2 Legit to Quit

I'm not sure how he feels about it, but Jude is now officially ours!

Today, our legal adoption was completed. HOORAY!

We headed back to the Civil Affairs Office, signed a few papers, promised to never abandon him, got some things notarized, and that was that. Orphan no more!!

At the Civil Affairs Office of Guangdong Province

No big deal.....just sitting around waiting to be adopted.

DONE!!

And I totally forgot to bring the "gift" we're supposed to give the officials....any adoptive family will understand the stress involved with that, but it was really no big deal at all.

Our guide then took us to Carrefour, which is sort of like Wal-Mart, except it's a French company....in China. Which just confuses me. :)

We had to stop and get a few things for Jude, like a bottle. Ugh. I hate having to use a bottle with him, but right now, that's about the only choice we have. We were told in one of our updates that he was using a hard spout sippy cup....let's just say that must have been totally inaccurate. Since that's all I brought along, we needed another option, and yesterday we were told he uses a bottle, so we bought one.

Jonah thought the store was really interesting. It's underground to start with, and there are multiple floors connected by "flat" escalators which you can push your cart on. He was pretty intrigued by that. The biggest shocker for him was the "fresh" section of meats which included snakes, fish, flowers (to eat), and all kinds of dried fish, octopus, squid, and who knows what else.

Then we headed to a great lunch and really enjoyed talking to our guide. We have her to ourselves right now, but later in the week, the remainder of our group will be back from their provinces to join us, so we are taking advantage of our one on one time now! She is so wonderful and helpful and really tries to involve Jonah in everything. I love hearing her stories.

Jude is doing great. He came to us yesterday with a little cough, and now it's a full blown cold (joining the club with me and Jonah) so some of the day, it was evident he wasn't feeling too well. He fell asleep for a bit this morning, and then took a great nap this afternoon. Overall, he was much more quiet today than yesterday, but we still saw glimpses of the silly boy we met yesterday. He does get upset at things here and there, but gets over it quickly.

It's starting to sink in just how small and how very delayed he is. I have to keep reminding myself that he is 21 months old....not 12. There's a big difference there, and while there is a small part of me that worries about what we're going to face with him and his development, there's a much greater part that doesn't care. He's ours and we adore him no matter what!

Tonight, he didn't eat any dinner. Is it because he's not feeling well? Didn't like the food? Does he usually refuse food which contributes to his size? These are mysteries to me right now....but ones I'm looking forward to figuring out the answers to. Despite her cleft, Rylie ate voraciously....I'm thinking Jude is not going to be the same way. All along I've thought that people just weren't able to take the time he needed to eat with his cleft. I don't know if time was the only factor or not. I don't have all the answers yet, but know we will figure it out.

I've also recently been realizing just how vulnerable kids with cleft lips/palates are here in China. Often abandoned because there are no means for providing care (and possibly a host of other reasons), frequently severely malnourished in orphanages because there aren't enough staff to take the time they need to eat, these kids might be considered lucky to even survive, depending on the situation. Yesterday, we were given a picture of Jude when he was 4 months old. It's shocking. Absolutely shocking. He is skin and bones. I'm not going to share it on the blog. But it hits home. How vulnerable he was. How different his outcome could have been. How blessed we are now.

Jonah continues to do well.....he is so good with Jude, so patient at our appointments. We bought him a soccer ball today that we're hoping he can play with some here at the hotel in some of the outdoor areas. We'll just leave it here when we come home.

Tomorrow we will be visiting Jude's orphanage and hopefully seeing his finding spot. I am SO excited about this opportunity. It's a chance many families never have, and I want to soak in every minute. We bought some treats to hand out to the kids there....hopefully they're a hit!