It Is Official

Jia is now our daughter in the eyes of both the Chinese and US Governments. I can't tell you what a relief it was once we completed the US Consulate part of the adoption and had the swearing in ceremony. It was a strange feeling really. Three long years of work and hope and fear all mixed in together finally over. We celebrated at Lucy's - the place here that serves burgers, fries and beer and walked back to the hotel for final packing preparations. The hotel room looked like a bomb exploded baby clothes, diapers and wipes all over but it has looked that way for over a week now. T has been the organizer extraordinaire getting us all packed and ready. Tomorrow we take the train to HK and will stay one last night. Sunday we head home to our family and friends and I can't tell you how happy that makes us. I will miss China very much. It is beautiful here and this has been the experience of a lifetime. I don't have the words to adequately explain how different and beautiful and alive this place is. I hope we can return one day.

I will try to post from HK but if not I'll post once more once we get back home. Someone asked about T's orphanage visit and I'll post that directly to the Yangxi Yahoo Group once we get back. But the short of it is he was not allowed to take pictures inside the orphanage so unfortunately we don't have any photos to share - I know how disappointing that is to the waiting families - I craved more pictures of Jia while we waited to travel. There were about 20 babies in the room he visited and it was very, very difficult for him. He was allowed to see her crib and we were given her blanket.

Talk to you all soon.