It's Official! The girls are Byrne's!!!!

I'm so sorry this post is late.  I really do not have time to blog.  When we get on the computer the girls come and have to see what we are doing.  We needed them to go to bed tonight so that means we all go to bed.  Maggie was literally smothering me so Bill moved onto the couch.  I fell asleep waiting for her to fall asleep.  I just woke up and she's sleeping so I thought I would sneak into the bathroom and blog. Hopefully the typing is not too loud.  :-)

The girls woke up HAPPY!  I was happy. I was nervous they would be sad.  We got ready. I took a shower and all of a sudden the curtain whips open and Maggie is there asking if she could change her clothes.  UM, HELLO!!!!!  Freaked me out.  She left and then came back in to change.  Tomorrow I will lock the door. LOL

So, breakfast. The girls loved it. Maggie ate a HUGE plate of fried rice.  Then she had some watermelon and some other sort of melon.  Hope had rice and noodles.  Breakfast of champions there. LOL  I don't care.  It was not candy.  And they ate it all.  Hope spit 2 times on the restaurant carpet and both times we told her "NO"!  She just laughs at us.  Maggie then yells at her.  Maggie understands right from wrong and gets upset when Hope does things she knows is wrong.

At 9 AM we met Shelly in the lobby and drove to Civil Affairs.  The girls sign their names, get their red thumb print and we pay the official fees.  We did make sure they did not see this.  And then at the end, they saw us pay the notary. Bill HATED that.  Shelly said she told them that was for their passports & airplane ride.

Then on to the SWI.  The director had no idea what we were talking about when we told him that our agency said we had to pay to visit. He said he never said that and our guide said nobody has heard of that or seen the money we paid. We are upset and have contacted our agency about this. They said visits during an adoption are always welcomed and he does not charge.  Since we were already paying to go to Huainan to apply for passports, the visit should be free.

We had 2.5 hours at the SWI.  We were praying for 1 hour.  Hope & Maggie were comfortable there. Maggie instantly passed out the gifts for nanny's and director  and then all of their friends. We immediately spotted the girls we were hoping to see.  We took 263 photos and about 30 min of video there. The kids are so precious. One girl was HILARIOUS!  She so badly was trying to use the English she knew on us. She's 15 and the "mother hen" of the bunch.  I was honored that we were allowed to spend so much time with the kids. Several asked "when are my mama & baba coming?"  Broke my heart.  When it was time to go, Hope & Maggie said their goodbyes.  We told the kids goodbye and gave "high 5's".  It was bitter sweet.

Then on to the police station for passports. that whole process took about an hour. By this point we were tired & hungry.  They are complete (the application at least). We left Huainan around 4 PM and got back to Hefei around 6.  We ordered fried rice from the noodle shop downstairs and Bill got KFC for us. The girls said they do not like KFC.  Ha!  Lie! LOL  They ate some of our chicken and all of their own fries.  Plus their big serving of rice.

Bill gave the girls some of his Coke.  M-I-S-T-A-K-E!  Hope was wired.  She would not listen to us and hit Bill on the head. We finally had to take her camera away.  She was not happy.  After 10 min of no camera, Bill said "You be nice?"  She said "yes" and he gave it back.  The girls took showers again and we got ready for bed. It was nice seeing our kids on Skype.  We miss them so much and are ready to come home. 9 more sleeps.

Some things we've learned about the girls:
Hope acts like she's about 5.  BUT she is very smart. She can read & write very fast.
Maggie is a sweetie and wants to make us happy. She's independent but will ask for help if needed
Hope smiles A LOT.  It's rare that we've seen a sad face.
Maggie will be happy one minute and then have a sad expression the next.  Don't know why
They both love to eat. And they will drink water if we tell them too.
Maggie loves to wear dresses. We brought 2. So pray she accepts the other clothes we brought from home.
Hope is a tomboy.  No dresses for her. No ears pierced for her.
Maggie has bonded with me. Hope has bonded with Bill.

OK, enough typing.  Here are some photos. then I'm going to go back to sleep.  Tomorrow we go to the zoo and I hope Walmart.  We need to find some dresses for Maggie. :-)

Thanks for the emails and prayers. So sorry I can't reply to all.  I just don't have time on the compeer.  Hence the reason I'm sitting in the bathroom at 10:40 PM.  LOL

P.S. I have not been proofing what I'm writing. And I hope I am not coming across negative at all.  Just being honest.  We do love the girls and we pray that they will learn the right behaviors. We understand where they came from. And we can't wait to see where they will be going.  Only better. :-)

OH, How on earth can I forget this??? Guess what I gave??  A kiss. Guess what I got??? A kiss back from Maggie.  Hope just giggled at me.  That's okay, at least she did not push me away.  :-)  Progress. We are seeing TONS of progress.

A bonding moment. Bill welcomed it.

Signing the papers

Making it official

Hope's turn

Making it official

Their director

Our family with director

Some of their friends at the orphanage