Here is Sarah in her red, white, and blue dress for our special day:
The brand new US Embassy building is AMAZING. Incredible. What a difference from the old one! This one took 10 years to build. The HUGE lines of Chinese people waiting outside to gain access to Visas to go to the United States was sobering. So proud to be an American and have the rights we do...
Inside, in the office for US Citizens adopting Chinese children, there were 5 other families. One of the families I knew from an adoption group I am in. (Trish, it was wonderful to meet you and meet your two children!) The officer who spoke to us was so kind, telling us in the entire Consulate General, THIS is the most important work, and the most rewarding - children being adopted into families. Then we waited to be called up to the window individually. When it was our turn, we handed in all our documents, our passports and Sarah's Chinese passport (It is the only time she will travel on her Chinese passport, with a US Visa inside) as her Chinese citizenship ends when her American citizenship begins - the moment our plane lands on U.S. soil at JFK airport on the 14th.) We did have a panicky moment (more for them than for us) when they told us there was information missing from one of her forms and I needed to fill it in and then sign it. The information missing was her American name. I thought that was odd as I KNEW I had filled that out when I submitted the form long ago... The officer told me to sign the form. Rupert said if it had been him, he would have just signed. I glanced up at the top of the form and it was NOT FOR OUR CHILD. It had a different child's name on it. When I told him of the error, yikes! Another officer was called over. They went over every single form in her file - removing everything, looking through every single paper. Then a supervisor was called over. Finally (more than 10 minutes had gone by) a form was presented to us that was OUR FORM. I was told to sign it. Rupert noticed that SOMEONE ELSE had already signed it. They crossed out that signature and I signed beside that area. (What this likely means is that a family last Thursday was accidentally given Sarah's form and signed it. They will now have to go back to the US Consulate...for the form for their child.) So glad we caught the error! Yikes!
After that we left and our guide took a photo of us in front of the building. Here we are outside the US Consulate:
On our way back to our hotel, our guide and driver picked up another family at the Sheraton. This family was in a different province for the first week, adopting their 7 year old daughter, and just arrived in Guangzhou on Saturday evening. They wanted to come to the area around our hotel (pet market, outdoor market area, Shamian Island), so they rode back with us. They are a lovely couple from Tennessee, who has an 8 year old daughter (adopted from Russia at age 18 months) and two biological children who are in their 20s. We had a good visit with them on the ride back to our hotel, which was very long due to traffic.
We are back in our hotel room for the day now. Planning to use the pool, nap, and go to dinner (most likely at the hot pot restaurant that we love).
Our process is just about complete. Tomorrow, Sarah's US Visa will be ready at 4:30, and we will leave Wednesday morning at 6 am. (Our flight departs at 9 am.)
It is so hot again. It is 99 degrees. Tomorrow supposed to be even hotter - over 100. We have decided not to go on the Pearl River Boat Cruise we had thought we'd go on. Just too hot! And also prediction of thunderstorms in the evening, right when we would be taking the cruise.
But to put things in perspective, Guangzhou is rated the #20 hottest city in China. Meaning...there are 19 HOTTER cities (on average) than Guangzhou. I believe the city of Changsha in Hunan province is the #1 hottest city. Chinese people apparently joke that if you want to get away from the heat, come to Guangzhou because it is only the 20th hottest. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. And it is not just me thinking this is HOT. We have met families from Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Florida who all said the past few days have been like NOTHING they have ever experienced heat-wise before. And Rupert, who grew up in Hong Kong and lived there for 17 years said it was not ever as hot in HK than it has been the past 3 days (and tomorrow).
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