May 24, 2004

May 24, 2004

Adoption Day

Notes from our Itinerary:

The passport fee will be collected at the Registration Office. It takes 5 working days to issue the passport.

You need two passport-size photos and three copies of the passport photo page and the China visa page
for each applicant (whether they travel or not).

•Note: Use your daughter's Chinese name to fill out all paperwork. Also, if you have changed your address
and have an update home study, it is imperative that you maintain consistency of address with all
paperwork and in all interviews with BOTH governments while you're in China.

An optional trip to the local department store for baby supplies. Pay as you go.

OUR WONDERFUL DAY

Alaina's first night was perfect. She slept all night, woke up and enjoyed her bottle. I thought that she would cry when she woke up but she didn't. We all got dressed and enjoyed our nice breakfast at our hotel, The Gloria Plaza. It was very nice as well. The beds are very hard but we were so tired that we slept great. Alaina loved Congee, which is water-down mushy rice, basically. It really is kind of tasty. I did get a sweet smile at breakfast. Wow, in less than 24 hours, she seems so content to be with us.

After breakfast, we headed out to the same building to do even more paperwork and do the Adoption Registration. We had our first family picture taken for Alaina's adoption certificate. We did fingerprints and signed all the papers. She is ours!!! Next, we headed to the Jiangxi Provincial Notary Public Office. After that, we were all done.

James planned a trip to the grocery store and Walmart. I was so excited that Walmart was in China. The Walmart was very much like our Walmart but the food and merchandise was very different. Lots of interesting fish and other creatures for sale and a long shelf of bags of rice.

Nanchang was very different than Beijing but very similar in some ways. In Nanchang everybody rides bikes and only the wealthy has a car. Cars, buses and people on bikes are everywhere driving in all different directions.

Next Day...

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