Our Final Day in China

Today was our last full day in China. We were scheduled to meet our guide Kelly at 2:45 pm today, so we had the morning and early afternoon to ourselves. We had lunch at the cafe down the street from the hotel and enjoyed the view of the Pearl River.

Aaron helping his little sister...such a gentleman

China is all about the old and the new

I was flirting with Becci here...

Aaron checking out some Tai Chi

We traveled by tour bus along with about 2 dozen other families to the American Consulate in Guongzhou to finalize Aubrey's exit paperwork. After a short wait, we were all asked to stand and take an oath that all the information we had provided was true, and that was it...she's ours forever. She will actually become a U.S. Citizen as soon as she touches U.S. soil, sometime tomorrow in Chicago. It was unexpectedly emotional to recite the oath and come to the realization that we've made it. Aubrey is officially and legally our daughter now.The Smith's outside the Consulate

the Smith girls on the bus afterwards

We really wanted to celebrate our last night in China with some traditional Chinese food in a nice restaurant, but circumstance conspired against us. For whatever reason, Aubrey was cranky around dinner but we decided to try anyway. The restaurant that was recommended to us just seemed unfriendly and Aubrey was restless, so we left after only having tea...45 Yuan for tea, we actually ate for entire days on this trip for less than that.

A short walk to burn off some energy and we wound up once again at the Thai Restaurant. The food is excellent, inexpensive and it always happens to be in the right place at the right time, so why not? Tonight was very good with Green Curry Shrimp, Roasted Duck (a favorite with the kids) and water spinach. Not all of us loved the water spinach

Finally, it was back to the hotel for the traditional Red Couch photos. Adoptive families that stay at the White Swan all do this..dress the kids in traditional Chinese outfits and takes photos of the kids as a travel group and alone on one of the many red couches in the hotel. Aubrey was just in love with her red dress and shoes from the moment she saw them. In fact, we thought we might have to let her sleep in them, but she forgot about it after bath.Enter the Dragon

Aaron, Aubrey Chen and Bo

How cute is this?

Our Family

After the photos, we bid farewell to Allison and Bo, our travel partners for the last several weeks. We wish them all the best and hope to stay in contact. Becci and I...mostly Becci got us all packed and ready to go. We purchased two additional suitcases while here. One to replace Becci's that came apart on the trip over and one for souveniers and presents. We are all super excited to get going..even Aubrey was talking about the airplane ride tonight. I don't think she realizes that it's over 20 hours start to finish on three seperate airplanes, but whatever...it'll be great to be home.

Some final thoughts on our trip

This truly has been the journey of a lifetime. Most importantly, we have our Aubrey now and we can begin the process of blending together as a new family. Overall, we greatly enjoyed the time here, China is an amazing and interesting country. Like anywhere in the world, you meet all kinds of people. We encountered a few people that would be considered rude by any standard, but met many more people that were friendly, gracious and generous. Some stand out in our memories, like Mona, the Nanny that placed a frightened Tian Chen in our arms for the first time and tearfully prayed with us for a safe and happy life together. And Apple, the angel we met on our last airplane ride that soothed Aubrey the entire flight. And our guides in Beijing (Grace) and Guongzhou (Kelly) were more that we ever hoped for. They are so patient with the kids (and parents) and we are thankful that we had the chance to meet them. We exchanged many smiles and laughs with people, caused a few scenes and even created a few crowds as people gathered to see Westerners with a Chinese child. Aaron was like a big deal here, getting countless photos taken with giggling Chinese mothers and their children.

China is so big with so many people (1.3 billion) that it's impossible to say that you've seen in all or that you understand the people in such a short visit. Imagine being from another country and spending a week and a half in Detroit (Shiajiazhung) then a week in Los Angeles (Guongzhou) and then trying to decide what the U.S. is like.

A quick thanks to Becci's parents, Bob and Ruth for taking care of Drake for us while we were gone, we can't wait to introduce Aubrey to Drake (and Higgins, of course, the family cat) Also thanks Wendy and Tammy for taking such great care of the studio while we were gone, we couldn't have done it without you.

We'll post some updates once we get home..thanks for sharing our journey with us and we'll see you soon.

Jim, Becci, Aaron and Aubrey