Nanchang Day 2 & 3

We have had a very busy last two days, but I want to make sure I record all our time here because I don't want to forget!  Day 2 with Phynley was all about Phynley becoming an official Miller girl!  According to the Chinese government she is officially ours! :)
We went to the civil affairs office to finalize the adoption in the morning.  Our guide, Sissi, is absolutely amazing!  She is by far one of the best guides I have seen.  She is amazingly efficient with paperwork, knows exactly what she is doing and doesn't wait around for someone to tell her what to do.  We were in and out of the Civil Affairs office in less than 30 minutes.  Phynley did have a moment in the Civil Affairs office that was heart wrenching for me.  Phynley started to cry, but it wasn't a cry of distress or discomfort, but a cry of grief.  Two big tears rolled down her cheeks soundlessly.  I cried too.  Imagine how overwhelming and scary it must be for these new people to come into her life and take her away from all she's ever known.  I really think she has started the grieving process and while that can be hard, it is important for her to grieve her loss in order to be able to move on and grow.  I held my arms out and was able to comfort her and she did stop crying and that was a good step for both of us.
Our next stop was the notary office.  That was a pretty funny experience.  I am not sure if they have too many staff, and too few clients, but Sissi told us that they often take naps during the day when no one is in the office.  When we got there, the place was completely dark.  Not even enough light for Kim to take pictures.  I just had to laugh!  The notary office processes her birth certificate, which Sissi will pick up for us later this week. 
After the notary, we attempted the passport process but ended up getting told we needed to come back the next day because the technology wasn't quite ready to go.  Phynley is one of the first few Chinese citizens to get issued an RFID Chinese passport!  The process was supposed to be ready to go yesterday but they still had a little left to do, so they told us to come back the next morning.
So we headed back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing, going to the pool and hanging out with Kim.  Kim was our life saver last night and kept us awake playing the name game since we of course forgot to bring cards.  We are still struggling with  I didn't end up waking up till about 5:45, Jeff around 6, and Kim told me she had to wake Mackenzie up at 7!  Yay for a full night of sleep. 

Today has been an action-packed adventure.  The only actual thing on today's agenda was to go and get her passport picture taken, but we knew that if it was nice outside that we would also do some sightseeing.  So we left the hotel at 8:45 to get her passport picture taken so that the government can issue her a Chinese passport.  Sissi will pick that up for us on Friday.  The rest of the day was spent touring the Tengwang pavilion.  It was a great tour and we learned a lot about Nanchang and Jiangxi province, which is the province were Phynley is from.  We all had a really good time, but highly stimulating as pretty much any place is in China.  You can go nowhere without being completely surrounded by a cacophony of sound.  We came back to the hotel briefly and then went out with Sissi to a restaurant that served traditional Nanchang food.  It was yummy! Then back to the hotel so that we could give Phynley a nap before heading out again this evening.  We are getting ready to leave right now so I will finish this post later.  On the agenda for the rest of the evening-riding one of the tallest Ferris Wheels in the world, seeing the musical fountain and another dinner out with Sissi.  It should be a fun evening!