We are less than 48 hours away from leaving China. I am extremely excited to go home and start our life with our two wonderful children. It has been really hard to be away from Marcus these two weeks, but I also think that it would be really hard to have him here with us. There are two families in our group that have their older girls with them, the girls are three years old. They are having there own struggles with having their children with them. I think that our bodies are finally getting adjusted to the jet lag and time change and we get to put our bodies through it again in two days. YEAH!! It is so hard to have a “normal” life living in a hotel room. Although one of the other mother’s pointed out that having breakfast made for you when you get up is a great advantage……especially with the buffet of multiple choices. Today we slept in a little and went down to breakfast later……that was a huge mistake. I guess we didn’t really realize how many people there are here that all eat at the same time. Earlier is better we have decided!
Today, Molly and David took our paperwork to the US Consulate and everything went well. We will go the Consulate tomorrow afternoon to receive Alicia’s passport and visa to return the US. We will all gather to take the oath for our children, but unfortunately we are not allowed to bring cameras with us there……so no photographic proof!! We will be meeting prior to the consulate meeting to take some group photos of the children. We bought Alicia’s traditional Chinese dress for her to wear for the “red couch” photos and to wear to the consulate tomorrow.
We have one other couple from our group that will be on the flight with us on Thurs morning and so we have been trying to strategize with them on how much formula, how many diapers, can we bring hot water, etc. with us on the plane. I was reading another blog from someone that just returned home and it took them 50+ hours…….apparently plane delays, missed connections, etc. Please pray that does not happen to us!
Tonight a bunch of people in our group are going on a dinner cruise on the river. It should be fun. The weather made a dramatic change yesterday with the storm that came in. We went from sweating in our summer clothes to digging out the long sleeves and long pants again. I haven’t worn them since Beijing, but am happy to pull them out. We are running out of clean clothes and now we don’t need to have laundry done here. I did a couple of things in the sink the other day and that should hold us out until we get home.
This hotel is so much fancier than anything that I’ve ever experienced. They actually have a concierge person on each floor. She holds the elevator door open for you when you get on and when you get off the elevator she directs in the direction of your room. They come a turn down your bed and put out slippers and chocolates for you.
We can’t wait to have everyone meet Alicia….she is going to melt everyone’s heart with her pretty eyes and smile. Marcus we can’t wait to see you on Thurs. Love you lots.
