Friday evening

Hi, this is our last post from China. We went to the U.S. Consulate office today to take our oaths with 33 other families. The new office is located in downtown Guangzhou in a nice business district area. It was nice to see that part of the city. Everything was modern and very clean looking and there was a beautiful man made waterfall across the street. We also got to see several families who have been up to the playroom at the White Swan hotel at night when we went up there, so that was nice. There were two sets of twins that were being adopted. Twins are very rare in China, especially in Chinese Adoptions. They were so cute today. Neither family was expecting to receive twins and were quite surprised when they got the referrals. There were approximately 8000 Chinese Children adopted in the United States last year, second only to Russia.

Madison ate her own ice cream cone today and loved every bit of it. No Ginny and Liz I did not get her chocolate. I gave her Oreos by mistake the other day, what a mess. We stuck to plain vanilla today and she loved it.

For traveling families: I am donating the money I saved from not needing the hotel room for 4 additional nights to sponsor an MRI for a child so they can be adopted. The money was spent anyway and the U.S. Dollar goes so far here. I asked my guide if there was anything I could use the money for and that is what she recommended. They know what is needed in the orphanages. Also, for families who are traveling soon, it is a good way to get rid of your Yuan before you leave. Someone else told me about that and I thought it was a good idea. One family did that and their guide ended up buying a whole bunch of noisy toys for an orphanage with their Yuan.

We leave for the airport at 6am tomorrow. So, that is all for now. See you all soon!