DAY 3 GIVE AND YOU SHALL RECIEVE

Today, Thursday, was a very important day in our adoption process. Although we have had Maia since Tuesday she was really only on loan. Today the Vietnamese government officially recognized that we are her parents and she is our child. We went to a government office in Hanoi with the other two families that accompanied us to the orphanage. There was still flooding outside this building and it very well could have been closed delaying our adoption.

We all went inside into a very small conference room and waited for the official to come in. The director of the orphanage was unable to make it due to the flooding and another staff member came in his place.
This ceremony is called the Giving and Recieving Ceremony and all the adoptions are recorded in a large book we had to sign. We had to promise to take good care of our child and provide yearly updates to the Vietnamese government until she is 18. The lady in the gray sweater represented the Vietnamese government. She gave a speach to us in Vietnamese, and Loa'n from our agency, the lady in white, interpreted for us.

The staff member from the orphanage was a lady we recognized as someone who also worked as a nanny. She took Maia from me and held her the entire time except while she signed, then took her right back again. It makes us realize just what a special child we will have the opportunity to raise, she was definitely special to many of the staff at BaVi.

By handing us this official government document the Vietnamese government and this official is congratulating us as the parents of little Maia.

After the other two families completed their paperwork and offficially recieved their children we stopped for a few photos outside. Maia with her forever Mom and Dad. We are her forever family, the 'adoption' is over, she is ours, we are hers, as real as any family could ever hope to be. We are sure that anyone who is fortunate enough to meet little Maia will never question she was destined to be with us and us with her. She is ours ery bit as much as her big brothers are.

A wonderful moment shared with the other forever families.

The little ladies with their Mothers.

The guys with the ladies who will change our lives, again.

On the way home I saw this guy carrying a water tank on his Moped. Could you imagine calling a plumber and having him show up with your new water heater on the back of his moped. I know Mcclyman Plumbing has a Moped, lets see what happens if gas goes back up to $4 gallon.

After the ceremony we met up with the other families at the Green Tangerine for a little dinner. This French restaraunt was very nice. Laurie and I were pleased to see New Zealand Steak was on the menu, I did not have the heart to tell her it was Kangaroo, Just kidding, it was very good, and saved us from ordering something random in French.

Maia says 'good night' and thank you to everyone following our blog.