Well … technically, tomorrow will be her Gotcha Day, but we will call it today since we were able to put our hands on Katelyn today!  But, I am getting a little ahead of myself.  And I will apologize for the lateness of this, of all, blogs!  I am still managing uploading speeds and I will have a better plan moving forward!

We started today, as you start every day in China, with a breakfast buffet.  You can be a little apprehensive on your first morning at a hotel as you wonder how far off the path from western normal this food is going to be.  The food here, however, was pretty good.  Not as good as the Holiday Inn in Beijing, but significantly better than a lot of places that we have stayed.

Ali and Caleb sure didn’t seem to mind.

We took a picture of these steamed buns because Riley would have LOVED having breakfast here!

Then we were off to the adoption agency to pick up Katelyn.  We walked into what seemed like the exact replica of every adoption agency we have been in to date.  In fact, every big city in China seems to looks the same.

We were brought into a conference room to wait that had a beautiful conference table.

Our guide, Lynn, busied herself getting the final paperwork together and we waited with great anticipation.

Then, Lynn stood up and said “There’s you daughter!” and Katelyn came in.  She went right up to Kelly and gave her a big hug.

I would like some of the “other” children to notice that she gave me a big hug also!

Then she got to meet her brother and sister.

It was nice to spend a few minutes just getting to know Katelyn a little bit, including her explaining that she would like to be called by her Chinese name, Dan Jiang Chun. THAT is not the easier option, but we have trying to oblige.

We then had to go through all the paperwork, signing our names and then putting our thumbprints with red ink on the paperwork.  That is a little symbolic, isn’t it?  Reflecting on how Jesus spilled his red blue to adopt us out of our sin, we in turn have to give a red thumb print to adopt Katelyn … oops, sorry, Dan Jiang Chun.

Dan Jiang Chun is really an amazing young lady.  She is very kind, a little soft-spoken, but has NO fear.  I mean none.  We have now had her for 24-hours and are still a little amazed at how she has fully embraced this major change in her life.  And she is very sweet and helpful.  How many more helpful children can we get from China?

As is typical, it was a blessing to have Ali and Caleb with us as they bond so quickly with their new siblings.

Or maybe they are just bonding over electronics.  That is possible also.

More checking and double-checking and TRIPLE-checking of documents before we can leave.

Sometimes it gets a little boring for a 10-year old boy.

But the province is expediting our paperwork so we needed to make sure everything was correct before we left. We got a final picture of our new daughter with Kelly and I.

On the way out the door, we took a little sibling picture by the lion outside the adoption agency office.  These things are everywhere!

We came back to the hotel room for a little bit so that Caleb could give Dan Jiang Chun a crash course in how to operate her iPod and how to play all the games. He was born for such a time as this.

We decided to take a little walk down to a restaurant that specializes in dumplings that our guide told us about.  Our hotel is on the river and at the end of a large tourist and shopping plaza, so there is plenty to choose from.

We finally found the restaurant down at the very end of the plaza.  First we had to decide what to order.

It was quite good when the food finally arrived.

Sadly, there are still little things that we have forgotten since our last trip and are having to relearn.  Like the fact that you have to specifically ASK for a cold drink!  Lesson remembered now.

We took a cable car over to Sun Island, which I think might be an island where Russian’s used to live during the time in history when they had a large presence in Harbin.  I will research that a little more and have a post on Russian influences in this city.  It is a pretty interesting city.

The kids didn’t seem to be TOO concerned over a cable car that takes you a few hundred feet over the river!

Sun Park was a wide open area with statues and parks and just a really nice place to get away.  It is still the end of winter here, so nothing is green yet, but I would imagine it is very pretty during the Spring and Summer months.  The kids practiced their piano on a large grand piano sculpture.

The island has these very pretty, albeit run down, buildings everywhere.

On our walk around the island, the kids legs got a little tired, so we had to take a little break.  We let them take a picture of us.  Here is Dan Jiang Chun’s first attempt.  Not too shabby!

Here is a picture of the city from the island.

We finally found our way back to the cable car to take us back to our hotel.  Dan Jiang Chun and Caleb were a little tired and rested while we waited.

But we made it back to our green hotel!

Tomorrow we finalize paperwork and then hopefully some site seeing.  And another day of enjoying Dan Jiang Chun!

Cameron