Happy Moon Festival

Thirty four hours until we are flying home! Gosh, when I began this blog, I was counting the days until we left for China, coming to pick up Liam. Now we are counting the hours until we leave China and bring Liam home. As I write this, I think about all that has happened in the last two weeks...flying to Hong Kong and then Guangzhou, going to pick up Liam but having him not there, going back the next day and finally getting to hold our little guy...and that is all within the first 72 hours! We have had two weeks full of love!!! Lots of hugs, kisses and cuddles. Lots of laughter, confusion, guessing. Experimenting with the local cuisine, speaking with the locals, and seeing the world through a two year old's eyes. We will leave here with many treasures and although the trip has seemed really long, we have been richly blessed.

Today was our consulate appointment. We had no idea what to expect and apparently, it didn't even involve us! We had all our paperwork filled out ahead of time and our guide, Connie, took our paperwork to the US Consulate's office in downtown Guangzhou and delivered it. She waited while it was looked over (and approved) and then she called us to let us know everything went just fine. All we had to do was stay by the phone in case there were any questions!

Tomorrow is our oath ceremony. As I understand, we will swear that all that we have written on his paperwork is true and genuine. Somehow, all this comes together and we will have a brand new United States citizen when our plane lands at the airport in Newark on Thursday! =) We will have his Chinese passport but he will be an American citizen. How exciting!

Today was a very rainy day! There was a typhoon south of here and we have the rain from that. We did get some thunder and lightning and that was neat, especially since it came in the middle of the day. It is a very warm rain and it clears the air...and adds just a little smidge more humidity.

We had our group picture on the famous "red couch" here at the White Swan hotel. I don't know if anything makes this famous, really, but it is tradion for families to have their picture taken on the red couch before they leave, and any children of families that used the same agency. I will post our picture so you can see all the beautiful children. Looks like we didn't get the memo about dressing your child in traditional Chinese outfits. Instead, Liam is in the traditional American two year old outfit. =)

Today is the Moon Festival, or mid-Autumn festival for the Chinese. There are many lanterns out tonight and the boats cruised the river with their neon lights dancing along the outlines. The harbors and paths that follow the river are all lit up and festive. The Chinese bring oranges for good luck (like Liam's orange last night) and a moon cake, which is similar to a fruit cake where people give them but nobody really eats them. They are quite expensive and pretty looking though. The streets have been crowded with people buying their moon cakes since we got here. We thought, "hey, we'll buy one before we leave and take it home to have with the family", only to find they stopped selling them at noon today! We couldn't find a moon cake anywhere tonight!

We had dinner with a couple of families at a local cafe called Lucy's. After dinner, Liam and Mahri (pronounced the same!)played with the lights on the patio and then ran around by the harbor where we watched the neon boats float by. Liam was quiet intrigued by the dogs and cracked himself up as he chased around after them. Biscuit is in for a treat!!!

This afternoon decided to go for a walk before the rain hit but we didn't get far before the sky opened up and poured buckets of water! We were heading to a shop to exchange an outfit of Liam's. This shop is where we shopped the first day and bought his squeaky shoes. The shopkeeper is a very nice young man and he speaks wonderful English. His shop is small, maybe 12x8, but he has some art, shoes, outfits, and antiques...everything I love to shop for! Anyway, we paid for our things, exchanged the outfit and started to head out when the shopkeeper offered us his umbrella. He said we needed three and we only had two (true) and he didn't need it today and we could just return it tomorrow. That is just an example of the generosity and kindness we have experienced during our time here. Again, another treasure...

The pictures tonight are of Liam's snack (corn juice...he LOVED it!!!) and the kids all hanging on Andrew after dinner. Everyone loves Andrew! There is the red couch picture and Liam chasing (and finally, petting) the dog. mct