Consulate appointment and HEADING HOME!!

Oh praise God, we have made it to the finish line!!  Today was the final step in the adoption - passing our "interview" with the US Consulate and taking the oath to swear our children in as citizens.  Gabe will not become a US citizen until we land in Atlanta (our port of entry), but I swore in on his behalf today, so just another step in the LONG process to adopt these precious babies.  It use to be that the agency guides would go to the Consulate on your behalf and do the "interviews", however this time we had to do this ourselves.  There was very little to it - we just stood at a bank teller type window while they sorted through all of our paperwork - some we had brought from home, but most we had received in country, then I signed a few documents, showed my passport and was finished!

Later in the day we came back to the hotel for the family and group photos, and then it was off to a beautiful city park.  Sadly by the time we went to the park I was so tired of lugging my camera that I didn't take it with me - oh well, you all know what gardens look like in the US - yeah, well, they aren't that different here! :-)

So, best news of the day, WE ARE HEADING HOME TOMORROW!!!  I am so excited to be going home, I can barely stand it.  While this has been an amazing experience, one that I would do over in a heartbeat if ever given the opportunity (I  know Kramer, I'm reading your mind...), I am so excited to be heading home to really start life as a family of six!  I miss my beautiful family so much, and I can't wait to show Gabe all his siblings, and his daddy, grandparents, aunts/uncles, etc.  Oh, how he is going to love being a Kramer!  I just get all teary eyed thinking about it...

We leave Guangzhou around 9 pm tomorrow and head to Hong Kong.  We'll arrive in HK around midnight, and then early in the morning we head from HK to Tokyo, Tokyo to Atlanta and then Atlanta to HOME!!  The longest flight is of course Tokyo to Atlanta which will be approximately 13 hours.  Not too bad, considering it was 15 hours here in the most confined space of my life - so flying home on Delta is going to feel like heaven in comparison!

So...that's all from China...next time you hear from me it will be from the good ole USA! :-)

I love to model for the camera

The four kids in our travel group 

Fun family photos!

Our group!