Disclaimer: We are HOME. I mean, we are home in China. I just fell behind on the blog because we were busier than I thought we would be on our trip. We traveled by train from Guangzhou to Huzhou on Friday and after 9+ hours on the train we made it home. And it was SO great to be home! After five days I am finally caught up with laundry. No dryer makes catching up on laundry a full time job!
So, back to adoption week two. On Tuesday we got to go to the Pearl Market. They sell pearls for wholesale. The pearls (if they are real) usually appraise in the US for about 3 to 4 times what you pay for them in China. Too bad I don't really wear pearls! The place was huge and fun to see. I thought it would be much more crowded than it was. They had pearls, silver, glass beads, jade and all sorts of other jewelry. The entire place, all six floors, was jewelry. It was pretty impressive. I still think that the Silk Market in Beijing was more fun to go to, but this was also great to experience.
So you can pick a string that you like, and you should try to do all the tests to make sure that they are real. Then you tell the workers how long you want it and they make it right there. You can specify what you want the clasp made of and whatever other details go into a pearl necklace. It was pretty cool and there were SO many pearls!!!! I kept asking Kenz if she wanted something. She was really into shopping on this trip, but in her mind they were selling pearls that were still in the oysters so she had a hard time trying to figure out what she wanted. She ended up insisting that she just wanted one pearl. Kyle asked them if we could get one and they told him anything he found on the floor he could have. HAHAHA! So he came out with a little baggie and a pearl. She wasn't impressed. I'm not sure how Kyle is going to handle three teenage daughters!
Traffic outside the market. The limo is decorated for a wedding, they always decorate the cars involved and then have someone either in front or behind video taping the whole thing.
Guy with the video camera. Somehow he got separated from the wedding car so I'm not sure what he is shooting video of here
That night they took us to a local restaurant for some authentic Chinese food. It was pretty good.
The boy liked it :)
Bright and early the next morning we went to the US Consulate to get a US visa for Jaxon to come to America.
My new friend Paige and I and our kids waiting in line.
Line outside for Chinese people waiting to apply for a visa. This is one of the busiest US consulates in the world, they issue over 2,000 visas per day. Our appointment was the earliest one available and this is the line that had already formed. Every American family adopting from China must come through the Consulate at Guangzhou to get a visa for their child. No camera's or cell phones were allowed inside so I have no pictures. But we gave them all our paperwork, raised our right hand and repeated a bunch of citizenship stuff for our new son. They took Kyle's fingerprints and we were all set to go. He will be a US Citizen as soon as his Chinese passport is stamped when we get to America.
We got all the kids wooden swords, this made for some interesting evenings!!!
There was a family who brought their three boys with them to China to adopt a little sister. Their boys were about the same age as our girls and Madi and their youngest really hit it off. They were good buddies by the time we left. They were both so sad to have to say goodbye...
I want to know what they talked about :)
Family picture day!
After both of our families took pictures everyone insisted that these two get up and do a picture together too :)
Our whole group of fourteen amazing families adopting from China. Such a great group of people, we made so many good friends on this trip.
All the kiddo's. The oldest isn't in this picture and he is probably the only one who wasn't crying at this point!!! Bad combo of nap time and mommy's leaving them on a couch by themselves!
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