Yesterday Jeff, Caleb, and I went back to the Civil Affairs office to finish the adoption registration. The first day, we filled out paperwork for the registration, and signed papers that gave us temporary guardianship for 24 hours. Then yesterday, they asked us if after 24 hours, we felt that Caleb was the same child who was promised us in our referral papers. I had to stifle a grin because Taylor had told me the day before to tease them and say we had decided we didn't want to keep him. I told Taylor that maybe we would get away with a joke like that in America, but no way was I going to say something like that to a Chinese government official. So, instead of teasing, we told them that he was better than what we knew about him in the paperwork.

I mentioned before that when we received Caleb, his orphanage gave us a gift of a crystal that has the Three Gorges Dam engraved on it since that is symbolic of Yichang. You can read more about the dam and its both positive and negative impacts here.

They also gave us another gift that is more than priceless. SIXTY TWO photos of our son in a photo album! Yes, you read it right. Sixty two amazing photos with at least 10-15 of the photos of him at a much younger age. The Hubei province is one of a few provinces participating in a project where they take monthly photos of the children and keep them in a photo album for the child. If and when the child is ever adopted, he has a wonderful record of his life to bring to his new family. If he is not adopted, he at least has remembrances of his life growing up...a sort of rudimentary life book that most children in institutions will never have.

When Benjamin came to us, we only had 6 previous photos from people who had visited the orphanage. Caleb has photos of himself with friends from the orphanage that I am sure will be cherished by him in the future. We also were returned the two disposable cameras that we sent him a few months back and all the pictures have been used, so we are looking forward to getting those developed.

Continued...