It's Official!

Even though Gotcha Day was two days ago, we've only been Valerie's legal guardians until now.  Today we finalized her adoption at the Henan Province registration office in Zhengzhou.  So now we're officially her parents, but of course we've had her close in our hearts for months.

Then we had to get the adoption decree notarized at a different government office across town.  Finally, we took Valerie to apply for her Chinese passport, including a fun photo session with a bunch of not-so-happy kids! It was a hot day trudging around the city, but we are thankful for our excellent agency reps who guided us through it all and made sure everything was in order.

Although Valerie had a few happy moments today, the pics below capture what she was like most of the day -- sad and hesitant, maybe letting her grief sink in a bit more.  And she didn't sleep as well last night, so we appreciate your continued prayers for her transition.

The stacking cups, in the bottom picture, were a fun source of entertainment for her.  After stacking and nesting them for a while, she turned the whole thing into a tea party - pouring, sipping - it was adorable.