Day 16 Thursday - Consulate appointment

Ok, our baby girl now eats jars of baby food, eats from a spoon and fork, eats a variety of food, drinks from a water bottle, straw, and now sippy cup. She also will pick up Cheerio's and only Cheerio's and feed herself. Let me correct that. Cheerio's is the only food she will feed herself. She will put in her mouth anything else she can get her hands on . . . toys, paper, remote control, etc.

Since it rained Wednesday, it really cooled off for Thursday. I had to unpack pants for us. It was in the 60's with a breeze. It felt really good, but too cold for shorts.

Erich slept in while I got the kids ready for the day. It's not too hard when they are confined to one room. It will be harder when they are spread across a house! At breakfast is when Maelynn first fed herself the Cheerio's. She now does the sign for clapping hands (or yeah!). She gets so proud of herself. We are working on eat, drink, all done, and bye bye. We taught Logan these when he was a baby. It is incredibly helpful. The kids know what they want before they can physically speak the word. I cannot stand grunting so this was a good solution. Logan did very well with it.

After breakfast, we played in the room for a bit and took a nap. We needed to take naps a little early due to the appointment that afternoon. Erich did some shopping while we slept and then took the kids out to play so I could continue to veg. Then we got ready for the 'all official' American Consulate appointment. We loaded on the bus about 2:45. It is a much longer drive than it use to be. Actually, that is how White Swan and Shamian Island got to be so baby friendly. The American Consulate was 2 blocks down the road and everyone would just walk there. I'm glad we still stay at the White Swan. Other families whose babies are from different provinces came here last weekend for this last part of the process. They are relieved to be here since it is so much more baby friendly.

Once we got there (Logan fell asleep on the way), we went up 3 or 4 escalators. They told us to have our passports ready. No one ever checked them. We went through the security where we had to leave our cameras at the desk and go through a metal detector. There was a big waiting room with lots of chairs. Genie handed us our paperwork and we got in line. They looked at it briefly. They actually did a double take on Erich. He shaved his beard since the picture was taken last week. We sat and waited some more. The room was full of adopting families. Finally a lady came out with a microphone. She said if we had any questions to let her know when we were done. She said the one question is when do the children become official US citizens. It is when they first touch down on US soil and go through the immigration line at the airport. After that, we all stood up and raised our right hand. She asked if all the information we provided is true and correct. We said 'yes'. She said 'Congratulations! You are done.’ That simple. We waited some more to get our paperwork and were gone.

At the hotel, we fed Maelynn a bottle and went downstairs to say our last goodbyes to Genie and Kelly. They are taking other families to the airport in the morning. Shirley (we've never met) is taking us. Shirley works for FTIA and will fly to Beijing with us and get us taken care of. She is the coordinator for the other FTIA group that received referrals after us and are here already. Our guides gave us a CD of Chinese folk music. This is after both Genie and Kelly sang for us on the bus ride. Genie's husband (they live in Beijing) is in charge of booking performing arts for events in Beijing. One of his major tasks is the 2008 Olympics. He is looking for international groups to come over and perform. I'll post this information on the Cincinnati theatre yahoo group to see if anyone is interested. From what I understand, the theatre group needs to pay for the flight over and the other accommodations are taken care of.

A group of us went to 2nd Avenue for dinner. There were 22 in all. It was great to have a last good-bye with our new friends. Then we went around to a couple of shops to pick up some items we ordered. The vest Double Happiness was suppose to make did not work out. They did not make a new one. They only tried to move the buttons over, but it was still too small. I am very upset with them. They gave us our deposit back. As we were leaving, obviously upset, they were still trying to sell us stuff! I will not go back and do not recommend them to anyone! I was pretty bitter the rest of shopping and did not buy another vest. We got the rest of our orders and I took the kids upstairs to get ready for bed. Erich continued to shop. He does really well with the money and bargaining. I do not do so well. I just want to pay the ticket price and be done. I do not like haggling. Bob Geoppinger, you would love it here!

Genie came up and gave us some items she is sending to the Dayton family she is close to. I gave her a list of our travel groups email address. I will miss her. I got a good picture of her and the kids. When Erich came up, I sent him back out for a massage. It cost about $8! Erich came back and we packed until 11 PM. He thinks he’ll be sore tomorrow. I didn't sleep well. There are so many things going through my head. It seems we were at the Beijing zoo a year ago. So much has changed in the last week and a half! This may be my last post until we get home. We leave the hotel at 11 AM (11 PM Cincinnati time).

Thank you everyone for your emails, comments, thoughts, and prayers. They mean so much to us. We could not have gotten through this trip without them. We love you and will be home soon. God is great! If I do not post right away when we get home - Happy Easter!