Adoption Day

We'll, it's official. Thalia is all ours!  The official who had us sign all our paperwork about fell off his chair when he found out Thalia was child #13 in our family, but we got through all of his questions and he finally put his stamp on our papers. His questions were legitimate, I suppose, especially coming from someone whose country limits families to 1-2 children, but I felt so powerless to fully explain how and why we do it because of the substantial language barrier.

While we were waiting for our turn with the official, Thalia was listening to some music on a toy of hers in the waiting room. All of a sudden she started dancing - first by bouncing up and down with her arms up, and then she started waving her arms slowly and in a controlled way. We realized she was doing a REAL dance of some kind, so Curtis whipped out the video camera. The movements were definitely memorized and were kind of tai chi-like. Then she stopped in the middle and recited something, and finally she finished dancing with a big bow, whereupon everyone in the room burst into applause. She loved it!  It was so sweet!  I can't upload the video here since we didn't bring a laptop, but I will when I get home.

These are some other adorable things she does: when we get in the elevator (which is covered with mirrors), she either makes a big show of fixing her hair or she flexes her muscles with us like a body builder. It's so funny!  She also has a small cheap ring that we brought her, and when she noticed Curtis and I also have rings, she started making the three of us touch them together (think Wonder Twins) and then pull our hands away in a big flourish and say, "bling!"  She also like us to touch our necklaces together, loves to give big hugs, and loves to clink her glass against ours in a toast. Hilarious!

Sometimes she reaches up and pats my cheeks or smooths my hair out of my face. I know that a child can only give love and affection if she's received it, and I'm so grateful for the good care she's had at her children's home.

After the adoption appointments, we went to a market to buy some souvenirs. Thalia wanted to be carried most of the time, but she also did a great job with not getting into the breakable stuff. She picked our a small panda magnet and was satisfied. ;)  We then went to a grocery store and picked up some snacks and drinks. Even though it was like a kid's free-for-all in there, she picked out just a small sucker.

Speaking of suckers, her teeth are in pretty bad shape. They don't look decayed, but the top two baby teeth are broken and she has two lower permanent teeth that have come in behind her baby teeth. I'm thinking she's got a couple thousand dollars of dental work that will need to be done.

We're heading out in search of shoes for her since all the ones we brought are too big. Tonight we have a river cruise with dinner, so we're skipping lunch. Thalia's fed us enough teddy grahams to hold us over, anyway. ;)