China - Day 5 - Making Things Official

Today is the day that we "officially" adopted our little An, Qu Yan.  When you "receive" your child in China (or at least here in the Shaanxi Province) you have your child for 24 hours and then the following day proceed to officially adopt your child.  This is apparantly in case you were misinformed about your child or for some reason you did not want to proceed with adoption?!
So today we knew we would be signing, signing, signing paperwork in front of a notary.  We were picked up by our facilitator (translator/guide) at 8:30 a.m. and then went to the Civil Affairs Office (where we first met our girl yesterday afternoon).  We were told that our little Lucy was very intelligent.  Even in the less than 24 hours we have had her, we knew it to be true.  We had some concern about what she would think about re-entering the same building where all that hard/emotional stuff took place yesterday.

When we got into the van, it was obvious she was nervous and wondering what was happening.  Our translator was telling her but I'm not sure she still understood what exactly was going on.  She quietly wimpered a little.

Again we entered the building where the civil affairs office is and found the elevator and pushed the button to the 20th floor.  We then proceeded to go into the notary's office where exchanging of  money happened (the orphanage adoption worker is given the orphanage "donation" that is part of the adoption costs), and we signed many papers as well as had our right thumb print put over top of each of our signatures on each document.  At the end of the session we were given a copy of our adoption decree!  An, Qu Yan is officially Lucy Kim Zimmerman, daughter of Merle and Kimberly Zimmerman!

Officially a Zimmerman!

After the paperwork was completed, we headed to the police station to have Lucy's picture taken for her passport (that will be completed and we will receive on Friday).

While waiting, I noted another caucasian person there and he was studying Chinese or reading Chinese.  (kinda funny - not only do the Chinese people stare, stare, stare at us causcasians but I find US staring also at any caucasian person we see-- simply because there aren't many ;0)  He went up to the counter and when he turned around to head back to his seat to wait awhile longer, he spied us and sat close by.  Obviously I'm not going to "wonder" about him being here in China, I'm going to strike up a conversation!  Guess what...... when I asked him where he was from, he of course said "United States" and then proceeded to say "Pennsylvania."  WOW!  Later I asked where in PA he was from and he told us Souderton.  Talk about "small world!"  Our friends, the Peters are from the Souderton area!    He told us he was a believer also and grew up in the Mennonite faith!
We promised to pray for he and his family.  He is married to a Chinese woman and they have an 8 month old son.  Presently China is refusing to give his son a visa to the United States.  His personal visa has been renewed several times but he was told they would not renew it again and it expires in 2 weeks!  I invite you to pray with us for this young couple, Caleb and Summer  - that they would not have to be separated and God will move the hearts and hands of those in authority to grant their little guy's visa.

After talking awhile with Caleb,  Lucy started to get very sad and softly cry.  All of a sudden I just knew  - "she needs to use the bathroom."  I quickly found our translator and asked where the nearest public bathroom was.   We headed into the restroom where there was one solitary stall with a squatty potty and a woman waiting in front of us.  Lucy was really crying by now and I was still assuming she really, really needed to urinate.  Well poor baby girl just couldn't wait and peed over herself and Mama while crying.  I felt soo bad for her.  We went into the squatty potty stall and this Mama doesn't quite have enough experience with holding a toddler on a squatty potty so, my shoesproceeded to get wet too.  Poor baby.  Since then we have a code SHE devised so that we know when she needs to use the toilet!  She's a smart cookie and there have been no more accidents because of the language barrier.

The love we already have for this little one, is unbelievable!  What a little gem was waiting to be found on the other side of the world!!

REJOICE WITH THOSE WHO REJOICE!