The 24 hour period after gotcha day in China is called the “Harmonious Period.” During that 24 hours, a family is supposed to spend time bonding with their new child and deciding whether the child is a fit for their family. If the answer is yes (duh, we just moved mountains and flew over oceans to get this child!), the family goes back to Civil Affairs for the official paperwork and ceremony.
Lily was calm but wary as we got her ready for the day. That first night, I only changed her out of her top (the orphanage sent her in a jacket with a scratchy zipper and no shirt underneath). I left everything else on, in an effort not to freak her out too much. I wasn’t sure how she would react to me changing her into her new outfit the next day. As was becoming par for the course with our Belle, she took it in stride. How proud we all were walking into the hotel’s restaurant for breakfast with our beautiful new girl!
Those sad, sleepy eyes… What a brave girl she is!
We had heard stories of kids who would eat only congee (very soupy rice, sort of), or who wouldn’t eat at all. Lily ate her congee. And a tea egg (egg boiled in tea and soy sauce… so yum!). And a yogurt, some noodles, part of a Danish, a bit of rice… I could go on! We could not believe how much this little lady put away! I should add here that the Marriott served fresh french pressed coffee that was amazing. I may have stretched breakfast out as long as possible each day in order to get juuuust one more cup! The view from “our table” was fantastic as well. We ate overlooking the city streets, with a gorgeous building with gold domes across the way and skyscrapers and palm trees as far as we could see.
The little queen holding court as I drink another yummy cup of coffee!
Okay, enough about food! This is supposed to be about Adoption Day! We were dreading going back to Civil Affairs. The people are nice as can be, but we did not love how the orphanage staff interacted with our daughter. They were very pushy with her, and she didn’t know them at all, having never lived at the Social Welfare Institute. Anyway, we went and swore before the main lady (don’t know her title) that we would always love and care for Lily Belle as our own child. She said several things which I don’t remember in Chinese, which David translated for us. When it was all done, and we had raised our right hands to swear our undying love, it was time for us to put Lily’s footprint on the official document. Boy, was that a Chinese firedrill!!! I took off her brand new white sock and sandal, and was in the process of maneuvering to stamp her footprint, when two loudly chattering orphanage women (have you ever heard people speaking Mandarin? They can be discussing the weather, and it still sounds like a knock-down, drag-out fight!) came grabbing and snatching and twisting her, totally freaking her out and making her cry! When they did get foot to paper, they stuck her red, brightly inked foot back into her white sock while smearing it across her sandal. Ugh. I was sweating, she was crying, Jeff was stressing… It was nuts. The encouraging thing in all of that was that she calmed when she came back to me. She was very happy to be in my arms and didn’t want anything to do with anyone else there outside our family. I can’t tell you how great this is!
Waiting our turn at Civil Affairs in the playroom
There was a bit more official paperwork that day, but most of it is really a blur. We were all in survival mode, just trying to cope with our new reality.
