Just sign here, and here, and here, ...

Tuesday December 20^th was Ruthi’s birthday.  Her best gift was signing all the documentation that officially made Lily our own.  There was a brief interview with questions like “why do you want to adopt”, “how many children do you have”, “do you have the means to support her”, “do you promise not to abandon her”.  The verbal exchange was followed by multiple documents to sign, each signature was followed by an ink thumb print over the signature – I guess that makes it more official.  My Sunday small group will appreciate the James  5:12 dilemma this presented me.  (Let your yes be yes …).

This was Lily’s last opportunity to see her teachers.  The picture includes two of the teachers from the orphanage.  Lily is sad in this picture.  She had just said goodbye to them and given them a hug.  After the picture we departed the office to get Lily’s passport.

Drew and Christian engaged Lily in a game of tic tac toe while we waited at the passport office.

Later Tuesday afternoon, Ruthi and Lily played a clapping game.  Lily has quite the rhythm.

Tuesday night we celebrated Ruthi’s birthday.  Lily did not comprehend “birthday” until we sang the Happy Birthday song.  She joined in on that and when we sang “happy birthday to mama”, she lit up.  I pulled out a gift we had brought from the states and asked Lily if she would like to give it to mama?  Lily smiled, took the package and walked it over to Ruthi.  It will be a while before Lily realizes that the package meant little in comparison to the presentation.