Citizenship Day

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

We woke up around 7:00 this morning and called home. The time difference is 12 hours so it has worked out great with timing the phone calls. We wake up just as JT is getting ready for bed and at night here we can talk to him before he gets on the bus in the morning. The confusing part is the international date line. We are on the opposite side so our Wednesday night is your Wednesday morning! It kind of reminds me of that movie "Ground Hog Day". When we leave Guangzhou on Friday night at 9:00pm, we land in L.A. at 6:50pm on Friday night...2 hours 10 minutes before we left Guangzhou. I'll give you a few minutes to think on that one!!

We had yet another wonderful breakfast this morning and hung out at the hotel until 11:30 when we met our guide and all of the other families to head out on our tour. This morning, Judy, our guide, went to the US Consulate and submitted our U.S. paperwork. Everything went well and we were surprised to find out that our Swearing-In Ceremony was moved from tomorrow to this afternoon. So plans quickly changed and our tour will be tomorrow instead.

We didn't have to meet for the Ceremony until 2:45 so we decided to take the famous "Red Couch" photos since all of the girls were together. The White Swan has these beautiful red velvet couches throughout their lobbies and it is a tradition among the adoptive families to have the travel group photo of the girls together on the red couch. Now, getting five little girls to sit on the couch together and all look at the camera is nearly impossible. Most of the girls want to be held 24/7 so that adds to the difficulty, but we got our photos anyway.

Afterward, we decided to do a little shopping since we have a few hours to spare before the big Ceremony. Everything is within walking distance on the island so we enjoyed the stroll and popped in a few of the shops to pick up some souvenirs. One street in particular reminds me of Atlantic Avenue in the summer with all of the tourist shops. Everyone here is very friendly and most of the shop owners speak English very well.

At 2:45 we all met in the lobby with a few hundred other families to head over to the U.S. Consulate. It was a 45 minute bus ride from the hotel and you guessed it, Lea fell asleep. The Consulate is located in a very beautiful part of Guangzhou with a large park right in front of it that has the world's largest man-made waterfall. The scenery here is just breathtaking. At home we have the overgrown grass in the median strips with trash littered throughout. Here they have beautifully manicured hedges, Palm trees and beautiful flowers lining all of the streets.

We entered the Consulate showing our passports and surrendering our cameras. We were led to a large waiting room of chairs across from a long line of windows. Very similar to the DMV at home, but much, much better service. First we had to take Lea up to one of the windows and the clerk checked our paperwork and photos to make sure that we were who we were supposed to be and that Lea was who she was supposed to be. We all matched so we took our seats again. After all the families did the same thing, a representative came out and spoke over a microphone (remember, there are hundreds of babies in this one room, it was a little noisy - Lea's still sleeping). She congratulated all of the new families and spoke of the importance of the consulate for U.S. travelers abroad. After her speech, we were all asked to stand and raise our right hands and take the oath of citizenship for our daughters. This was the last step in the adoption process. After exactly four year from our first meeting with our adoption agent on October 21, 2005 to today, October 21, 2009, we finally have our daughter. She is now ours forever!

What an emotional release this event was. I was fighting back tears of joy when the comic relief I so needed came out. The representative was leading us in the oath as we stood with our hands in the air and she said, "I do solemnly swear or affirm...." and we, all 200+ parents in the room said, "I do solemnly swear or affirm..." Randy and I looked at each other and lost it! We laughed, silently, of course. You know that "church laugh" the one where because you are not supposed to be laughing it makes it that much harder to not laugh. All I could think of was that line from the movies where the preacher says, "Repeat after me, I, state your name, ..." and the other person says, "I, state your name, ..." For some reason, that just cracked me up and I couldn't stop laughing. I don't think anyone besides the lady in front of me noticed and since I had tears running down my cheeks from laughing so hard, maybe she just thought I was getting emotional. After taking the oath, we looked down at Lea and, ironically, she slept through the whole thing.

We got back to the hotel and decided to eat dinner with some of the other families at the Italian Restaurant by the river. Once again, my meal was very good. I had spaghetti with tomato and basil sauce. Randy, on the other hand, has issues - again. He ordered the mixed seafood plate. Wisely, he asked the waiter what kind of seafood was is the dish and was told prawn, salmon, and squid. So, he asked if it was possible to leave off the squid and the waiter said no problem. So everyone else at the table got their meal and Randy's came about 10 minutes later. We figured that they forgot about the squid request and had to redo his order. So finally, when his order came, there was no squid - good- however, they replaced the squid with clams - not so good. Randy does not like clams. I got him to try one just in case and he then reconfirmed that he does not like clams. So, I had clams for dessert. I loved them...sorry honey.

We got back to the room and Lea took a nice bath. She loves to splash in the water now. The first bath - not so much. I'm not sure if she had ever had an actual bath before since after the first bath the water was like mud and I swear she was two shades lighter. She was so funny after we were ready for bed. She was worn out from all the activities of the day and got funnier and funnier the sleepier she got. She kept giggling tonight right up until she fell over sound asleep.

It was a wonderful day!!