It is Officially Official!

After all the mounds of paperwork, our adoptions of Ethan Thomas Tucker and Reese Elizabeth Tucker are complete! Praise the Lord! I thought this day would never come. We went back to the Civil Affairs office to finish all the paperwork. The representatives of both orphanages were there. The nannies wanted to hold Reese. They have so much love for her, it made me so happy to see how they looked at her and talked to her. They seemed to be very happy for her to have a family and kept encouraging her to say mama and baba. Their faces lit up when she said it! So precious. It was also very helpful for them to hold her because our little man was a Momma's Boy all day long, so when we were having to sign paperwork, I was holding him and Tim was handling all the money and shuffling all the papers. We had to put our right thumb print over all of our signatures, so that was interesting and then the kids did, too. The notary guy was very nice and funny and spoke perfect English. He was very efficient and we got done relatively quickly. We got our redbooks, which are the official adoption certificates that had the pictures from yesterday in them.  Reese looks scared and confused in hers and Ethan is bawling.  Tim and I are smiling like fools, so the photos are pretty hilarious! 

 

We took some pictures with the orphanage staff, gave our gifts, paid our money (so glad to be rid of that, very stressful having that much money) and said good-bye to them.  Reese’s nannies took lots of pictures of her and wrote down our email addresses and phone numbers.  They gave us a list of other American families who have children adopted from Changshu, so we can contact them.  I thought that was a super sweet thing to do.

 

When we left the CA office, we went shopping at a Carrefour store.  We bought a suitcase, a stroller, some little stuffed animal snakes (Ethan really wanted one!) for Chinese New Year, some water, and diapers.  Ethan was not wanting anyone else to even lay a hand on the cart but me.  He was really funny about it.  If Tim tried to push him, he would move his hand and reach for mine to put on the handle of the cart.  I love that he wants me, but I know it hurts Tim’s feelings.  Grace kept saying how strong-willed and funny he is.  When we were riding to the CA office, he was sitting on my lap and she asked him in Chinese if she could hold him and he put his hand up and shook it, like saying “no way, get away”.  He has some funny little looks he gives!  You can definitely see how he survived all he has been through!  We will have to try to channel his strong-will into something positive!

Little Miss Reese has a tummy ache because she is constipated.  We tried juice, raisins, and sitting her on the potty, but nothing.  She just tries so hard and she cries so much, it breaks our hearts.  We will have to try to get some medicine for her.  I think we haven’t seen all of her personality yet because she is miserable.  Both the kids eat really well.  Grace took us to a Dumpling restaurant and got soup for them.  It has a bunch of stuff in it and they ate it all.  Reese wasn’t that hungry, but Ethan packed it away.  We pretty much have to cut him off.  I gave him one drink of Coke.  He was more interested in playing with the bottle than drinking it. 

When we got back to the hotel, we played for awhile.  Ethan jabbers all the time, nonstop.  Grace said he is not saying anything that she can understand, but boy he has a lot to say.  It is super cute.  After they napped, we went across the street to the mall.  It wasn’t easy to maneuver our way around with a stroller, but we managed.  We found some prune juice for Reese and Subway for dinner. 

After all the mounds of paperwork, our adoptions of Ethan Thomas Tucker and Reese Elizabeth Tucker are complete! Praise the Lord! I thought this day would never come. We went back to the Civil Affairs office to finish all the paperwork. The representatives of both orphanages were there. The nannies wanted to hold Reese. They have so much love for her, it made me so happy to see how they looked at her and talked to her. They seemed to be very happy for her to have a family and kept encouraging her to say mama and baba. Their faces lit up when she said it! So precious. It was also very helpful for them to hold her because our little man was a Momma's Boy all day long, so when we were having to sign paperwork, I was holding him and Tim was handling all the money and shuffling all the papers. We had to put our right thumb print over all of our signatures, so that was interesting and then the kids did, too. The notary guy was very nice and funny and spoke perfect English. He was very efficient and we got done relatively quickly. We got our redbooks, which are the official adoption certificates that had the pictures from yesterday in them.  Reese looks scared and confused in hers and Ethan is bawling.  Tim and I are smiling like fools, so the photos are pretty hilarious! 

 

We took some pictures with the orphanage staff, gave our gifts, paid our money (so glad to be rid of that, very stressful having that much money) and said good-bye to them.  Reese’s nannies took lots of pictures of her and wrote down our email addresses and phone numbers.  They gave us a list of other American families who have children adopted from Changshu, so we can contact them.  I thought that was a super sweet thing to do.

When we left the CA office, we went shopping at a Carrefour store.  We bought a suitcase, a stroller, some little stuffed animal snakes (Ethan really wanted one!) for Chinese New Year, some water, and diapers.  Ethan was not wanting anyone else to even lay a hand on the cart but me.  He was really funny about it.  If Tim tried to push him, he would move his hand and reach for mine to put on the handle of the cart.  I love that he wants me, but I know it hurts Tim’s feelings.  Grace kept saying how strong-willed and funny he is.  When we were riding to the CA office, he was sitting on my lap and she asked him in Chinese if she could hold him and he put his hand up and shook it, like saying “no way, get away”.  He has some funny little looks he gives!  You can definitely see how he survived all he has been through!  We will have to try to channel his strong-will into something positive!

Little Miss Reese has a tummy ache because she is constipated.  We tried juice, raisins, and sitting her on the potty, but nothing.  She just tries so hard and she cries so much, it breaks our hearts.  We will have to try to get some medicine for her.  I think we haven’t seen all of her personality yet because she is miserable.  Both the kids eat really well.  Grace took us to a Dumpling restaurant and got soup for them.  It has a bunch of stuff in it and they ate it all.  Reese wasn’t that hungry, but Ethan packed it away.  We pretty much have to cut him off.  I gave him one drink of Coke.  He was more interested in playing with the bottle than drinking it. 

When we got back to the hotel, we played for awhile.  Ethan jabbers all the time, nonstop.  Grace said he is not saying anything that she can understand, but boy he has a lot to say.  It is super cute.  After they napped, we went across the street to the mall.  It wasn’t easy to maneuver our way around with a stroller, but we managed.  We found some prune juice for Reese and Subway for dinner. 

Please pray that Reese can poop and that we all continue to bond and make special memories.  I miss our girls at home so much and it is hard to make the most of the time here, but we are going to try.  I am very thankful for Skype and facebook.