Passport'd-Up and Visa Ready

In our loving care, we now have a Chinese National, with a United States entry visa. Today we had our last official office visit and it was at the US consulate of Guangzhou. This office processes one third of all international adoptions (worldwide). On behalf of our little Cantonese cutie we took an oath. We swore to the accuracy of all documents and information provided to the United States government with the primary intent of securing entry and automatic naturalization upon clearing United States immigration. For us, and millions of people around the world, this remains a privilege that we do not take for granted.

For this auspicious occasion, the sunshine peeked out of its winter hiding for a couple hours. We had a nice sunny bus drive through several sections of Guangzhou. Fresh off hosting the Asian Games in December, the city looks pretty good. There are a couple of very impressive new high rises that would rival the flashy sister to the north, Shanghai. With Spring Holiday rapidly approaching, there is also beautiful potted orange trees dotting the streets and plazas. Val keeps threatening to pick a couple off the vine. Despite the size, the city does have some real charm and the tree lined streets are well cultivated and cared for.

Our day out ended with a dinner-out with our travel group to Cow and Bridge, a very good Thai restaurant on Shamian Island. With the exception of our darling child, all the kids were well behaved and we had a great time. The stress of the chase is now over and now we are all just gearing up for the final push for home. The restaurant was full of families we had seen earlier in the day at the consulate. As I looked around the room I was overwhelmed by the stories unfolding at each table. Kids of all ages and sizes, bound for new lives, dining with their new parents, brothers and sisters, grandmas and grandpas. Over the last few weeks we have witnessed levels of selflessness that are not common in our daily grind. Some may say that we have done a wonderful thing by taking Lena and Marin into our family (to the benefit of Val and I as much as Lena and MiMi). But this pales in comparison to dozens of people we have met over our stay here. We met Robin and Coleman who have adopted four kids and also do charitable work training fellow physicians in North China; or Sally who we met today, with four adopted children and her husband at home, here on her own in China (second trip in seven months) bringing home her new six-year-old darling daughter with Down syndrome. Special needs kids as the second or third addition has been the norm. Just as heart warming, we have also met several new parents, with their five year dream finally coming true. Daily we have met individuals who are going through this arduous process yet again, the third, fourth or fifth time to provide a child with a loving home and family. Today at the consulate we learned that 67% of children adopted from China in 2010 were special needs --compared to 40% when we adopted Helena in 2008. This trend is continuing in 2011. To employ an over-used word, this trip has been inspirational (as well as thought-provoking).

On the lighter side of things, we have really enjoyed our little travel group. Really nice people with enough laughter to keep us all sane. Laura and Diane (pictured at the front of the table) have kept their senses of humor and a few of their quips come to mind.
When I complimented Laura on her fantastic collection of unique jewelry, she said, "Its what separates us from the animals". Also, when they found out that a 40oz bottle of beer was only $0.79, she said we would be losing money if we didn't buy it. We will treasure all of our travel buddies.

Red couch picture tomorrow... we're in the home stretch!