September 29, 2006 The honeymoon is for all intents and purposes over
Before even departing for this great adventure to officially add Aliyah to our family I began to call this our honeymoon with our daughter. I am not sure how many fathers and mothers can say they got to spend almost two week on a vacation (sort of) with their child right after they joined the family. This was great family time with an 8 month old. We had time to ourselves without the distractions of home and work on a sort of adventure in a wonderful new place for each of us. We had the learning experience of getting to know one another at a new level and work through some challenges of our new life together. The analogy of the honeymoon seems to have held true.
We gathered as a group to go to the US Consulate to get Aliyah her US VISA and Liz and I took an oath stating that all the information we provided was true and correct to the best of our knowledge. There must have been close to sixty other families adopting children taking the oath with us. The gentleman from the consulate thanked us for what we were doing and told us he felt we were saving these children. We have heard this several times but it is always a little hard to believe. What I do know is that China has the best in mind for these children as they have open the door for us to add this little treasure to our family. Aliyah has already provided such great joy to Liz and I, and we can’t wait for the adventure to continue when we return home.
Tomorrow we depart from Guangzhou at 5:45 am and will spend one day in Hong Kong before returning on Sunday 10/1. That 14 hour flight may be the most challenging part of the adventure yet.
We will greatly miss seeing our new friends on a daily basis. I am sure e-mail, phone calls and visits will have to take the place of our China family. Lineaker, Amy and Sherry our America World Guides have been fantastic and kept us on track with everything so we could focus on the children and seeing China.
Thanks for following our journey. We will post two more times after our trip home and in a week or so with a family update. Your thoughts, prayers and e-mails of encouragement have meant so much to us.
