MelodyJoy is Officially Ours!

This morning, leaving Aunt Laura and Jameson at the hotel to swim and relax, we went back to the Civil Affairs office to be interviewed by a Civil Affairs staffer and a Notary. We simply had to answer some very basic questions . . . our names, our occupations, whether we promised never to abandon her and so on. (One of the other dads kidded that he had responded, “Well, what do you mean exactly by ‘abandon?’” Needless to say, none of us would ever try to joke with one of these officials that way!)

Actually, we did struggle with several questions. Nerves, I guess. In the first interview, with the Civil Affairs representative, she asked us to say Nan Cai Jing’s name and when I did, she said I did it correctly. The Notary however seemed to think we completely butchered the pronunciation. Jeannette had trouble when they asked for her age. In the first interview, she underreported her age by two years and then in the second, she overstated it by two years! Fortunately, their standards for determining parental competency must be rather low. It was interesting, too, that both interviewers were very surprised that we have been married for 22 years and seemed to think that was quite a long time.

At the end of the Civil Affairs interview, we signed the questionnaire and the woman immediately said, “Congratulations, the child is officially yours!” It was both surreal and exciting. When one of the couples returned to the waiting room after hearing this pronouncement themselves, the wife announced that today was her husband’s birthday and so we all sang “Happy Birthday” to him . . . twice . . . so he could get it on video!

From there, they shuttled us to the police station where an official simply looked at us to see if we matched our passport photos and MelodyJoy’s official paperwork and photos. There was a brief moment of confusion when it appeared that the officer thought I was much uglier than my passport picture portrayed me but it turned out that she just didn’t like the dark photocopy we had given her. Amy, our guide, ran across the street for a new copy and all was resolved easily.

We then spent an hour and a half in a huge Friendship Store for the purpose of buying some baby goods and groceries. Most of the parents bought strollers and all sorts of baby stuff, even though the prices were pretty high. The grocery store was upscale but still had decent prices overall and we grabbed apple juice, water, Oreos, coffee, apple chips, some Chinese candy to give to Jameson’s class and several bottles of Coke Light with Lemon.

The afternoon was spent trying to figure out how to get a few items of clothing washed (quite the drawn out and difficult venture) and then we took a taxi over to Shamian Island where we got to see the famous White Swan hotel. But we’re not bitter about the fact that we’re currently in a 1 Star apartment rather than the celebrated 4 Star adoption inn. Tomorrow we hope to get moved over to the main China Hotel, which we hope will be much nicer, even if we have a little less space. At Lucy’s Bar and Grill, we had an American dinner. (Well, can you call it an American dinner when one of us had a burrito, one a quesadilla and another had fettuccini?) We ate outside near the Pearl River while MJ entertained herself with one of the books Jeannette brought. Tomorrow we may go back to do some shopping . . . it looks like there are some bargains to be had.

Jeannette made MelodyJoy pretty mad tonight as we smothered her entire body and head in a prescription lotion for scabies. This should supposedly clear them up very quickly. Melody no longer has any compunction about letting us know when she isn’t happy about something, but overall she is a very contented and pleasant baby. After all the solemnity yesterday, this morning just before we boarded the bus, she let loose with smiles and a burst of activity, even doing a bit of walking across the hotel lobby with Jeannette’s assistance.

Before I close, I just wanted to mention that we would love to hear from anyone who has visited this blog. Just click on the “comment” link on any of these updates and type in a note. We’ll receive it by e-mail the next time we log on. Now that MelodyJoy is “officially ours,” we’re frankly quite ready to just get back on the plane and come home! We have to wait five business days to get her visa, though, so we’ll just make the best of it. You can help us pass the time!