This is our last full day and night in Guangzhou, China. Tomorrow (Wed. here) we fly to Hong Kong, then onto Newark and, finally, Atlanta, Georgia. We’ve had a really good time in China and we’ve met some wonderful new friends. We will be forever grateful to this country for our daughter. We look forward to a return visit in the not-too-distant future.
The U.S. Consulate portion of the trip was very interesting. There were so many people there with babies. According to Consulate over 7,000 foreign adoptions were processed out of Guangzhou last year. There must have been at least 100 babies there today. We all raised our right hands and swore that the information in our petition for adoption was true and correct. We then received Lilyanne’s visa to the U.S. As soon as she touches American soil, she becomes an American citizen. We have no pictures of today’s visit to the consulate since cameras are not prohibited inside as a security precaution. Security in Guangzhou is very tight right now.
Finally, I will use this post to say thank you to Lina, our coordinator. She has been a Godsend. Always enthusiastic and constantly smiling, we owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude. She has taken care of us and maneuvered us through all the necessary paperwork with ease. When we went to Tonggu to visit Lily’s hometown, Lina actually climbed up the side of a hill to cut bamboo so that we would all have some bamboo leaves from our child’s province. She later laminated the leaves for each of us. That’s the kind of person she is and we are honored to have met her.
So, we are off to dinner for tonight. I’m not sure if I will have a chance to post tomorrow morning or not. Regardless, we will soon see you in the States! Happy Thanksgiving.
