Tuesday, January 26, 2016
This morning we had to wake up early in
order to leave for the US Consulate by 845am. We skyped with the
kids as they were finishing up their Monday which was the 100th
day of school back home, so they were celebrating it up at Nana and
Papa's house. They were just finishing up trying to sled down the
hill in the backyard for the 100th time. They also made
t-shirts and ate their ginger bread cookies. Noah and Ezra had a
date with Nana at Pattenn's Cafe in Orr, MN to have a giant cinnamon
roll. As exciting as it is to be counting down to the day that they
see us, they will be a bit sad too as they have really enjoyed
spending so much time with their cousins Ezra, Zek and Ike. Noah and
Gavin have slept next to Ezra and Zek for all of the nights except
for 2 of them. (8 out of 10) and they are each like 2 peas in pod.
Lilee had fun painting her nails and soaking her feet with Aunt
Simie. They have all had so much fun and life will be different when
they head back to Dayton. I'm so glad they have gotten this good
time with cousins and grand parents at both my parents and Ben's
parents. I just wish we all lived closer together :)
Lucee was hard to wake up this morning,
we have learned that she enjoys being woken up to her Chinese kid
songs being played on the computer. We put this on and she didn't
even move. Not even with it turned up loud and the curtains opened
and lights turned on. It wasn't until I gently roller her over and
said good morning that she began to stir. Thankfully, once she got
up she was pretty cooperative with getting dressed and ready for the
day. She was excited to head down to breakfast.
When down at breakfast we saw our guide
and he let us know that we weren't going to leave until 9am now,
because we are riding with 2 other families together in a big van.
This was the first time we had done anything with other families. It
was definitely different, but okay. It made us appreciate the one on
one time and chauffeuring that we have had on the other 2 weeks in
china. When you are the only family, you don't have to wait for
anyone, you just go and do what you want to do with your guide. Now
we were needing to wait on them, which again, was fine, just
different.
We got to the US Embassy and went
inside while our guide stayed outside. He gave us the heads up on
what to do and where to go once we were inside. Unfortunately we
weren't allowed any cameras, cell phones, or mp3 players inside
otherwise we'd have taken lots of pictures. Our appointment was at
10, we got there at 930 and didn't get to leave until 1140. usually
it only takes an hour, but today they were having issues with their
computers and so the 20+families that were there took what seemed
like forever! We left and went back to meet with Jack, but still had
to wait another 30 minutes for the other families.
Despite being there for over 2 hours,
Lucee did amazing! She enjoyed sitting on Ben's lap or being in my
arms. The toys I brought to occupy her time didn't really get used,
cause she mainly just liked being with us and watching the other
families. Ben and I kind of feel like she was nervous because the
last time we were with a bunch of adoption families was when she got
her blood drawn and we think she might have been worried that
something painful would happen again. Thankfully, nothing painful
happened, other than just being patient for our turn to turn in
paperwork, give an oath that the paperwork was correct, and have an
interview with a lady about Lucee and our adoption. Now that this
appointment is done, we just have to wait and pray that all goes well
and we get her passport with her visa on it by tomorrow afternoon so
that we can bring her home on Thursday. If something is wrong or
delayed than our flight will have to be delayed as well.
We had planned on going back to Shamian
Island to finish up buying souvenirs (this will be the last place to
buy them before coming back to the US) after the Consulate
appointment, but with it taking much longer than anticipated and
since we were with a group, we decided to go back to the hotel first
and get Lucee lunch and a nap. The other group was leaving to go to
the Island in about 45 minutes, so we decided I'd stay with Lucee
while she napped and Ben would go with the group to finish up any
shopping.
I was a little nervous since the last
time I put her to nap by myself, there was a battle, but I said a
prayer for God to bless our time and laid down with her and she was
asleep in 20 minutes without a peep. I got up and was able to catch
up on the journaling while Ben is out at Shamian Island and I have a
quiet hotel room to myself. It's crazy to think we have 1 more full
day here and then we will be on a 14 hour flight back to America.
Can't wait to get everyone back under the same roof and start living
life together as a family of 6! Until then, I'll soak up this quiet
time :)
She ended up napping for about 3 hours!
Hopefully she'll sleep good tonight, but the good news is tomorrow we
don't have to do anything until 415 pm. So, if she stays up late
tonight, we can at least all sleep in tomorrow morning.
Well after Lucee woke up, we watched
some Chinese cartoons and ate a snack. At about 5pm I began to
wonder where Ben was and decided I'd call our guide to contact the
group he went with to see when they'd be back if he wasn't back at
530pm... At 515pm I started to get nervous that the group had left
without him and he was stranded somewhere with no contact
information, so I called Jack. He was surprised that Ben wasn't back
yet and called the other guide from that group. Just as he was
calling me back, Ben walked in the door. Ha Ha. Everything went
great for him and he was able to walk around the Island more since
the weather wasn't as wet and cold as when we went the other day. He
also met a family from Dayton who knows our friends, Russ and Camy
Nelson. They are adopting for the second time. Ben really enjoyed
meeting them and we can't wait to all get together when we all get
settled back in at home. Russ and Camy travel to China 2 weeks after
we get back to bring their daughter home. We are so thankful for the
network of other families that we are meeting so that the kids can
get together and play with other kids from their same country.
Even though it began raining, we
decided to venture out to a Chinese restaurant not far from the hotel
that we heard had amazing food. The food was great, even though our
waitress seemed to find it comical with how much food we ordered. We
went back to the hotel and let Lucee play again in a long bubble bath
(the pool at this hotel is outdoor, so we don't get to enjoy it:( ,
the tub is the next best thing to her though). Then we all went to
bed at about 930-10pm.
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| Not many pictures taken today... Ben holding Lucee while eating dinner... |
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