Visa Day!

Our appointment date with the U.S. Consulate had finally arrived! This is the date that we received Ellie's Chinese passport with her U.S. Visa stamped in it. This U.S. visa gives her permission to legally enter the U.S. and, upon arrival, she automatically becomes a U.S. citizen (thanks to Bill Clinton and legislation he passed in 2000...I miss him as a president!).

Immediately after the visa appointment the majority of our group left the country to travel back home. We didn't, however, as our travel plans had us staying in-country for another day. Since we had no one to hang out with, we went to the local street vendor and purchased a copy of Valkerie (the movie with Tom Cruise) to watch after the kids went to bed. It was a mellow ending to a crazy China excursion.

Sista's, finally!

The evening of our consulate appointment, the girls finally clicked the way we knew they eventually would! They played together in the TV cabinet in our room...think Cirque du Soleil....I could never fit in there.

Pearl River Cruise

The evening prior to our swearing-in at the U.S. Consulate in China (to obtain Ellie's U.S. visa so she can legally enter the country), we went on a cruise down the Pearl River, the main river flowing through Guangzhou. It was truely a BEAUTIFUL evening!
Here is Ellie as we were waiting to board the boat.

....and then she had her first slice of PIZZA! Yes, we had ordered Papa John's Pizza to eat for dinner on the boat. It was delicious and tasted exactly like Papa John's back home. Yummm....

The cruise turned out to be wonderful. The weather was perfect and the girls behaved beautifully....just like sisters who are friends with each other, too.

Ellie Coming Out of Her Shell

Toward the end of the trip, Ellie really began to show her personality.

The Red Couch

The day before all adoptive families depart from China, it is tradition to have all the adoptive children (in a travel group) in traditional Chinese dress sit on one of the red couches in the White Swan Hotel for a photo op. Imagine trying to get a bunch of puppies to sit still long enough to take a photo and then multiply that by 100 and that's what these photo sessions are like.

Quincy and Ellie pre- group photo.....

The group photo...looks fun, huh?

Above are all the families in our Guangzhou Adoptive Family group.

Random Pictures from Some Day in China

Midway through our stay in China, Quincy began to do the opposite of anything we asked. For example, if we needed to go somewhere, she would instead plop herself on the floor and then refuse to get up. While this would be very annoying here in the states, it was especially bad in China as she would do it in the middle of the hotel lobby in front of all the native Chinese. I can only imagine what was going through their minds at the kind of parents they thought we were. Just embarrassing.

The Playground on Shamian Island

The playground on Shamian Island (the Island our hotel was located on in Guangzhou) represents China in everyway: Crowded.

Pictures from China---One Day Post-Gotcha Day

The first afternoon after Gotcha Day we decided to go swimming in the Beautiful White Swan Hotel pool (it really is beautiful...waterfall and all). Quincy was soo thrilled to finally have her "sissa" (sister) that she was constantly attempting to hold her hand. Ellie didn't really know what to make of it.

The picture above pretty much sets the tone for the day. Quincy was her typical spastic self---just not a good spastic but a bad spastic. Ellie just seemed annoyed with her a lot of the time.

Ellie's first time in the pool. It went pretty well.

After the swim we just lounged poolside. Quincy was still spastic; Ellie was still annoyed.

But....by the end of pool-time, Ellie was showing signs of happiness at last.