Our Day Wednesday - It's Official

On Wednesday, we had a couple of outings.

In the morning, we went to a supermarket to buy things for J, like baby food and such. It was quite an experience. It was like Wal-Mart on steroids. It was (at least) 3 floors. They had what was basically a combination moving sidewalk/escalator between floors so we could take our carts from floor to floor. We didn't venture too far into the "butchery" section (sorry Sam), but we did see tanks and tanks of fish just waiting to be pulled out and, uh, sent home in a bag. But not in a nice "I just got a new goldfish" kind of way. Hey, at least it's fresh, right? Very fresh.

While we were waiting for our bus to take us back to the hotel after shopping, an elderly woman approached our group and asked questions. She told us, through our guide, that we have generous hearts and thanked us and bowed. She said she was 83 and used to teach kindergarten. She would like to adopt, too, but said she was too old. It was actually a very touching experience.
I love how this picture shows her (in the middle) in motion bowing and the rest of the people still. The baby in the foreground is not Josie, but the other girl from the same orphanage as J.

In the afternoon, we went by the Civil Affairs office, but only our guide went in. When she came back, she said, "Congratulations. You are all officially your baby's parents" and passed out the official, Chinese adoption certificate. After we left the Civil Affairs building, we went to a police bureau to have Josie's passport photo taken. And with that, our appointments on the Chinese side of things were completed.

And now the payoff for reading through the whole post:

I think this girl is figuring out that she quite likes being held. And we are perfectly happy to oblige her.