Adoption finalized-forever family day!

Tuesday June 25th was the adoption finalization day also known as forever family day in adoption circles. When we received Ava on Monday, we had 24 hour guardianship. So we headed back to the Civil Affairs office to complete more paperwork and make Ava legally ours.

First we had to take a family photo that would be put on our adoption certificate. Then we went into another office to check the paperwork, say if we are happy with her and swear to never abandon her, sign our names and seal it with a red thumbprint. Ava gave her approval with a foot print.












Then we waited a while for our guide and notary to finalize the paperwork. Our guide also handled paying our orphanage "donation." While we waited Ava had fun playing with a fruit rattle that belonged to the civil affairs office. She also checked out the big map of China. It was surreal to be back in same room just 24 hours later with her!






Here is our guide Celia, the notary, and the assistant director from Ava's orphanage working on paperwork. Here they issue a Chinese birth certificate, abandonment certificate, Article 23 which is a Hague requirement, and several receipts.



After we doubled checked all the paperwork again, we were done and got our first picture all together.


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