Last Day in China

It is hard to believe that our last day in China has finally arrived. It is noon on Wednesday here in China and we have less than 24 hours before we start our long trek home. We have spent the last few days continuing to bond with Kaylee and finishing the last few formalities that must be completed to leave the country with Kaylee. In the eyes of the Chinese government, our adoption is complete and Kaylee will be an official U.S citizen when our plane lands in Chicago. Yesterday, our group traveled to the U.S Consulate, here in Guangzhou, to finalize the babies' visas and to take the group oath. There was not anything fancy about the ceremony. In fact, it took place in a very institutionalized setting, but nonetheless, it was very special to all of the families in our group because it signifies the completion of the last major step before coming home with our new babies.

This morning, our group participated in the red couch photos at the White Swan Hotel. Anyone who has adopted from China knows exactly what this is, but let me explain the tradition for those of you who do not know what I am talking about. The White Swan Hotel, where we are staying, has a few red velvet couches and it is tradition for adopting traveling groups to have a group photo of their babies wearing traditional Chinese outfits taken on the red couch on their last day in China. Now our group consists of 5 babies under one year of age, 2 babies who are 2 1/2 - 3 years of age, and a little girl who is seven. So as you can imagine this was quite a chaotic and funny endeavor. Usually you have the domino effect-- meaning one baby starts crying and then they all start crying or one baby topples over and they all start falling. However, we got lucky and was able to get some very sweet pictures as you will see below. I don't know if you will be able to tell in the pictures, but Kaylee is wearing her first pair of squeaky shoes. This is another Chinese tradition. All of the shops around our hotel sell baby shoes that have squeakers in the heels of the shoes. So when the baby walks you constantly hears squeak, squeak, squeak. It helps to promote walking-- the baby likes to hear the squeaking so it makes them want to try to walk so they can hear the squeaky noise. Kaylee has a while before she will be walking, but hopefully one day soon she will be squeaking around in her shoes. And since I want all of our family and friends to experience the wonderful sounds of the squeaky shoes, I bought all kinds of different sizes so Kaylee should be wearing her squeaky shoes for quite sometime.

The first picture is Kaylee and her Easter ears. Since we became a family during Easter time, Kevin bought Easter ears for Kaylee and we have been packing them all over China. However, things have been so crazy we forgot about them until last night. So I know it's a little late, but the picture is so cute I have to post it.

Our next post should be from the good ole' USA and will be found under the Forever Family section of the blog. We cannot express how grateful we are to everyone who has prayed and supported us during this Journey. Each and everyone of you mean the world to us and we thank God for you, and we cannot wait to introduce you all to Kaylee!!!!