Big Day!

There is an adoptive family tradition at the White Swan Hotel called the Red Couch Photo.

Today was that day.

Travel group 1591 dressed their children in silk finery and took pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Too many for me to show in one post, but I will give you a sampling. Including one of all our freshly adopted children. 16 kids in one picture.... quite the undertaking!

Followed by a group picture. I've shared many times how awesome our group is, now you can see for yourself that I wasn't lying.

Remember those purse strings Kory cut yesterday. I retied them when a couple friends coerced me into going shopping with them. I really had no choice, but this time I really mean it when I say I'm DONE shopping. wink wink.

The biggest part of our BIG day was a trip to the US consulate where we, along with 36 other families took an oath stating that all of our paperwork was completed accurately to the best of our knowledge signaling the end of our immigration paperwork (on this side of the ocean at least). On Saturday when Suhn arrives in Detroit she will officially be a US citizen.

We ended the day at a French restaurant called the Orient Express. The menu was in Chinese, English and French. It was pretty good, but the company was even better.

Mya, I've got a new pen pal for you. Her name is Natalie and here is her first letter to you!

2 more sleeps until we board a plane to go home. I am SO ready, although the great people we've met actually make the going bittersweet which says a lot about them.

Regardless I'm ready to get home and get into a routine again. Ready to get away from the Guangzhoa heat and humidity and the "lovely" sewer smells of China. Ready to get back to simple breakfasts, brushing my teeth out of the faucet, and blue skies. Ready to sleep in my own bed in my own house with my family under one roof.

The End (because I'm tired and have already spent way too much time trying to figure out how to close out this post)