It's Official!

Today is Official Adoption Day! Madelyn is officially part of the Searfoss family as of 12:00 noon today!

The past 30 hours have been exciting, exhausting and thrilling all at the same time. We went to the Civil Affairs Office yesterday afternoon (a 15 minute bus ride) to get our babies, meet the Orphanage Director and nannies. There were 50 families there at the same time! It was somewhat organized chaos and the building was HOT! Things happened so quickly and we were all passing cameras around trying to capture the moments. It is really a blur because everything happened so fast.



There are 7 families in our group from our orphanage. After receiving our babies and asking a few questions of the Director, we boarded the bus and headed back to the hotel for some initial paperwork. All the babies seemed content. Not one was crying! Amazing! We came to our room and then went to our guide, Kelly's room to pay our fees and sign some forms. We had all had such a full day that everyone decided to order pizza and stay in for the night. Madelyn had her first bottle and sacked out for the night.....well, we hoped but could that really be? All night on the first night? You betcha! That little girl slept for almost 12 hours "without a peep" as Megan would say. By the time the pizza finally arrived, Megan was out too. Matt and I were soon to follow as it had been a very full, emotionally draining day.

Today we woke up about 6am. We got showered and dressed and headed to breakfast. Yum. Megan ate 2 waffles and Madelyn had her first taste of sweet potato snacks. She has been fed no solid food - only formula with rice cereal. She has not gone hungry though! During a diaper change Megan said, "wow! Look at that belly!" Yup!
















After breakfast we headed back to the Civil Affairs office for our Official interview and Acceptance of the child for adoption. It was at this point that we promised to love, care for and never abandon this child. She became officially ours! We were there for about 2 hours.....2 interviews and a photo.....then we headed back to the hotel. At that point, Madelyn was ready for a nap and we were ready for lunch. I got her to sleep and we took a little break for lunch, a game with Megan and to watch Kung Fu Panda! The nap lasted just over an hour....enough time for our little one to change personalities for the first time! She cried for over two hours....she wouldn't take her bottle and nothing gave her comfort. Finally, Megan suggested a bath and so together, they played and Madelyn got her first bath with us. She was happy again......for a time. After bath it was back to crying. We couldn't figure it out. She has no teeth and was drooling a good bit.....that must be it. Hmmmm. Several of the babies have colds and she does have some congestion......hmmm. But, why not take the bottle? Then it hit me. We were giving her room temp formula and the previous bottles had all been HOT! Duh!!! So, Matt (the bottle man) fixed a new hot bottle and miracle of miracles the child ate like crazy. She was SO hungry! We felt terrible! The rest of the afternoon was great!


It turned out that our group all met for dinner at a Thai restaurant and although most everyone had a great day yesterday, we all had our issues today. Madelyn was happy through dinner and has signed off for the night (as has big sister!) We hope for another 12 hours. Could we be so lucky? We shall see........and we'll let you know tomorrow!

Life is a gift and we are truly blessed. One more tidbit.....this morning Megan made a profound declaration. She said, "This isn't as bad as I thought". I replied, "what do you mean?" Megan then told us that she was afraid that when Madelyn came Madelyn would get all the attention and there wouldn't be any for her. But, she could see that wasn't how it was going to be so that was good. She adores her sister and I think their love for one another will be something very special that we will all be witness to.

Thank you for reading....I promise we won't be so long-winded every day!!!
Love to you,
~L