February 4, 2010: Preparing for our Return!

Yesterday, we swore to the US Consulate. Since the room was full of children, we used significant restraint. The entire process lasted about 30 minutes. Our adoption agency, A.S.I.A, and our guide Ann really came through for us with our paperwork, coordinating our appointments and making the process as efficient as possible. We’ve met other families during our trip that unfortunately haven’t had the same positive experience.

We ate dinner at a great Vietnamese restaurant before taking a boat cruise last night. Lanhua’s diet is very traditional Chinese and in the evening, she’s an eating machine. She likes noodles with pork or beef, all types of vegetables and seafood (last night she had sweet & sour squid) and her taste in snacks is what you’d expect from a kid from Guangzhou: eel flavored potato chips, dried chicken wings, weird smoked meat bars and of course, good old fashioned dried roots.

This morning we went on a walk through the street markets. In addition to some pants that fit her (she’s so skinny), Lanhua found a backpack (yes, pink) for her carry-on stuff. She’s very excited about the trip to the US and is already packed. Our flight leaves at 9pm tomorrow, Feb 5^th. We’ll see if her excitement holds once she’s logged 15+ hours on a transpacific flight.

We’re looking forward to returning home but we’ll miss Ann very much. She’s a great guide, she’s very good with Lanhua and she’s become our friend. We’re lucky.

This is likely the last entry from Guangzhou. We’ll be back in the US (LAX) at 6pm tomorrow night - finally home in San Diego at 11:30pm.

The latest pictures are of from the Consulate’s office, our boat cruise last night, Lanhua’s goofy antics with her dad, and a photo of me with a tiger kitten (for Tandora!).