Tuesday in Zhengzhou: Adoption Final, Orphanage Visit

Tuesday was a very long, but VERY important day for us.

Lily officially became a Williams!

We began the day by returning to the Civil Affairs office and completing all of the adoption paperwork. Then a city official presented each adopting family with their child's certificate of adoption.

We then traveled across the city to the notary's office where all of the adoption paperwork would be notarized.

After that, we traveled 3 hours to Lily's birth city, Anyang City.

Our first stop was at the passport office where we applied for Lily's passport.

Then we drove to Lily's orphanage. In China, they refer to orphanages as Social Welfare Institutes (SWIs).

One of the hallways inside the SWI

Lily's crib at the SWI

The nanny in Lily's room. There were about 8-10 cribs in her room.

The bridge way that connects the buildings of the SWI.
The older children live in a separate building from the younger kids.

Lily's Finding Spot - at the gate of the SWI

An orphan no more!

Our visit to Lily's SWI was pretty difficult for us.  Walking through the SWI and seeing what institutionalized care looks like with my own eyes was a harsh reality.

I've seen lots of pictures and heard lots of stories. But experiencing it for myself....looking into the eyes of the orphaned....hugging the necks of those kids who will never know the love of a family....

It haunts me.

I can't publicly share photos of the kiddos at Lily's SWI, but I wish I could. I wish you could see their faces and know their names.

They're precious.

They deserve a life outside of those 4 walls.

While our visit to Lily's SWI was heart wrenching, there were 2 kiddos there that made the trip MORE than worth it. I'll name these 2 little ones "Cutie" and "Patootie" :)

I am friends with Cutie and Patootie's Mamas on Facebook. I got to love on them and tell them how much their families love them and how they are working hard to come get them as quickly as possible. I took lots of photos of them to send to their Mamas.

I was on the receiving end of those photos just a few months ago and let me tell you....It's like Christmas morning when you get new pictures of your baby. The ugly cry happens. Your hands shake. You're just sooooo excited, and I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to "pay it forward" to these 2 precious families.

After our visit to Anyang, we loaded into the van for our 3 hour trip back to Zhengzhou. The 6 hours we spent traveling were the first 6 hours Lily has ever spent in a car seat.

Car seats aren't mandatory in China, so I've held her in my lap for trips around the city. But I knew she'd be a handful for a 6 hour trip, so we decided to give the car seat a go.

And she did great!

My little contortionist

Sweet baby girl

The funny thing about this car seat is that we brought it for her to sit in on the airplane when we fly back to the States because were told she couldn't sit up on her own very well. Since she's over the age of 2, she had to have her own seat on the plane; so our only solution was to lug this car seat around with us all the way from the U.S. so that she'd have a way to be strapped in during takeoff and landing.

Who knew she'd surprise us all and be able to sit up?! Not only that, but she can even stand on her own if she has something to lean against, like a wall or bed.

Amazing!