Day 2- It's Official!

The second day we were in Chongqing, we made promises and signed paperwork, red thumbprints and all, and Vivienne became our daughter in official eyes...

Mama 

Baba 

We needed Vivienne's thumbprint too, which went over about how it looks!

The Norris Family!

See that blue carrier?  You will be seeing much, much more of it in our travel photos.  It was not just a back and arm saver that afforded me really great endurance; in addition to the wonderful bonding benefits,  this was how we communicated security to Vivienne in those first weeks.  She latched onto the fact that if she was in the Ergo, her world could be as small as it needed to be- just mama and baba.  When we had very few communication tools, she understood when mama put on the Ergo that she was coming with us and she was okay.  She would climb up into my arms and tuck her little arms inside the straps, and calm almost instantly.  She often tucked her little lamby inside, too.  When every day is a different itinerary, and each activity is utterly new and not always pleasant, having a portable, safe place means a lot to a little girl.  It was also gave us awesome freedom in these two very large (as in, millions and millions of people), pedestrian cities.  For adoptive parents, I'm not gonna lie- it was summer and Chongqing was hot....and Guangzhou was hotter and more humid than even Louisiana!  And where there was A/C it was not the same we see here, except in the hotel.  The carrier relieves your back and arms and distributes weight over your hips- I loved it knowing what it would be like otherwise.  It is amazingly comfortable for a very, very long time, but after a week of intensive wearing with a 25 lb toddler, my joints took notice.  It's safe to say Vivienne and I were both constantly overheated (we drank so much water!), a couple shirts stretched out past all saving, and my left hip is just now fully recovered after a week home.  Worth it.  Over and over again.