Last post from China - Next stop, home!

Hopefully, this will be our last post from China! We are headed to the US Consulate in a little while to take our oath. Then we are heading back to the hotel, ordering a Papa John's pizza and packing our bags. Tomorrow morning, we will leave early for the aiport, fly to for a long layover, fly to Chicago for a short layover with just enough time to make our next flight! We are having a great time with our girls and we are ready to see friends, family and our house!

Almost Home!

We are on the home stretch!

Yesterday, our guides went to the Consulate for us to make sure that all of our paperwork was approved and it was! The US is in the process of issuing Caroline a visa to go home. That is one of our last steps. Today, we will go take our oath at the US Consulate and tomorrow morning get on a plane.

The bad weather that I mentioned is actually part of a nationwide snowstorm (we haven't had the snow though) that is hitting the country badly. In some areas, it is the worst storm in 50 years. Hundreds of thousands of people are stranded on interstates or in cities without electricity (knocked out by the snow). This is an especially bad time of year because so many people are traveling for Chinese New Year. Many adoptive families have been stranded in various provinces but everyone in our travel group is here. It looks like the snow should not affect our air travel tomorrow. Here is a link to a news story about the storm:

http://news.rednet.cn/c/2008/01/28/1429761.htm

Angie, Caroline and Sarah Grace all have bad coughs and the girls have runny noses. Other than that, we are healthy. The girls are getting lots of sleep, which is helping.

Yesterday, we saw Caroline laughing out loud many times throughout the day. She also wandered around our hotel room quite a bit away from Mama's arms. We are now seeing much of her true personality - friendly, happy, impulsive. She is a blessing.

I'm going to sign off so I can try to get a bit more sleep before the girls wake up!

More pictures

Sightseeing

The weather here is not nearly as warm as the forecast predicted when we left home. It has been in the 30s-40s. We packed for the 60s-70s! So we are wearing the same outfits a lot. We are thankful for laundry services in the hotel. Today is supposed to be in the 50s though so we are planning to go outside a lot (unless it rains all day).

Many of you have e-mailed asking to see more pictures. I have tried to get a lot yesterday and we are hoping to get more today and tomorrow. The main problem is that even though Caroline is making progress in her bonding, she typically screams if she is not in my arms. That limits the number of poses we can get! When she is successfully out of my arms, we just want to savor the moments. Yesterday, while Sarah Grace napped, Andy & I got some good playtime with Caroline. She's a funny girl and has a great memory. Her smile is infectious and when she laughs out loud, my heart melts.

We started the day at the breakfast buffet. Aunt Karen is a huge help as you can see. There is always an adult to man the table while we make several trips to the buffet to get food for everyone. I don't know if the picture is clear, but the girls wore matching outfits yesterday! Too cute.

Yesterday, we spent the day sightseeing. We went to the Chen Family Temple which has along history. I especially love the picture where I am holding Caroline next to the tree. I have the exact same photo from when I held Sarah Grace next to the tree in 2005.

Then we went to a tea house. At this tea house, they make the best tea pots in the world. Sarah Grace talked for 12 hours before about how excited she was to drink tea. She told everyone on the bus how much she loves tea (She's never even had it). Well, it was a good thing I got a picture of her first sip because she didn't take any more sips. After the first one, she declared, "I don't like tea!" Caroline slept in the carrier through the whole outing.

With a free evening last night, both girls (and their parents) got very early bedtimes. Caroline even fell asleep fairly easily (still with her Mama though).

So all in all, it was a great family day.

We are amazed at how well Sarah Grace has done on this trip. It's a difficult trip and she has been a trooper. We are very proud of her. She has made good friends and seen so many things. When I asked her what her favorite part of China has been, she said "getting my baby sister." Just yesterday, she said for the first time, "I'm ready to go home."

We have reached the point of being tired of living in a hotel room! We are eager to go home and we have just 48 hours left. We are eager to bring Caroline to her new home and for everyone to meet her.

It seems that blogger won't let me post many pictures in this entry so I will post some in a separate entry.