Alice Loten at last!

The next morning we went down to the Civil Affairs building to finalise the adoptions. We waited in a room with a whole bunch of Dutch couples who were adopting infants and then were finally told that it was our turn. Jane Ottman and I were asked to go with our guide, Fontana, to the bank next door to the Civil Affairs building to pay the fees. Banks in China are run under very different lines than those in Canada. In China, or least in Wuhan, the tellers are behind glass shields and speak though a microphone, so that everyone in the building knows what going on. There are no lines and everyone just pushes up to the a teller window and shoves the money or forms into the slot at the same time. While Fontana pushed her way to the front, Jane and I waited at the back. While we were waiting, a guy with a big ID badge wearing a blue suite started making small talk in English with us. I thought he was with the bank (he looked like the bank manager type) and chatted with him for a bit when he suddenly said "I have to be getting back to work now" and left the building! Turns out it was just some guy practicing his English. Eventually Jane and I were called to the front where we shoved our money over ... and that was it - I don't think the teller even counted it. He handed Fontana a receipt and we were done. So much for needed new bills. Back we went to the Civil Affairs building where the Dutch families had all left with their new kids and the Ottmans and I were then called forward for our interviews. Things seemed to go quite straight forwardly for the Ottmans, but it seemed the lady doing the interview was not all that impressed with me. She kept pointing to the place on the form where "farmer" was listed as my occupation and eventually Fontana asked me if I owned the farm where I worked. I said yes, I owned over 500 acres of farmland, at point the registration lady become very nice and even laughed once or twice. I guess she thought I might be some sore of Canadian peasant. I had to sign a bunch of forms, place my fingerprint over my signatures, Alice was footprinted and that was that. She is now officially Alice Qiu Loten. I've included a picture of all of us on the steps of the Civil Affairs building (I don't think I mentioned it before, but the young Caucasian lady in some of the pictures is Jennifer, the 22 year-old niece of the Ottmands who it travelling with them and helping with the kids.

I was able to talk to Alice's caregivers and got some basic information from them. Her favorite food is meat, although she likes all sorts of food and is not a fussy eater (we've noticed this, her whole face lights up a meal times). They describe her a 'fierce' and we've noticed that too. Her cleft palate will need further surgery and in the pictures you'll notice that it looks like she is missing a tooth. The tooth is there, but back and off to the side. There's a noticeable ridge in the inside of the top of her mouth so more work is definitely required.

"Shi Zi Qiu" - I asked Fontana about Alice name and finally got a complete answer. Fontana grew up in Wuhan and naturally is familiar with local ways of speech. "Shi" can mean the number 10, but in Hubie also means "stone" or "rock" and is a common sir name. "Zi" is an honorific often used in the names of philosophers or other respected people. "Qiu" means autumn, which is the season in which she arrived at the orphanage. So her name literally means "Honorable Stone of Autumn".

Still no email access for some reason, so if anyone is trying to email me, I'm not ignoring you, just can't get to your message. Internet access is spotty in China, with some sites blocked and others only partially available.