Ready to Go
After our 24 hour test period, we get the children ready to meet the day. In China you test drive your child for 24 hours to make sure you want to keep it. You can change your mind and not keep the child if you desire. Not an issue for the Church's.
His and Hers
We load them into his and her strollers for the trip to breakfast and the provintial offices.
Watermelon is Good
The hotel serves breakfast buffet style. Every day there is watermelon sliced into child size slices. For Luke we have to cut the watermelon into baby size bites. He loves it.
And Bananas
While Olivia may eat a pound of watermelon, I think she enjoys bananas even better as you can see.
The Ride is Here
After Joe finishes smoking we will load into the van behind him for the trip to make Luke an official member of the Church family. If Luke only knew what he was letting himself in for would he back out?
Ceremonial Room
This is actually billed as the ceremonial room. Someone who deals with children thought this up. The children had a great time and I got to sit with Olivia while Luke and Joe went to the interegation room. They ask Joe things like "do you promise not to abuse this child?", and "do you promise not to abandon him later?" All these questions are required after some less than wonderful people adopted children and then did not care for them.
Official Notice
No backing out now. Luke is now a legal son of Joe and Alicia Church. Now we head to the Notary Public office to get a passport. Luke and Olivia are not U.S. citizens yet so their passports are from China. Later this month we travel to the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou and get the paperwork to let them into the U.S. When they land in Seattle, they become citizens.
The Director
This is the director of the orphanage Luke came from. They are both happy for the children that get adopted and sad to lose them. They usually cry when the child leaves. They have been caring for them since shortly after birth.
Escape Tunnel
We played for a short while longer waiting on the money to change from Joe's bank account to the orphanage's bank account. No, we do not buy children but the going orphanage charge is $5,600 now.
Brother and Sister
We are back at the hotel and waiting for Friday when the passport will be ready. These two newest members of the Church family get along well most of the time. After all, they are siblings so get real.