The Final Step

We're sorry we haven't written much lately. There really hasn't been too much to write about or show pictures of. We have both been fighting a pretty nasty cold (as is most of our travel group, but thankfully, not the babies). So when Sydney goes down for a nap, we have been trying to nap ourselves.

However, today was a big day in the process. We went to the U.S. Consulate here in Guangzhou. But before we did that, we took a little bit of time to do the famous Red Couch Photo at the White Swan Hotel.

The White Swan Hotel is widely known as the final stop for most American families adopting from China. It is located very close to our hotel, and it used to be right next door to the U.S. Consulate before it moved a few months ago. It is a very nice hotel, and they have an amazing lobby with koi ponds, waterfalls, bird cages, and lots of expensive fine art for sale. They also have some nice red felt couches where adopting families will dress up their girls and put them on the couch for the obligatory picture. The sign near the couches says, "Hotel Guests Only," but we all looked like we could be anyway, so we just marched in like we owned the place. It was quite an event to get all six girls on the couch at the same time (Heather and John joined us in Guangzhou after traveling to Xian to get Jillian, hence the extra girl). Anyway, here is one of the best pictures we could get.


Sydney is the second one from the right; she is holding up Maya. The girls, from left to right, are Natalie, JoLi, Zanna, Jillian, Sydney and Maya.

By the way, the red silk outfits were courtesy of Paul and Lydia - Paul found them on one of his recent trips to Asia, so thank you very much, Paul!

After the White Swan, we left on a bus to the U.S. Consulate, which was about an hour's drive away, mainly due to the traffic at rush hour. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, so we don't have anything to show you. This is where we got Sydney's travel visa to enter the U.S., and once we touch down in Portland, she will officially be a United States citizen! We also had to swear an oath while we were there. This is when things got interesting...

Let me back up just a bit before I expand on that. Last week (I believe), Paula Zahn, on her CNN show "Paula Zahn Now," had a segment about adoption from China. The panelists she had were pretty ill-informed about China adoptions and said some pretty stupid things. Of course, none of the guests have adopted a child from China, worked with people who adopted from China, or really knew what they were talking about. Anyway, this apparently really enraged some folks back home in the U.S. who know about adoption from China, so the CNN folks aired a segment last night during Paula Zahn's show with a member of Families with Children from China (the FCC), and also read some e-mails they received from the Chinese adoption community. I read the transcripts earlier today from both of the segments. You can check out the transcripts at the CNN web site, if you would like. So, I thought that this issue was done with for Paula Zahn and CNN.

And now back to our appointment at the U.S. Consulate today. When we got to the room where we were about to do our swearing-in, there was a TV camera and sound guy filming some other families that were there just slightly before us. Paul noticed that the camera had a tag on it that said "CNN Beijing." The camera seemed to be following one particular group around, filming them as they went about their paperwork and swearing-in. Before the entire group did the oath, the vice-counsel explained that they would be filming for CNN, and if anyone didn't want to be filmed, they would do a separate oath ceremony for them afterwards. We all stayed put.

We were a few rows back as they had us take the oath, and I'm pretty sure that the camera had to have us in the picture as we all did the swearing-in. Tim and Inge approached the cameraman and sound guy afterwards and asked them what they were filming for. They told us that it was a segment for Paula Zahn's show. They also said that it would take a day to edit and get ready for broadcast, and it would show the next day. That would make it Thursday, which is tomorrow! I think her show is on at 5:00PM, so you might just see us on TV swearing our oath at the U.S Consulate! How cool is that? We'll be home by this time tomorrow, so we are going to try to record it with our DVR, but if anyone can find any way to save this and put it on a DVD for us (we don't have a VCR anymore), that would be great! Even if we aren't on the video, it will still be neat because we were there!

So now we have to pack everything and get to sleep, as we have a 4:00AM wake-up call tomorrow. We leave for the airport at 5:30AM, and we should be taking off around 8:20ish tomorrow morning. Then we go to Tokyo for a very short layover, then on to Portland, where we arrive at 7:00AM on the same day we left. You have to love the International Date Line! Time travel should be interesting.

We can't wait to come home and bring our daughter with us! We'll keep posting on this blog in the coming weeks, as we try to adjust to the time zone change again as well as our new schedules at home with Sydney.

Thank you again to everyone who has been reading this blog, and to those of you who have sent us warm wishes from home! We really appreciated that!

Here are few more shameless exploitation photos for you to ponder. See you soon back in the United States!


The family Red Couch Photo.


Hungry little girl!


Sydney trying to walk (with lots of support). Note the abnormally huge head, thereby exponentially increasing the cuteification factor.