Civil Affairs appointment ... it's official!

We had our Civil Affairs appointment this morning (Monday) -- our adoption of Yang Rui Xue (now Lydia Ruixue Trost) is official!


Here is our picture with the notary after signing all the documents.  BTW, his shirt says, "I've lost an electron.  Are you positive?"

Here is Lydia getting her footprint taken for the official documents.

Gotcha Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

We met Lydia at the Civil Affairs office in Xi'an at about 5 pm local time.

Lydia was very sad to be saying goodbye to the nannies who have cared for her for her entire life.

She cried a lot, but calmed down a bit, then fell asleep during the 45-minute drive back to the hotel.

She has been doing better the last few hours.  She had some fun playing with Caleb and Jonathan this evening (Rachel was asleep).

We were able to Skype with Silas this evening so he could meet her.  Rachel just woke up a few minutes ago (just as it was time to lay Lydia down for the night).

We leave early tomorrow morning (Monday) to go back to Civil Affairs to finalize the adoption.

Arrived Xi'an!

We arrived in Xi'an a few hours ago and are checked into our hotel.

We will be traveling to the Civil Affairs office in a few hours for Gotcha Day!



In Beijing, we had to take a bus to the other side of the airport to board our airplane.

 

Our plane at the gate in Xi'an.

  

Rachel and Caleb were glad to be back on the ground after a particularly turbulent flight.

The Great Wall and Olympic Park ...

Steve and Jonathan went sightseeing on Saturday.  They visited the Great Wall,  a Jade "factory" and Olympic Park.

Jonathan wanted this ship made of pure Jade.  It only costs $62,000, but that includes free shipping!  It took the craftsman 3 years to make it.

Arrived Beijing!

Here is Rachel in front of the plane we took from Chicago to Beijing:

Here is a Mother's Day exhibit in the Beijing Airport.  We will get Lydia on Mother's Day!

In Chicago, waiting a couple hours before we board our flight to Beijing ...

Apparently it's more fun waiting under the seats.

And we're off......almost

Storms in OKC last night moved our flight to later in the morning which was too late to catch our flight to Beijing.  So we are leaving through Tulsa (same distance from our house as okc) and going to Chicago to Beijing.  The fun part is that we get to meet in person 2 families that I have "met" on fb and travel with them.  More to come, just wanted to give an update while I am not sleeping in my house.