Day 17: August 11, 2014
Day 17: August 11, 2014
Today was
the big US consulate appointment day! We
got all dressed up per our agencies recommendation and excitement for the
important day. Jeff and I wore the same
clothes we did on Gothcha Day, but sweet Miley wore a beautiful red floral
traditional Chinese dress. She was
beautiful! Before our consulate
appointment, we had to do a quick stop by the doctor’s office for the physician
to make sure that Miley and a few other kids didn’t show any signs of Chicken Pox. Thankfully he cleared everyone good to travel
to the US!!!!
The actual
consulate appointment was very informal and quick. One parent, Jeff in our case, repeated an
oath basically saying that everything that we wrote in our paperwork is correct
to the best of our ability; then an officer called each family up individually
and asked to see our “clear envelope” of papers that we had previously
organized; and lastly one parent had to be fingerprinted as a proof that he had
taken the oath. It was a no-stress
process. We were very thankful. There are so many stressful and painful parts
to adoption, but this appointment was not one of them.
We did
experience a bit (or a lot) of heart pains today, because as we are getting
ready for sleep tonight our first born, Max, is starting his first day of the 1st
grade back in the States. I have really
been strong this whole trip until today.
I have missed the kids terribly, but had not cried over it probably
because I’ve been so busy. Today it all
became real what I’m missing back home.
I know that he and the rest of our children are being cared for
amazingly by family and I also know that it’s just one day…but I am his mommy
and I won’t to be there for him.
Tomorrow (the 12th) our second son, Cooper, will be starting
Kindergarten and I’m sure I will cry about that too. We were able to talk to Max and the rest of
the kids tonight (their morning) before he went to school via skype and we was
so happy. He showed us which outfit he
picked out and was very proud of his clothes.
(I’m so glad that I was able to take him school shopping before we
left.) My sister took him to school and
was able to skype us the whole car ride to school. I absolutely loved seeing his smile
tonight! I CANNOT wait to hold my babies
again. Two and a half weeks is too long.
On the
other hand, this long extended time in China has been wonderful for Miley and
us to get to know each other and to start the bonding process. As much as I want to be home with my
children, I honestly would not have given up this time with our MIley
Mengcong! I guess it’s a bittersweet
time for everyone.
Tonight is
our last night in Guangzhou and I still have to look up how to spell the cities
name every time I type it! We spent it
with our new friends at a new restaurant.
Bet you can’t guess what kind of food we had…Chinese! The food was wonderful like always and the
company even better. God gave us the
best group of families to travel with.
We were able to travel with the same two other families for almost our
whole trip. These two families adopted
their children from the same orphanage that we adopted Miley. One of the boys adopted was even in Miley’s
same “class/play room”. The other three
families we were able to get to know in Beijing a bit and a lot more here in
Guangzhou. It’s so crazy, but we have
something in common with almost every family…besides adoption of course. It has really made our time in China even more
wonderful. I hope we are able to stay in
touch in some way.
Tomorrow we
will get Miley’s travel visa and then will head to Hong Kong around 4pm. In Hong Kong we will check into our airport
hotel. The next morning bright and early
we will start our LONG LONG flight back home.
Our flight will go from Hong Kong to Seattle to Atlanta and finally to
KNOXVILLE!!! Can’t wait!
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