Day 14 - Surprise Day

First, a few photos.... This photo is the boys walking around in a park next to the hotel. We were coming home from lunch.... yes, it raining.

Next, it a picture is the White Swan Hotel. ....No, we still are not roughing it!

Next is a picture of the street shopping outside the Hotel. Its kind of a Southern climate (i.e. Palm trees).

So, whats the surprise. Our Consulate appointment is moved up to today, wow! So this morning, we had breakfast as usual and its was better than we were getting in Changsha. We did a little shopping, bought Katelin a Chinese outfit, a charm, and some other souvieners. For lunch we had a Cheeseburgers and Grilled Cheese (I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!). I the afternoon, we piled on a bus and rode for about 40 minutes to the US Consulate. There were about 40 families in total and the adopted children were sworn in as US citizens. It was a pretty cool moment. A room filled with people from all over the US all hoping to give these kids a better life. The guy doing the speaking came around the room and talked to us ( and several others) for a little bit before his speach. He let us know the next steps, gave us some advise wrt birth certificates,... and then we all stood up and took the oath. Then we took the 40 minute bus ride home. Oh ya, one more thing.... Katelin fell asleep as we pulled away from the hotel and never woke up until we returned. She slept through the entire thing. Guess she wasn't as interested as we were :) Tonight we went to an Italian restaurant, it was good. Tommorow is our last day here before we get on the plane for the US. We have nothing to do except shop and sightsee.

I think that we have been very fortunate to have seen there very different cities on our trip. Hong Kong was like a mini-NYC. I'm not sure how to describe Changsha. It seemed to be poorer. The driving and congestion is crazy. There are people everywhere. Guangzhou seems very nice. Nice shops, people seem very nice, food has been great. This may be because we are in an area where there are so many American adopting familes that things stores/restaurants are catering to this. But right now after 1 and half days, I feel like I'm at home. English is spoken everywhere. This has been a wonderful trip and one day we want to return and visit Bejing (for all the great sights), Hunan province (to see the actual orphanage and city that Katelin came from) and if possible, Guangzhou would be high on my list to return to.