3/08/05
The first order of business today was to take pictures of the babies on the White Swan's famous 'Red Couch'. It is tradition that the adopted children have their pictures taken on the red couch on the second floor of the hotel. One of our group from Tonggu had to take a trip to the doctor for some antibiotics and missed this picture - I shot a separate picture of her later (below) .
Afterwards, we walked down to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to take our oath. No cameras were allowed in the government buildings for security reasons, so sorry- no photos. Basically our group walked into a room, listened to a short speech by the consulate representative, raised our right hands and *boom* the adoptions were official! Quick and easy!
Quick fact: The U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou processed over 7000 visas for infant adoptions from China last year. The number has been steadily increasing each year and they will soon outgrow their current facility.
Next, we finished packing up our belongings at the hotel and started saying our first round of goodbyes, as only part of our larger Bethany group was going to Hong Kong for their last night in China.
Here is Julie and Macey with Joy, one of our Bethany representatives. She was our main facilitator while we were in Nanchang and did a wonderful job:
While we were waiting for the kid's U.S. visas to arrive, we played in the Swan Room, a large play area in the hotel designed by Mattel. Here we are right before leaving the White Swan and heading to the airport for a short flight to Hong Kong:
Unfortunately, it was after 8pm when we arrived in Hong Kong, so there wasn't time to go see anything (which I would have really liked to do). The Regal Hotel was connected to the airport and was very nice - the lobby had more lights than the Starship Enterprise.
After a delicious 'real' American meal at McDonalds, we turned in. The next day was going to start our long journey home...