Making It Official

This morning we loaded the bus again for the CCWA office in order to make everything official.  There, we met again with the orphanage director and notary, exchanged appropriate funds and swore that we will love our daughter forever and never abandon her.  We had our first official picture as a family and Chloe officially became a Watkins.

While this should have been an overall happy meeting, I have to tell you that I have mixed feelings about it.  Although the signing of the paperwork, picture taking, and swearing in was all good, I think it was strange to meet the orphanage officials again...in the same place as yesterday.  It had to make Chloe feel confused.  I wonder if she thought we were bringing her back.  

Chloe and the Huainan orphanage director

In addition, I truly did not enjoy the exchange of money...especially in front of the children.  While I know this is an important step in helping the orphanage take care of the children, I just felt strange.

When we returned to the hotel, we had a nice lunch and visit with Jane, our guide.  She informed us that Chloe was actually cursing in a song she was singing at the CCWA.  Although she assured us that she wasn't cursing at anyone, Jane was upset that she was doing this and told the orphanage not to use her foster family any more.  She also did not like some of the behaviors she was exhibiting, like hitting and kicking.  She said that she had seen many children from her orphanage do the same.  Basically, she said she was unrefined (like an eastern Kentucky/West Virginia coal miner's girl...no offense, her city is known for coal mining) and would need time to learn appropriate behaviors.  Tim and I decided that we have adopted Chloe, the jungle girl (like Bindi, the jungle girl), and she will need just a lot of love and direction.  She's already making great strides.

After Jane's visit and finishing lunch, we headed for the pool.  I wish I would have brought my camera because Chloe loved the water.  Although she never left my lap, she stayed and played, kicking the water and leaning over to wet her hair.  When we went back to the room, she wanted to take a bath, so I put her in the tub.  She washes herself as an old woman would, scrubbing her skin with the wash cloth.  However, I finally got her to sit down in the tub.  (I think she must have previously stood in the river, bucket, etc. to take a bath.)  She absolutely loved it.  Then, she took a nice, long nap.  We had to wake her after 1 1/2 hours.  We definitely want her to sleep tonight!

Enjoying bath time

Taking a nice, long nap

After that, we topped our evening off with our daily trip to the mall and Walmart with our friends, Karen, Jenna and Zoey.  We decided that we needed some American food, so we ate at McDonalds and then had ice cream from Dairy Queen.

Chicken nuggets and fries....YUM!

I guess loving ice cream is universal.

Below are a few things we noticed about Chloe today.

1. She still eats EVERYTHING and wants to make sure she has access to food all the time.
2. She likes to bring all of her toys into bed with her when she sleeps.
3. She woke me up sweetly at 3:30 this morning, rubbing my leg, to tell me she had to go to the bathroom.
4. For most of the day, she still did not want Tim to touch her, but the two had a beautiful moment before bed where she was talking and playing with him.  He was holding her hand, and she allowed him to change her shirt when she spilled water on it.
5. She demanded that I carry her all 3.5 blocks from the mall tonight and sang the entire way.  I'm not sure if it involved curse words or not.
6. I have a feeling that she will be another "fish" like her brother, Kaleb.  She wanted to get back in the tub after we returned home from the mall.
7. I received numerous kisses and hugs today.

Tomorrow is one of our free days, so we're heading to the zoo with Karen and her crew.  It's supposed to be 75 degrees here, so it should be a nice day.

I hope everyone is doing well.  We LOVE reading your words of encouragement....Please keep them coming.