Final Appointment Finished! (China Day 13)

That's right, we had our very last adoption-related appointments here today!  We headed to the US Consulate early this morning.  The Consulate is located on the 5th floor of a building downtown.  We had to wait in line for awhile to enter, and it felt strange seeing so many American flags and hearing people speaking clear English.  All adoptive families present had to take a formal oath, followed by a paperwork check and a signature on one last piece of paper.  We turned Helen's Chinese passport over to the US Government so they can add her US Visa.  Cameras weren't allowed inside the Consulate, but we got a few pictures from outside the secure area.

Best of all, we have Helen's official adoption decree in our hands!  

We were back to our hotel by 10:00am, and at 11:00am we had an exit meeting with our agency in the hotel.  After our (hopefully) final Guangzhou McDonald's lunch, we just bummed around the hotel room for the rest of the day.  Helen pretty much skipped her nap, so she was more feisty than usual at times.  She learned quickly which things are no-no's to touch (computer, remote control, etc).  She holds out one little finger... slowly moves it toward the forbidden object... and slowly moves her eyes up to meet yours.  She kept getting into EVERYTHING today.  Digging bottles out of the garbage, throwing diapers all over the room...  Cute, but naughty.  That's our little girl.

We joined the two adopting families with from our agency that were also in Guangzhou the entire time for a pizza party this evening (takeout from a place called "Tomato's" and it was great).  After finishing up a bunch of pizza and spaghetti, the guys headed down to 7-11 to buy Magnum bars for the whole group.  Helen had her first taste of ice cream tonight, and she LOVED it!  In true Helen fashion, she scowled as the first taste hit her mouth...

The passport and other final documents will be delivered to our hotel at 4:30pm tomorrow.  We'll immediately hop in a van for the long drive back to Hong Kong.  Please continue to pray for a break in the bad weather down south, that we will arrive safely by van, and that we'll fly out on time Friday morning. We're 100% ready to get back home to our other kiddos.  We miss them terribly!  One more sleep in Guangzhou, one more sleep in Hong Kong, and then many more sleeps in our own comfortable bed with the five Adolphs family members under the same roof, right where we all belong!