It's Official — Opal and Lola

(Written yesterday but could not access internet service.)

Before we got the girls, our guide Alison kept us busy the day before and took us to Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall and a quick stop by the Olympic Park that took ten years to build for the 2012 Olympics. We were tired but not exhausted. The experience was....unique. I didn't expect to love it here so much, I think. It's funny. I'd kind of wished that the girls could've been flown to Chicago in the way that past adoptions took place so that we didn't have to leave Luke and Annabel behind. Also I'm not a fan of Chinese food. I'm not a xenophobe and like to travel, it's just that China wasn't on my Top Three despite my desire to adopt from here.

Now that we are here, I'm having a fantastic time and I love it here. The food has been purple and white and yellow and the consistency is unusual and spongy but I'm embracing it, and we've met some very friendly people. In Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City, we were asked several times by Chinese families to pose with them in pictures. For those of you who know me, I like to say yes in general within reason of course. Mark, not so much but he was a good sport. So now our images are posted god knows where with god knows what post or story to go with them but who cares. Foreigners are kind of a novelty, even in a big city like Beijing.

After we flew out of Beijing, things changed. This city of Guiyang is very large but few foreigners.

View from our room at the Sheraton Guiyang.

It's been difficult communicating with people here, especially since Beijing had so many English speaking Chinese and I think we were a little spoiled. In the nicer hotels like ours here in Guiyang, there are only a few people with a smaller English repetiore and even small requests - like when I asked for a to-go container for the girls' food this morning- turns into a ten minute discussion with three or four people because the person I ask needs the help of others to help figure out what we want. There is also lots and lots of gesturing involved. Everyone is very kind and accommodating and really wants to help.

Our guide Jerry is 22 years old and articulate and efficient. He is employed by the adoption agency here and works with families to finalize adoptions in this province from where Opal and Lola hail. He also shows us around with a driver - each city we go to, we have a guide and a driver, all of this is arranged through the adoption agencies here and in the U.S. It's incredibly convenient to be dropped off at the front door of every place we visit and be immediately escorted wherever you need to go. Well, not immediately because traffic here is worse than in Chicago but at least you're headed in the right direction.

Jerry was with us in the lobby as we waited for the girls to arrive yesterday, and it was about 20 minutes before we saw them coming in. I'd been crying a little beforehand just from all of the emotion but when I saw them that stopped. The foster family had traveled 5 hours by van with them - a huge blessing. Earlier last month I'd asked if we could meet them because I feel strongly that the girls hang on to as much of their past as they know, and I wanted to thank the family for taking care of them in person. However, our agent in Kentucky explained the distance they would have to travel from Tongren and said they wouldn't be able to do it, and I completely understood. The fact that they came was a wonderful surprise and I am very grateful to them. They seem like very kind people. The girls had been with them for almost a year and we owe a lot to them.

Mark and I held the girls and talked to the family through the translator and then signed a bunch of papers while taking turns with the girls. It felt really crazy to be doing this in the hotel bar of a Sheraton. Eventually an irritated server came over and told us we had to order something. We ordered water, since they charge for that and she brought back hot water in a glass. That seemed hostile but maybe that's how they do things here. The girls were plowing through Cheerios we brought for them. It was obvious they were tired but getting a second wind. The foster mother would point to me and say, Mama, and they repeated what she said. Our interpreter said they've been spending time with the girls on the pictures we'd sent months ago, to familiarize the girls with their new Mama and Dada and brother and sister. However we soon found that they call everything mama. Me, Mark, the server, the hotel fountain, the elevators.

The foster family left after about an hour and we were free to go up to our room after that. The girls were tired and there was some crying in the beginning when we were holding them at first, but they've been so....happy!

They soothe each other with a Cheerio if one starts whimpering, and they have such beautiful smiles! That's what we were concerned about, the pictures of the girls showed them always so serious. They laugh and smile and are have silly little senses of humor. We took them to dinner and they ate everything in front of them, not in a ravenous state but more in a way that demonstrates a broad palate. Opal put something in her mouth before I could taste it and it was spicy as hell but she didn't register any unhappiness and helped herself to another piece of whatever it was Mark ordered (it was a Chinese restaurant and he ordered off the dim sum menu for all of us while I got the girls situated).

They slept beautifully last night and then today we went to the Office of Civil Affairs and finalized the adoption here!

It took a few hours and the girls were cranky and the foster parents met us there again before they traveled home. Luke met his sisters when he Face Timed me while we were there and they kept yelling then hanging up (unintentionally I hope). Annabel was in the shower so we will call again tonight so they can meet. The foster family left quietly without saying goodbye to make this day easier but the guide assured me that yesterday I'd been clear about how grateful we were to them. Now we are back at the hotel room and the girls are napping.

It's crazy how we feel like these girls are our family, right away. They sense it and feel the same way. I can't believe how lucky we got.