Today was the day that we went to the U.S. Consulate to do all our official U.S. paperwork over here in China. Anna now has her Chinese passport, and she has to have a visa to enter the U.S. - along with her "brown envelope" of important documents when we go through immigration back home. Our appointment was at 8:30, and we had to go through security before entering the Consulate. No photography is allowed there, so we had to give up our 5,000 cameras, cell phones, Flip cameras, etc. There were 12 US families together in this waiting area, and the US official came out
and explained that we, as parents, would be taking an oath for our children. The parents all stood and raised our right hand as we took the oath. As I stood there, holding Anna, she raised her little right arm up in the air too, so I guess she felt compelled to participate as well. We then all waited for our name to be called, and we would turn in our big packet of papers when it was our turn. As I was waiting, there was a couple who was adopting this sweet teenage Chinese girl. I didn't get a
chance to talk to the family, but I could hear the US official asking them questions - Where did the girl live, had she ever been in foster care, etc. The US official mentioned that often older children will live with foster families, but the adopting family explained that the girl had lived in the orphanage her whole life. Most of us there had younger children we were adopting, but I was so thankful to see this sweet teenage girl being adopted by older parents. All the paperwork went smoothly for us, so we walked out with another family to head back out and meet our guide. Mom took a picture outside the area where we had passed through security, and a Chinese official ran
over and asked to see our camera. We got a little nervous, but she just made us delete the picture that had been taken. When they say no pictures, they mean NO PICTURES - even by the plant outside the doors!!!
We went back to the hotel for a little while, then our guide came and picked us up and we headed over to the jewelry market. I had exchanged some money that morning, and I decided to buy Anna a pearl necklace that she could wear when she was older. The shopping center was huge, and they had all kinds of jewelry! Some of the stores would only sell to businesses, not individual customers like us. We stopped at a pearl shop, and I got Anna's necklace (note Anna's smile in the picture - she was pleased, I think).
It was probably a good thing I didn't bring any extra money and they didn't take credit cards, because I could have easily bought a ton of stuff - ha! Mom and I got a few other things, and then we headed outside of the jewelry market (which was like an indoor mall) to an outdoor mall area. Tons of people were there, and there were a million different restaurants, stores, etc. Our guide told us that it was a good thing it was Monday and not the weekend, because that's when it was really crowded. As we walked along, some of the salespeople of the various shops
would stand outside and clap loudly - our guide explained that this was just their way of attracting attention for people to come inside and shop. I was trying to picture that in the Galleria in Dallas - somehow I don't think it would have the same effect.
Now all we have to do is wait for our magic packet of papers; the plan is to pick up the papers on our way out of town tomorrow. We will drive to Hong Kong tomorrow night and then fly out on Wednesday morning!
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