Well it was another great day in Guangzhou, China! We were not pressed to do much today. The only pressing issue was to fill out our paperwork (and there was a ton of it) for our US Consulates appointment. This is probably the most important step. It is where Annalei will receive her travel visa and we will come one step closer to bringing her home. Shiyan, our agency rep in China, will handle getting our paperwork to the Consulates office tomorrow. She has really been great throughout the process, alleviating a lot of the pressures that come along with the adoption process. On Friday, our paperwork should be complete and we will travel to the US Consulates office to pick up Annalei's travel visa and to take her oath of citizenship. It should be a great experience.
Tomorrow, as most of today was, is to be a free day waiting on the paperwork to be completed. Today everyone was a bit lazy. We awoke at our normal 4 am, but not intentionally. We awoke to Annalei crying. Once she saw we were still here, she quit. We are not sure if she was afraid we were gone, or not, but it appeared that way. This actually is a good sign, indicating that she has bonded well with us. After we got her up, she was fine and quickly went back to sleep. We did as well. It figures, just as our trip is drawing to an end, we are beginning to adjust to their time. Once we finally rose for the day we spent some time in the room with Annalei just playing and trying to figure out what new she had in store for us today. Annalei is really starting to blossom. She is smiling a lot more, laughing and giggling, making faces and showing a little more of her personality. She still loves playing with her toes. Her favorite time is when you take her clothes off to change her diaper. As soon as she has her legs exposed she just starts kicking and laughing. She just has a ball. I am afraid she is going to be like her big brother in that fashion - the fewer clothes the better. She is a real hoot. She continues to eat better. We are slowly weaning her off of the Chinese formula and onto American, of course adding cereal to it as well. She is doing a good job eating. She just won't let us know when she is hungry. She would go forever without eating and not say a peep. She also refuses to eat solid food. As soon as we put it to her mouth she makes the most awful face and gets pretty upset. I am not to worried though, we Americans will teach her how to eat. She is sleeping well - 3 naps a day, plus sleeping through the night. We have certainly been pretty fortunate.
Well, as I mentioned earlier, tomorrow will be a free day. Terri is little to excited about having an entire day to shop. Personally I think it would be a great day for us to stay in the room and bond. She respectfully disagrees! I will make my best effort to keep the damage to a minimum. I am already concerned that we may have to buy an extra suitcase to get our current purchases home. Strategically I feel I should wait until Friday to make that purchase, though, that way she will feel we are pressed for space rather than having the feeling we have unlimited capacity for the treasures of China. This strategy is sure to be tested tomorrow.
Well, we are becoming pretty wore out and long to see our family and friends. This is a long trip, but the rewards are well worth the investment. Dalen, we will be home in 3 days! Annalei can't wait to meet you. Continue to take care of mama and papa and chip. We will see you soon.
