Foster parents are instructed to leave the room quickly. Geoff says the foster mother was crying but I didn't notice as I was too focused on Xiao Qiu bundled in her many layers of clothes. She was quiet for about 10 minutes despite the fact that all the other 5 babies were screaming – then she started and it didn't stop for about two hours. We were bussed to another building for an interview and signatures, and Xiao Qiu wriggled out of Geoff's arms and marched off towards the door looking for her foster parents. Understandably she was very sad and very frightened. After three hours of paperwork and bus trips we arrived back at our hotel.

We had to have this official photo taken of all three of us for her adoption certificate - she was crying very hard.

Finally we escaped to the quiet of our hotel room. Not surprisingly Xiao Qiu was drenched in sweat and tears and urine. As we stripped her down through five layers of clothes we found traditional Chinese split pants and a strip of soggy tea towel tied with a piece of string as her nappy. Once we got that off her she calmed down a bit and we were able to feed her a much needed bottle. Eventually she played quietly, whimpering occasionally, sitting on Geoff's stomach as he lay on the bed. We even got a few smiles and laughs as we introduced some toys. We did not make it to lunch as we felt she needed the quiet time – I went down to the restaurant and made up a plate and brought it to the room – I fed her and Geoff using chop sticks as Geoff was pinned to the bed with her still sitting on his stomach!

At 2pm we had to go back to the Notary Office at the Guangxi Welfare Lottery Hotel for another speech and another interview and payment of money. She screamed when I put her disposable nappy on her and dressed her but once we left the room she was fine. We discovered she has many Mongolian birthmarks all up and down her back and shoulders – if we had not known about these birthmarks we would have thought she was badly bruised. She also has a pale brown birthmark on her left cheek near the hairline. That might fade – who knows – I like it as it matches the one I have on my ankle, and her birthmark is shaped a bit like an autumn leaf which matches her name.

Xiao Qiu was beautifully dressed for her Adoption Ceremony in her blue Chinese padded suit given to her in advance by Auntie Monty and she behaved impeccably, carried around by her new Baba and leading him by the hand whenever she wanted to walk – definitely Daddy's girl. Mama gets called Aiyi as if I am her servant – well I currently am!

That evening, the batch of 6 couples met for dinner in the hotel – three of the babies are attached to men and three are attached to the women! After dinner she played till late and after a bottle and some crying and she finally went to sleep sitting on Geoff who was lying on the bed. She woke at midnight crying but settled back to sleep after a bottle. We all survived Day 1 and we have been blessed with a little angel – we hope she likes her new parents as much as she obviously liked her foster parents. She has been well cared for and taught many things including how to love. As the following days unfold she shows us more and more things that she knows how to do already.

We received from the Mothers Love Orphanage at the Adoption Ceremony a small photo album containing  photos of Xiao Qiu  every month from 2 months to now – this is priceless – one of the photos shows her being held by her foster mother. We also received medical reports for every month. Her current weight at 16 months is 7.5 kilos and 74cm in height which is fairly small even by Asian standards - she is very fine boned but very strong. We received a daily schedule of feeding and sleeping which shows her to be late to get up (9am) and late to go to bed (11pm).