Farewell China

The bags are packed and have already been taken away by the bellboy. We leave for the airport at 5:30 tomorrow morning and will not land in Cincinnati until 6:35. That means 26-27 hours of travel time until we finally get home if all goes well. We have had a great adventure so far, but are ready to get home and get started with life as a family of five.

Today we had a few group activities before preparing to depart. The first thing was an attempt to get a group photo of the children. This was rather entertaining to watch. Someone may have gotten a good photo, but we didn't. The best one is attached below. At least you can see all twelve of the children!Next was a group photo of all the families that traveled with us. This went better as we were able to contain the children. Our group consisted of twelve families from various parts of the U.S. We hope that we are able to keep in touch as we all have shared a very special experience.

This afternoon we had our group oath at the U.S. consulate. The room was packed with adoptive families (including many crying children). I would estimate there were over 50 families there. We had to present our passports and ZhuZhu's Chinese passport so they could confirm that we matched the paperwork. After that the whole group said the oath. Basically all we said was that the information in our documents was accurate to the best of our knowledge. Next we received more documents and ZhuZhu's Visa that allows her to come to the U.S. ZhuZhu will officially be a U.S. citizen as soon as her Visa is stamped in Detroit tomorrow!

This truly has been a remarkable journey! I admit that I didn't fully understand what we were getting into during our preparation. I read the information that FTIA gave us and even read most of the postings on the related Yahoo groups, but all of that doesn't prepare you for what happens to your heart. The only way to fully understand, is to experience it yourself.

We will post again after we have arrived home and ZhuZhu is a U.S. citizen. We wish our entire travel group a safe and pleasant trip home. God bless America!