Officially Ours

I am having some troubles with getting the paragraphs to separate today. I am sorry if it is a little harder to read. I will try to fix this later.

Today, we signed the documents that make Michael officially ours. Michael's nannies and orphanage director were there today, too. From Michael's body language, he looked confused. It looked like he thought he may be going back with them. They wanted to hold him. Michael was very hesitant to go to them, but did. You can tell that they love him very much. They doted on him the whole time they were there. When the orphanage director was holding him, he raised his arms to Bill and wanted him to hold him instead. This was a very good sign that he is bonding well with us.

We found out today that we will not be able to visit his orphanage. From what we can understand, the government did not want us to. This is okay with us. We had decided that if we were able to go that only one of us would visit and the other would stay with Michael at the hotel. We just think it would have been very hard on him and would have been very confusing.

The rest of our time in Taiyuan will be free days with a couple of tours built in. We have to wait until Friday to receive Michael's passport before we can travel to Guangzhou to get his visa.

We will be making a trip to Wal-mart at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Bill and I have decided a small stroller is necessary. He plays with both of us, but loves Baba to carry him. However, a 31 pound baby gets very heavy. We have a great carrier that he fits in, but right now it is so hot and humid that it is much cooler just to carry him without the extra material.

Here are a few pictures from today.

Signing the adoption papers

Bill signing papers (on the right is Jerome our translator and guide)

Playing with Melia's headband

He does let me hold him some.

Hanging out on Baba's shoulders

What a long morning

Time for my afternoon nap