Almost home

We are on the home stretch!  This last week was spent in Guangzhou.  Friday we took the bullet train from Changsha...

The only thing I can tell you about taking a train in China, is that you need to move fast (translate:run) to make it onto your train on time!

We arrived late Friday night in Guangzhou and checked in at the Garden Hotel. 

Saturday we went for  Emme Lu's medical appointment. 

 The medical center was a little scary for the kids, but as parents is was just so encouraging to all the different families there. Kids all of ages with all different levels of special needs.   It was truly inspiring to see everyone.

On the main floor of the building there was a wine vending machine....enough said. :)








We were then in waiting mode until Tuesday and our consulate appointment.  So we did a little bit of sightseeing on Shamian Island and the zoo.

We were really glad there was no shotting on the island.

Feeding goats at thte zoo

Kyle's proof we were in China: Kung Fu Panda 

hanging out at the hotel

a little Mexican food in Guangzhou...San Antonio you have nothing to worry about!

Tuesday we had our long-awaited consulate appointment.  We were there with about 15 other families.  Currently the consulate processess around 3,000 adoptions a year down from over 10,000 5-6 years ago.
There are no cameras, phones etc allowed inside the consulate, so here is our picture outside of it. That space to Dave's left is to allow us to photoshop Kyle in, poor child could not get himself out of bed and ready to go by 7:45 that morning.

Wednesday while waiting for our visa to be ready in the

afternoon so we could head back to Hong Kong, we checked out another market.  I have never seen so many beads in my life.  It is really too bad I don't have a crafty bone in my body!

Finally our visa arrives at 4:30 and we are off to Hong Kong in a van.

We got to our hotel around 7:30 on Thursday, and it felt so good to relax and know we were almost done with the process.  Emme doesn't become a US citizen until we land in Dallas.   One more day here (that will be a separate post about our time at the happiest place in Hong Kong :)) and then we are headed home!

The last 10 days have been full of happiness as well as challenges, and we are pretty sure we have some major challenges yet to come!  Emme is mostly a happy girl who loves life, but you see the moments when sadness overwhelms her as she is proccessing all the changes that are occurring. She is really good at letting us know when she is frustated :) (she has a really good set of lungs!)

Please pray for her continued adjustment and our communication as we are now on our own!