China Adoption Finalization

So today we finalized our adoption as far as China is concerned.  Today Kelly's sister, Lilly, was our guide.  She was very engaged with Lixia.  Lilly asked her lots of questions and she answered.  This is by far the most we have heard her speak.  The great part is Lilly was able to translate for us during our van ride to the Civil Affairs Office.  She told Lilly that she wants to be adopted and live in America.  Sounds good to us kiddo.  We met with two different female officials who asked us questions and completed our paperwork.  We are approved and they are working to issue our final certificate.  

After returning to the hotel, we let Lixia explore the garden of the hotel, which includes the waterfalls and coy fish ponds.  She also walked by the pool and spent a lot of time the playground.  She loved going down the slide, especially if one of us startled her on the way down.  We walked to an Italian restaurant for lunch.  She ate some beef spaghetti like a champ.  It was so hot and humid today that we were all drenched in a short period of time.  The pool was calling us but we agreed that naptime was probably more important.  Unfortunately, it was raining with thunderstorms whenever she woke up so we had to delay it.  We played in our room and the beach ball I brought along was a huge hit.  The rain cleared so we were able to "go swimming" in the kiddie pool.  

We had dinner in the lounge here at our hotel and we have found that our girl has a deep love for prawns.  We have no idea if this is something she had at her orphanage, but we doubt it.  This was the one thing she picked out as we walked through the spread.  So I spent most of my dinner, cleaning, peeling, de-heading, and deveining shrimp.  She is not a fan of cocktail sauce after trying it and telling us it was hot.  Last night, she had two shrimp.  Tonight she devoured four large shrimp.  We had a low key evening in the room and did some coloring.  I see significant improvement in staying in the lines.  We are also really impressed by her speech and vocabulary.

All decked our for Civil Affairs appointment

Selfie with mama

Almost to the building

Making it official

And again

Posing with Lilly in the hotel lobby

Cheesing with the waterfall

She was all giggles on the slide

Her laugh is infectious

Embroidery gift from her orphanage

On our way to the pool; she was been asking to swim all day!

"Swimming"

She can touch the bottom, but prefers to hold on to the ledge.

Coloring fun