It's official. She's a Johnsen!

From yesterday.  The girls together for the first time.

outfit number 4 with Baba

Clothing change number 5

Grandmas enjoying dinner

On Tuesday morning we headed to the Civil Affairs Office along with 2 other families to finalize the adoption.  One family was from Italy and both of the other families were adopting 3 yo adorable boys.  At the CAO was a Swedish family and another family and we all spent 2 hours getting the official paperwork filled out, the picture taken for the adoption certificate, and passport information gathered for Aleah.  We had to put our thumbprint on the documents and Aleah's handprint.  We said a final goodbye and thank you to the orphanage workers and gave them some diapers to take back.  We were denied permission to visit the orphanage because it is new and it is not allowed yet.  We promised to bring her back for a visit in a few years and they were very happy to hear that.  I so appreciate their concern for her and they said they treated her like she was their own child.  They so hope we can help her with her arm and hand weakness.  We returned to the hotel and had lunch there.  Aleah requested the pickled goose feet, but we got her her second choice which was shrimp.  After coming to the room Aleah decided to try on every one of her new outfits.  She seemed pretty happy with them.  After playing and resting we went for an early dinner at the restaurant down the street.  We had eaten there the first day and our guide wrote down what we liked so we got that again.  It was $20 for all 7 of us to eat and we had leftovers. After dinner the girls wanted to go swim.  We asked Aleah in Chinese if she wanted to swim.  (Alaina helped with that)  She said what is swimming (in Chinese).  We showed her the suit and she put it on.  She is so thin it fell off her shoulders but we headed down.  When she saw the pool she looked scared and said she didn't want to swim so Greg watched her and the girls and I swam.  After a short time she called me over and asked how she could swim since she has a bad arm.  I demonstrated that I would hold her so she wanted to get in.  She was so incredibly brave and had so much fun.  It was the best thing for bonding because she had to hold on to me and trust me.  You can see from the pictures how much she loved it.  I can tell she will try very hard with physical therapy or any other challenges she will be facing.  Dinner had been a little difficult as she didn't want any of the food and wouldn't stay seated etc.  The girls were getting weary of her, but the swimming really turned things around.  All in all, another very good day.  God continues to answer our prayers.

Doesn't that make your heart sing?

Hao Chi (good food)