Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Civil Offices - Tuesday

Our family at the Civil Offices with City and Orphanage officials


Tuesday, the morning after we got Luke, Michael (our guide) took us to the Lanzhou City Civil Offices to register the adoption. We had to wake up earlier than usual to get there, so the kids were still very sleepy. Our first stop was to the photo shop to get Luke's picture taken for his passport - that will be ready for us on Friday, then we can leave Lanzhou and go to Guanzhou where the American Consulate is located, to get Luke's American Visa, then we get to come home!!!
After the photo shop, we got back in the car and drove to the Civil Offices.
We saw two other families there registering their adoption as well. One was the family who adopted Henry, they are the family who got him the same day we got Luke, and the other family was from Holland and they adopted a 16 month old they named Reuben. He has a cleft pallet and cleft lip. All of us are staying in the same hotel, so we see each other each morning at breakfast.
We were all in the same room together. A large room with a long, wooden desk in the middle, surrounded by chairs.
The orphanage and city workers start showing up about 30 minutes later, and the paper work began. It was a bit chaotic and overwhelming because there were so many people and we were still trying to get to know Luke and help him to become comfortable with us, while at the same time give Ivy enough attention. There was a lot of paper signing, fingerprints, and waiting. It probably lasted only 60 to 90 minutes, but it was exhausting (I'm getting nervous for Sacrament Meeting).


Sleepy Ivy on the way to the photo shop for Luke's passport


Sleepy Luke (and sleepy Rick)


Photo shop after his passport picture was taken




Luke and Ivy playing while we were waiting in the City Offices


Luke, with Reuben in the background


The long wooden table

City and Orphanage officials signing papers


Ivy being a good girl and coloring while waiting for the process to end





2 comments:

Michelle Boehme said...

Sacrament meeting will be a breeze after that! And heck, you can always get up and walk out! :)

C Talmadge Bell said...

You may not remember this, but Mama used to 'practice' sacrament meeting by sitting with the smallest one (or was it the loudest one) of you guys for a while on the couch - practicing sitting quietly a few times during the week.

I doubt that she ever had the time to sit for as long as a sacrament meeting, but the subliminal message that "sometimes we just sit quietly" seemed to carry over to Sundays.