Last night
was a VERY LONG night for Brandon.
Whenever I woke up to check on him he
was either sitting on the side of the
bed in contemplation or in the
bathroom. He chose not to go down to
breakfast this morning so Kiah and I
joined Julie Orta and her daughter
Sabrina for breakfast. We sat at a
really nice table that overlooked the
Pearl River. The view was wonderful.
After breakfast we headed back up to our
rooms as today was our Consulate
Appointment. Our CCAI Reps took all of
our adoption documents and VISA
applications to the US Consulate. We
had to stay in our rooms from 9:30 am ?
11:30am and wait for a call from them.
If there was a problem with the
paperwork then we would have to fix it.
We got a call at 10:50am saying that
everything was OK. WOO HOO!!! 1 last
step to go!!! We then decided to turn
some laundry in and Brandon courageously
headed out of the hotel with me and Kiah
for lunch at Lucy's. I told him he
should take it easy with whatever he
ate. I expected him to get another
peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He
decided on Chicken Quesadillas with
Salsa. Hmmmmm. We waited to see how
that was going to turn out. We did A
LOT of shopping after that and had a
great time. We visited several new
stores where the shopkeepers were not
pushy. It was a lot of fun. We then
headed back to the hotel for some down
time. We decided against going to the
Pearl, Gem and DVD Market as the group
would have to take taxis to the market
area and we thought that would be a
gamble with Brandon's current
situation. We watched some ridiculous
movie on HBO and then headed to the bank
at around 4pm. The China Bank is a joke
here. We have to exchange money there
between 9 and 5pm. After 5pm you can
exchange it in the hotel with no
hassles. The bank requires you to fill
out all of these forms, show your
passport and they make you take a number
like you are at the DMV. You end up
waiting AT LEAST 30 minutes for a 2
minutes transaction. AND NO LOLLIPOPS
for the kids!!! Jacob would be SO
upset!!!
After the
bank, we hustled back up to our rooms to
prepare for the Red Couch pictures. I
bought Kiah a beautiful Asian dress just
for the photo shoot. She looked
beautiful. All the families got their
pictures taken separately and then all
of the babies together and then the
whole group. It was great fun and only
1 baby took a tumble off of the
couch!!! That was Sabrina Orta!!! Her
mom made a great catch when she fell so
she didn't get hurt.
We decided
to go to the group dinner. It was the
last one so even though we were not
thrilled with the choice of restaurant,
we decided to go anyways. We started
regretting it as soon as we sat down.
This is one of those restaurants where
you can pick your meal from one of the
tanks. That's A OK at Red Lobster.
HOWEVER, walking past tanks of turtle,
worms, beetles and various snakes kinda
ruins your appetite. We were told that
there would be some normal food
available. Didn't see any besides the
steamed rice the babies were eating. I
can't eat food that is looking at us.
In fact they brought something to the
table that was still moving. We were
counting the minutes and even thought of
using Brandon's current bowel situation
as an escape from the restaurant. I
told everyone I was heading to Lucy's as
soon as dinner was over. And we did but
Brandon talked me into ordering apple
pie from room service. Gotta love the
pastries.
We rested in
the room for awhile and then ordered the
apple pie. If we didn't have such a
horrible dinner we definitely wouldn't
have decided to order the apple pie with
ice cream at a price of $12/slice!!! It
was good but not $12 worth good.
Brandon had to run down to pick up our
laundry when I decided it would be a
good idea to change Kiah into her
jammies. Well, off comes the diaper and
while I was reaching for a new diaper,
Kiah pooped ALL OVER the bedspread?..
twice!!! I couldn't do anything but
LAUGH!!! I cleaned it up as best I
could. When Brandon walked in he knew
SOMETHING was up. He didn't find it as
funny as I did. Especially since I sent
him to the floor attendant to explain
the situation and get a new bedspread.
He totally blamed me for the situation
and another bedspread was delivered
quickly.
Tomorrow is
Kiah's big day. At 3pm we get on a bus
for the 40 minute ride over to the US
Consulate. Once there we will receive
Kiah's Chinese passport with her US Visa
inside of it. We will take an oath to
love and protect her and that everything
we have said and done is true and
correct. We took a similar oath in
Moscow for Jake. We purchased a VERY
SPECIAL dress for Kiah to wear. A
wonderful lady named Jennifer makes the
loveliest dresses for little girls as a
fundraiser for her China Adoption. We
have one of her Rose Watergarden dresses
hanging in Kiah's room. We purchased a
Patriotic dress for Kiah to wear to the
Consulate Appointment.
We received
our Adoption Registration document back
from our CCAI Reps this evening. We
also received a cute panda bear from the
owners of our agency.
WE LEAVE ON
SATURDAY MORNING!!! YEAH!!!!!!!! We
are so anxious to get home.
We LOVE YOU
Jake and Katelyn!!! CAN'T WAIT TO BE
HOME!!!
Love from
Guangzhou,
-Nicole,
Brandon and Kiah!!!
