Today has been a really been a great day.  And it isn’t even over yet.  But … let’s step back briefly.  Last night the kids and I left Kelly to guard the room and we went for take out at our favorite place.

We had a nice quiet evening in the room getting ourselves prepared for the activities of today.

This morning, as with most mornings, we rolled out of the swagger wagon, this time at the Adoption Center in Wuhan.

We were running VERY late as we hit some crazy traffic, so Ashley had been waiting awhile and came up to us just as soon as we walked into the office.

What a very precious and sweet young lady she has turned out to be.  I tried to be sensitive to her “space” and began with a more formal greeting.

As I would soon find out, this girl likes affection, so space is not an issue.

Ashley was all smiles!

She quickly showed us a painting that she had done.

And also a photo album that she had brought with her.

We had to wait quite awhile for Charlie, so we had a few minutes to take pictures and bond just with Ashley.

Then, we had to start on the eternal paperwork.

For some reason we didn’t have to do the red finger print!  I hope it was legal!  Tomorrow we have to sign the “real” paperwork, so I would imagine we will have to do it then.

Left all alone to fill in the tedious forms…

It was so nice to see the kids bond quickly.  While having seven people in China is a challenge when looking at transportation and hotel rooms, it is a huge benefit when adopting children!

Sisters who are new to us and have just met for the first time!

Kelly talked with the orphanage director about Ashley’s care to date and anything that needed to be addressed medically when we got home.

And then Charlie hit the room.  It all happened so fast that before I knew it I had a ten-year old boy in my arms with a huge smile on his face.  The two pictures speak for themselves.

Charlie then made the rounds.

Time for a boys picture!

Kelly held court with the director from Charlie’s orphanage and got all of the pertinent medical information from her.  This was a little more complex as he is on medicine that he takes daily.  Amazingly, they didn’t bring any for him!  But after this discussion someone ran downstairs to a pharmacy and got us what we needed.

Ashley’s directors had to head back, so she took one last picture with them before they left.

The girls discussing … well .. girl things.

The arrival of Charlie caused a delay in paperwork, so we had to get back to the grind!

Kelly watched the kids interact while I put the finishing touches on the paperwork.

Charlie came over to inspect the documents to make sure they were correct.

This is a special moment that Ali caught.  Thank you Ali!

We had to take family pictures to be placed on the adoption certificate.

Charlie showed us his instructions which included what fingers should NOT be raised in American.  He was close …

This trip has been an amazing adoption experience in that every child we have adopted really wants to go to America!  I am not saying that there have ever been issues with any of the others, but these three are EXCITED about going to America.  Or, as Charlie says, our (Kelly and my) America.  We pretty much own the place!

Back to the van!

Ashley is, at least at this point, a little soft spoken.  But very kind and compassionate.

The entire time in the van she held Kelly’s hand.  So precious.

In the first eight days of the trip, Caleb has managed to loose almost every pair of socks that he brought.  That isn’t a huge surprise as he leaves socks, and most of his clothes, around the house, in vehicles, at other people’s homes, you name it.  So, we had to make a trip to the store to find some additional pairs of socks.  Or let him go without socks, but that seems like a poor option.

We asked the kids if they want American of Chinese for lunch and they all chose America.  So, we went to Burger King.  When was the last time I have had a hamburger at Burger King?  It was kind of funny as we went around the table and asked everyone if they had been to Burger King before and everyone had EXCEPT Caleb!  He had to travel to China to experience it.  Poor kid.

Afterward we went by and had some soft serve ice cream which Katelyn was all in favor of doing!

Charlie had a little bit of a seizure, if that is what you want to call it, just after we bought the ice cream, so we just sat at the bottom of the steps and let him rest for a few seconds and then he was back on board with the ice cream!

When we got back up into the room, it was time to break out the UNO game and give everyone a change to show their competitive (and evil) streaks!

The boys played with radio controlled cars that we got for them.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t bright enough to make sure they were on different radio frequencies!

Ali has been truly invaluable on this trip.  And as we go from one Mandarin speaker to three, the demands will only increase!  But to date she has done an awesome job, even being hit with a lot of things that she was unfamiliar with from a Mandarin standpoint.  I don’t know what we would have done without her on this trip.

As the afternoon wore on, the snack bags came out!  I don’t remember this with any of the other children, but Katelyn has the mother of all snack bags.  It is more like a snack back-pack!

Not to be outdone, Ashley got out her snack bag, but it was still not as impressive as Katelyn.  The girl likes her sweets!

Then Ashley showed us a very pretty plate that the orphanage had given her as a remembrance of her time there.

Kelly and I feel just overwhelmed with how this day has gone.  How excited these kids are, how well they have melded as a family already, how God’s hand has been apparent through the entire process up until now and continuing forward.  Thank you so much to everyone who has prayed a prayer covering over us.

Tomorrow we head back to finalize the paperwork and then on Wednesday we will take a tour of Ashley’s orphanage.  We are looking very forward to that!

Cameron