OFFICIALLY OURS, "GOTCHA DAY" PHOTOS, AND MORE GREAT NEWS FROM CHINA!!!...

We are officially the parents of Lily Sha Hope!!!!  Guess who slept through the night?!  Lily is my kind of girl!   Lily went to sleep last night without any problems (in the arms of her Daddy) and then slept in her crib ALL night!  She is completely peaceful when she sleeps.  I don't think she moved last night.  I told Jim this morning that I thought her arm must be very sore from sleeping on it all night.  She wanted guess who, when she got up?.... her Daddy!  She is in love with her Daddy!  It is so sweet.  We had a quick breakfast so we could leave at 9:15 to go back to the Civil Affairs office building to complete our adoption paperwork.  We signed the papers, had our thumb prints put on top of our signatures, had Lily's little foot stamped on paper with red ink and then we were told by the official that we are now "the official parents of this child!"  I have been waiting sooooooo long to hear those words!!  God is so good!

After that we had to get her adoption papers notarized in a room down the hall of the same building.  The woman notarizing the papers had me fill out paperwork since Jim was holding our China treasure!  After I signed everything she asked me, "Do you promise to never abandon this child?"  When I answered her (no of course!!!) I just started crying.  I think all the emotions of the waiting, but mostly the receiving of this precious gift just came pouring out in that office.  I was about to really lose it emotionally...  well, I kind of did.

We came back to the hotel around 11:30am, after stopping at a shopping center to buy a sippy cup.  Lily fell asleep in Jim's arms on the van ride back.  She was very tired.  Lily slept for 3+ hours and now we are off to a late lunch.  We have the rest of the day to relax and bond.  Tomorrow we are going to do some sightseeing from about 8am-noon.  Then we have a day and a half to relax together until we have to pick up her Chinese passport on Friday.  I feel like I am on vacation with no real schedule except to take care of Lily and to show documents whenever our guide tells us to!

Lily has a cold so we started her on an antibiotic we brought from the US and Children's Triaminic for her cough and runny nose.  I am sooo glad we brought medicine with us to China.

It would have been very stressful to have had to take her to a clinic here.  We found out from the foster mother that Lily was never on the Sanlu brand formula at her home.  Kids in the orphanage were on the Sanlu formula until the recall. But, Lily never actually lived there!  Thank you Lord for protecting her!  And for those that might be wondering, Lily's kidneys are functioning just fine..  we have had both kinds of diapers, if you know what I mean! :)

The above photos are from "Gotcha Lily Day."  Various priceless photos of her with her foster Mom and the moments that followed.

To all of you reading this that are STILL waiting for your special Joys from China, let me encourage you to keep holding on no matter how many more LID anniversaries you have to endure.  It is so worth it!!!  All the months... and there were MANY, have just faded away.  I hope by sharing our journey on-line you are encouraged that your referral will one day come.  You will not regret hanging in there once you have your precious child!

All God's best from the Dolton Hotel in Changsha, Hunan China!

Jim, Debbie, & precious Lily