We started the day with the usual routine, breakfast, back to the room and naps. I could get used to this life - LOL! While we were laying down and Veronica was struggling to fight off sleep the phone in our room rang letting us know our laundry was done. Good, we will pick it up later and laid back down. About 15 minutes later the phone rings again and apparently they want us to pick up our laundry now. Hehehehe, so much for that plan. I come back to the room and play chess with Max(he is getting better) and kill time until we start getting ready to head downstairs.
We all load on the bus, much to Shan-Shan's chagrin. The ride to the consulate is about 35 minutes and we go maybe five miles; traffic is pretty bad even at 2:30 in the afternoon. He cries and is upset the whole way. We get to the office building where the visa and immigration office is and it literally is just part of an office building. I figured it would be more like an embassy on dedicated ground, etc. Nope, just the 5th floor. We go in and show our passports and go through metal detectors and sit in a large waiting room with probably 40 other families with adopted children. Our group alone is at least 16 of the families. We wait to hear our child's Chinese name called and when it is we go up, show our passports, they verify that the passport copies are indeed us, sign a paper and we are done. We wait for the rest of the families to complete before the USCIS officer comes out to give us the oath. She reviews some information with us including the stats on the number of adoptions they have processed with their six person team and that the Waiting Child/Special Needs adoption numbers are on the increase. At least three of the kids that are being adopted are within weeks of aging out. In China once a child turns 14 they can no longer be adopted and are out of the system. This more than likely will mean a very rough life for them. She has us stand up, raise our right hand and swear an oath that the information we provided is true and factual to the best of our knowledge. That was it. Sort of anti-climactic after the months of paperwork and stuff, but you know what? I'll take it. It is very poignant that those words followed by him touching down in SFO will give him all of the benefits of US citizenship. Wow.
After that we load on the bus, more crying ensues, and drive back to the hotel. We learn about our itinerary for our last day with the adoption agency before we are on our own. We have a very late check out at 4PM as we wait for the visas to be finalized and put in the system and then we load on a bus for the 3.5 hour trip to Hong Kong. On the way we will exit China and go through customs at the border to our next adventure. We have arranged (I hope!) a van to take us from the airport, where we will be dropped off to our apartment in Kowloon.
We arrive at the hotel and head to dinner at a restaurant called 1001 Nights which as its name implies has an Middle Eastern theme. The food is great and we all have a good time. The kids enjoyed watching old Tom and Jerry cartoons that were on and ignoring their father's pleas to eat. On the way back to the hotel, which was very close, we stopped at Starbucks for an after dinner treat. We went to the room, change into swimming gear and hit the pool. The kids have been wanting to go since we got here and since it is an outdoor pool, the early mornings (not happening) or evenings are the best time and time is running out! The kids had a great time, expect Shan-Shan who freaks out like we are going into a rest room. We would love to know what it is about restrooms that sets him off. We start to speculate that he associates it with the hospital or something, but we never will know.
Back in the room we get ready for bed and Julie starts packing the suitcases as the Guangzhou chapter of our adventure draws to a close.
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