Megan Kathleen became legally mine

On Tuesday, 2/24, I counted out over 42,000 in yuan and deposited 35,000 of it in a bank in China while Megan and Arlie stayed in the hotel room. We then traveled back to the orphanage center. Megan was very quiet. I promised her I was not giving her back. It was a long 2 or so hours. I tendered the last 7,080 in yuan. Basically, I took care of her orphanage fees for the last year and paid other processing fees. They took a picture of Megan and me together and typed the final adoption document. They then took us into the ceremonial red room. Megan and I approached the podium. I took an oath to love her forever among other things. I had to struggle to say, "I will," because Megan stuck her long fingernailed fingers (after I filed them) into my mouth. I then had to stick my finger on a red ink pad and place my fingerprint on a couple of documents. Megan had to take her index finger, place on the red ink pad, and place her fingerprint on a document. They then took a family photo with us holding our legal paperwork. Arlie will try to upload a photo of the event. Yesterday was a long day and after our Pizza Hut celebration with two other families, we collapsed into bed early.

Today we did some shopping for baby food, etc. which was a long walk. Megan fell asleep in the hip hammock attached to me. Later I went for a walk with a few others to St. Joseph's Catholic Church which was built in the 1800's. It was a long walk up and down stairs and up hills a good portion of the way. Once there, a priest agreed to give us ashes as it was Ash Wednesday. After I got back, Megan became fussy and was crying. She only seems to cry when uncomfortable. We decided it was teething from the drool. One family gave us homeopathic dissolving balls and another gave us Orajel. Megan was still crying. We decided to keep to our original plan and we all went into the hotel pool (we forgot a camera). We each had to buy bathing caps. Megan looked so cute and completely stopped crying. She liked the pool and was splashing with her hands. We will go in again and remember to take the camera. Tonight for the first time, we decided to stay in and order room service. She loved the chicken mcnuggets. She also kept grabbing the elbow macaroni from Arlie so that she could feed herself. She has expressed dislike for formula and favors milk. She is already saying, "da da." She will put anything in her mouth except pacifiers and teething toys so the trip home is going to be tough. She took my hands and we walked today for the first time. Arlie is walking her now as I type. Megan keeps folding her right leg in when she sits and the right leg turns in a bit when she walks. It is not pronounced but we wonder if she will need some baby therapy. It looks like another tooth is about to come in as fussiness is setting in again. Gotta go. Tomorrow hopefully we get a stroller at Wal-Mart and see the panda zoo.