it's official!

Me, Ben and Jenna with nanny and director from her orphanage

with our guide in Nanning, David; he's terrific

the final signature followed by my thumbprint in red covering it

So, today we had our meetings with the officials in Jenna's province, Guangxi, and the signing of all the paperwork making it official that Jenna is OURS! That felt good.

I was a little nervous about today because it included meeting again with the nanny and director from her orphanage that brought her to me yesterday. I was afraid that seeing them again would be hard for her. However, it wasn't. She stayed on my lap the whole morning and did fine. If I'm being honest, I think it's because she has basically shut-down. I can see it from the blank stare on her face. She has shut down to protect herself from any more heartbreak. Like the most basic human response. While I know its very normal for the circumstances, it is very hard to see.

After the interviews I had and signing and such, we got to spend some time with the nanny and director and ask them any questions we wanted answered about Jenna's routine, personality, likes/dislikes.... basically all the things I have missed for the last 2 years and need to be brought up to speed on. I enjoyed that time very much. We all exchanged gifts and they gave Jenna a silver keepsake bracelet. It's very pretty and has some chinese characters on it for luck, health and happiness. Grateful to have that to give to her one day.

After our morning we just came back to our room for some lunch and naps. Ben and I watched a movie while Jenna napped and it was a nice restful time.

Both this morning and when Jenna awoke from her nap, she was a little sad. I picked her up out of her crib and put her next to me on the bed and she fell back asleep like that both times. As well as on my lap in the car today. I am thankful that she at least feels comfortable enough to be able to relax to fall asleep. Small victories. :)

After nap, we topped off the afternoon watching Ben swim in the hotel pool with another little boy whose family is here from Ohio, also adopting. After some more down time, our guide took both our families to a nice Cantonese restaurant where we actually enjoyed the food and Ben and I were successful with chopsticks for the first time ever! ;)

Thanks for continued prayers for Jenna's little heart to open and for her personality to start to show through.