It's Official

We have a few hours in the hotel now before we leave for the train station, so we thought we would update you.
Last night went as well as could be expected.  It didn't take Lydia or Brian long to fall asleep, but of course, I didn't fall asleep for a long time.  Lydia woke up around 1am and started tossing and turning and flipping around.  This, of course, woke all of us up. : )  I finally decided to put her in some cooler pajamas.  They keep the kids in China dressed very warm all the time.  When she got here yesterday, she was wearing two pairs of pants and had been wearing two shirts too.  I didn't want her to be cold, so I put her in footy pajamas, but she was drenched in sweat.  We got out some cooler pajamas and I rubbed her feet with some calming lotion (Thanks Auntie, Kaarin).  She went back to sleep pretty quickly after that.
We got up around 6am this morning to get ready to go and went to breakfast.  She was quite the attention getter.  We got a lot of stares when we first arrived.  She ate breakfast really well.  She doesn't feed herself, which is actually kind of a good way for us to bond.  She ate fruit and congee for breakfast and ate it all up.  Sometime during breakfast, she peed in her diaper, which went all the way through her pants and tights I had put on her.  (She is potty trained, but the toilets at the orphanage are either potty chairs or squatty potties, so she doesn't really "get" the regular toilet yet.) So before we could leave for the official offices, we had to go change clothes. : )
We took a taxi to the offices and then filled out a bunch of paperwork.  We had to give them copies of our passports and other paperwork and then we had to tell them why we wanted to adopt Lydia.  They asked us what kind of education we would give her.  We signed our name a bunch of times and then they had us put our red fingerprint on everything to make it official.  Lydia had to put her handprint on the paper and she loved that. : )  I guess she'll like fingerpainting when we get home!!!
Miss Wong was there, so we let Lydia sit with her.  We can tell that they both really love each other.  We got a lot of good pictures and video, so we can show her that in the future.
This orphanage really seems to have the kids best interest in mind.  They gave us a book that they made of her from her early days in the orphanage up until the present.  That is an invaluable piece of information and memories for her and for us.  They said that we can come to the orphanage on Thursday.  They greatly discourage it because of the way it will impact her right now.  They are worried that she will cry when we leave.  Her tears are heartbreaking, but in the future, I want to be able to tell her all that we can about the first 2 1/2 years of her life.   
When we left Miss Wong and the others, Lydia's heart broke.  She cried for a few minutes.  I am actually really glad about that because it shows me that she has bonded with someone before and gives us the hope that she will eventually bond with Brian and I.
After the official office, we went to the Notary Public Office.  It was more of the same there.  Signing our names, answering questions, etc.  We had to wait for them to finish a preliminary copy of the paperwork, so that we could check all the information.  It looked right, so now this afternoon, our guide will go get the final copies for us to take home with us.  We are officially Lydia's parents!!!  It's so weird to call myself "mommy" and Brian "daddy" to her.  I had to catch myself more than once, to not say "Auntie E" or "Uncle Brian" or even "Mr. and Mrs. Peterson".  It's a new name I'm sure I will get used to. : )
We came back to the hotel and tried to get Lydia to sleep, but she doesn't seem too interested.  Brian fed her a granola bar and raisins to see if eating something might help her to settle down.  She is laying down with Brian now, but I don't think she's sleeping. 
She has responded very well to both of us.  She likes me to hold her - so pray my arms don't give out - but she lets Brian feed her and has been sitting in his lap too.  We'll see how the next few days goes. : )
At 2pm we have to check out of the hotel and sit in the lobby for a few hours until the paperwork is all finished.  We can then leave for the train station.  Our train is supposed to leave at 7pm to go to Beijing, but Bill, our guide, said we can hopefully get an earlier train.  I guess we'll see about that when we get there, otherwise we'll sit in the train station for a while too.
Just a little bit about her name...We chose Lydia for her first name because it is a name I have always liked.  We wanted to choose a Bible name and one that is not used too often.  I nixed "Oholibama", Brian's choice : )  and we went with Lydia instead.  After teaching 10 classes, it is difficult to come up with a name that in my mind does not belong to someone else.  I have two friends named Lydia and they are both good role models for her, so we decided to go with Lydia. 
For her middle name, we wanted to use her Chinese name, so Shen Yao was definitely in.  My Grandma Hansen-Moell had two middle names and I always liked that, so I decided to add another middle name as well.  Kendelle is a made up spelling that I thought looked more feminine than the usual spelling.  Kendelle is after my dad, Ken. 
Of course, since we are both Petersons, we thought that was the best last name for her. : )  28 letters in all - hopefully she's good at writing someday. : )
More blogging tomorrow about Beijing...

Breakfast - Congee and fruit...It looks gross to me, but Lydia was quite excited when she saw it.

Workers from the orphanage - Mr. Wong, Sister Wong (Lydia's nanny) and Lu Wei.

Making everything official with our red fingerprint.

At the Notary Office signing more paperwork.

Waiting - We gave her these toys last night and they haven't left her hands since!  Even for sleeping, eating or going to the bathroom. : )