Our last day!

Alice strutting in her Chinese PJ's...


My Dinner looking back at me....


Alice and her new doll...


Alice and her wild crazy self!!!






Go figure that I would figure out the pictures the last week of our trip! We are down to our last two nights and it still seems like an eternity before I'm going to set foot back in AZ. You know it is time to go home when you start thinking with the Chinese accent -- adding r's at the end of words like "Budder" instead of "Budda"; replacing v's with w's like saying "wisit" instead of "visit"; and repeating parts of sentences twice so that the americans can understand you -- this last one is actually very helpful.

Yesterday, we spent most of the day just walking around and shopping. Today it was a nice cool rainy day. We had to stay in the hotel for most of the morning while our guides took our paperwork to the American Consulate. We went out for lunch to Lucy's and then walked around and came back inside for most of the rest of the afternoon. We waited for the other group to come back from their Consulate visit today before going to dinner again at Lucy's. Tomorrow we get to visit the Consulate and then we are officially "released" to return to the states with our new kids.

Our visit to the Consulate is another "formality" in the process -- it is called an interview. What happens though is that you show up with about another 50 families or so -- you wait your turn to go to the window with your passport and your child. Then they verify that the child you are holding is the child on the passport they are about to hand you. If it is, they hand you all your official documents. Once everyone has their paperwork, you go into another room where an american comes out and asks everyone to raise their right hand and answer a couple questions, such as, do you really want to take this child home. This is the actual "interview"!! Then we get back on our bus and come back to the hotel.

I have mostly packed my bag with all the things that we have bought. I am going to donate Alice's clothes and anything extra that I have for her to a store down here whose proceeds go to the local orphanages. They will take whatever we have and use it or give it to other families that have come and may have forgotten something. It looks like I've done a good job and won't need to purchase another suitcase to get back home. This has been a common last purchase with a lot of families and of course, all the local shops sell the lastest in fine luggage.

Tomorrow, we are also going to go down for our last foot massage. Some of my friends leave tomorrow night and the rest of us leave Saturday morning. All I can say is it has been great, but I can't wait!!!!!!

:=)