed to take.

This is the children's hospital where she was left when she was only a month old.