Our Kung Fu Fighter

Today was a momentous day, our last hurdle was cleared and now we just wait for our visa to come home!  In a surprise move the U.S. Consulate here had to move some of the process up a day because of some in-house meetings they are having on Friday.  So instead of going to finish the final paperwork and take the oath on Thursday we had to do it Wednesday afternoon.  Now it would have been nice to know this sooner and change our flights around, but its going to be real expensive to do it so we'll stick with what we have.  Normally we have been traveling on one bus with just our travel group but today since the consulate changed things we piled on to 2 bigger buses with many parents from other groups and headed to the offices about 30 minutes away.  The visa office used to be here on Shamian Island but moved to a bigger building since they have so much traffic.  Most of the traffic is not adoptions, its Chinese nationals immigrating to the U.S.,  over 20,000 last year. Adoptions are down to under 3000 from a high point a few years ago over 7000.  The consulate official also told us last year for the first time ever adoptions of special needs children surpassed healthy children for the first time.  So as it ended up today over 60 families converged on the consulate at once to take the oath.  We weren't allowed cameras inside so I don't have many photos to add today.  The consulate is in a large building shared with many other businesses so the outside doesn't even have U.S. flag or anything!  So no scenes from the movies with people running to the arms of burly soldiers just inside the big iron gates!  We had to go up five escalators to reach security and its like flying! Take off shoes and even belts!  We were told this part could take hours so bring a change of diapers, baby food, etc. but nothing electronic, no cameras or phones.  As it turned out we were one of the first families called to go to window 21.  There was a line of windows, 17-23.  Like going to the ticket office, heavy glass window and we talk through a speaker-mic system.  We just showed our passports and signed one piece of paper.  Then sat down.  After all the families visited a window the official came out and administered the oath to everyone at once, saying everything we submitted for the adoption was true and we were done in not even an hour!  The bus ride there and back took longer!  Tomorrow our adoption agency reps will go back and get our passport and visa for Laine and a brown envelope.  What is in the brown envelope we don't know!  We are told DO NOT OPEN IT.  Apparently it must remained sealed and will be opened by the immigration officer when we land back in the U.S.,  Laine will officially become a naturalized citizen of the United States at that time. 

 

As for Laine she is still wowing people with her petite body and cute face.  She will occasionally go wild and kick her feet and swing her arms and even shake her head so hard it looks like it must hurt!  But she just blows some bubbles with her lips and smiles on.  One local worker in a store said she was practicing her kung fu moves when she saw her do it!  I just wish she would quit them right now in the crib and go to sleep, so Christina and I could!