Good Morning! It is 5:30 and I can't seem to sleep anymore--bummer because I wanted to get some extra for our late night ahead. Our flight is at 10:20 tonight and hopefully we will be to our hotel in Hong Kong around 12:30 in the morning.
Our week here has been amazing, truly wonderful. Our paperwork has gone without a hitch--bless God! Yesterday we received the news that Michael's TB test was negative. This is great because otherwise we would have been delayed. Yesterday morning we were up and at em very early to make it to the U.S. Consulate. We had to check everything at the front and go through security. Our guide was not allowed inside with us. There were so many people waiting in lines to get permission to travel to the United States. Being there made me so very proud to be an American.
A little side story here--our guide Judy has been wonderful. So very kind and knowledgable and she really gets our kids. She seems very happy and speaks fondly of her family. She hopes her son will someday be an exchange student in America. She gets Garrison involved in everything and speaks mandarin with them and engages them. She has also indulged some of our requests like a chance to ride the subway here. As we were riding the subway, she was asking the boys if someday they might like to come back and work in China. They nodded and I said that maybe God would call them to work with adoptive families like some of the folks we encountered at the American Consulate. Her eyes lit up and she quickly said "Maybe you come back when I am older and then you give me a Visa!" So many want to come to America. So many. It has been hard at times for me to be stared at all day long. We don't see many Caucasians here at all. Our pictures are taken. One man stopped his motorbike in front of us as a crosswalk to stare at us. Yesterday on the train people made a semi-circle standing in front of us while we sat on a bench and they all stared at us. America is such a melting pot and I love that though I live in a mostly white community, there are people of different races around me. I see them every day and my children will live in a world where differences are encouraged.
Back to the U.S. Consulate! We headed upstairs and were the second family there. Soon more families trickled in and it was so great to see these ten new families adopting Chinese children. We enjoyed chatting with a few of them and hearing where they were from. It was a mini-American reunion! When we had all arrived, a man behind the glass summoned us over to stand in front of him, raise our right hands, and repeat the oath. I missed saying parts of it because I was a little teary. Our Michael will be a citizen of the United States of America when our plane touches down in Chicago and he will officially have a new name.
This afternoon Judy will pick up our Visa and then that is the last piece of the puzzle here in China. After we get that, we are free to go--and we will go! :)
I plan on posting some pictures later this morning, but wanted to tell you a bit about our days here. There hasn't been as much adoption stuff that we needed to do, so we have had a lot of down time. I feel a bit like I've been living in the movie Groundhog Day. Our mornings have been different each day as we might have the doctor's appointment or one day we walked in a park with our guide. One morning we went shopping. Each afternoon is about the same though. We get lunch from the "food street" by our hotel. It is this amazing place with really cheap noodles and rice. Just don't watch too closely because the sanitary standards are questionable. :) We eat in our room. We chill for awhile playing on tablets or phones. We head up to the roof to do some swimming. We shower and change and then go down to the 12th floor for supper. (We decided to stay on the executive level and have loved it--drinks are free all day long and since we can only use bottled water this is great! At night there is a little buffet which is plenty of supper for us. It has been convenient and has saved us a lot of money.). Then we take a walk until supper time. We are ready to be done with this schedule and get in with real life. Michael is going to be shocked there isn't a breakfast buffet at the Sprick Nation! :)
We are living in the old city center of Guangzhou. It is 2600 years old and we love it here. This is old China. Narrow streets, little shops, crazy smells, and lots of interesting things to see. None of the other families we have met are here because they are closer to the medical clinic. We wouldn't change anything and the medical clinic is only a 20 minute drive that we had to do twice.
God has richly blessed us in so many ways. We have a good foundation established with Michael that will serve us well as we transition home. Garrison and Simon have memories that will last a lifetime. I do too. I have loved this trip and am not only taking home great memories and new information, but a sweet little boy. Now that is a souvenir! :)
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