U.S. Consulate Day

After breakfast we tried to keep Indigo up during the morning so she would have an early afternoon nap. So in the late morning we went down to the swimming pool with another family, Ashley and her daughter Ella and her aunt Mary. We lent Ella a stars and strip bikini swim suit - the one from Amy. Ella was so relaxed in the pool that she fell asleep - it was so cute. Indigo again loved swimming, and this time we were in the pool for nearly an hour. after all that swimming Indigo fell asleep on me in the shade on a lounge chair. Melanie was still swimming with Ashely et al. and ended up rescuing a little boy who jumped into the pool and sunk to the bottom - a massive caution to always be super alert around the water. We carried a sleeping Indigo all the way back to the room and she slept on the bed for about another hour. We brought in lunch and Indigo ate a whole bowl of congee with chicken. After lunch we took Indigo in her stroller for some shopping and had to hurry back to get dressed for our appointment at the American consulate.

The bus ride was nearly 45 minutes from the hotel to downtown Guangzhou where the American consulate is now located. Indigo had a melt down on the bus, but we quickly prepared her bottle and she was happy again. Due to security concerns, we were not permitted to bring any cameras. We had to show our passports and then go through metal detectors. There were so many families with babies there. We were told there were 58 babies, so you can imagine that for each baby there are at least two adults, but some people have other children with them and other family members. We then had to bring Indigo up to a window along with a document that has her picture for identification by a consulate employee. We then had a speech about the process and what to expect upon landing back in the US (Indigo will be an official US citizen upon landing on American soil). Then everyone had to rise, raise their right hands and take an oath that all of the information supplied to the American government was true to the best of our knowledge and that we will fulfill our promise to care for our new children. Then we had to wait to be given back Indigo's Chinese passport that now contains an American visa (remember she is not officially a US citizen until we're back in the US). Back on the bus through rush hour traffic to the hotel, Indigo fell asleep.

We planned to meet friends back at the red couch, so we placed the sleeping Indigo on the couch while we waited for everyone to assemble for pics - one way to guarantee a photo of your child on the red couch is to put them there while they are fast asleep! When Ellen came to join us so that we could try to take photos of the girls in their American outfits on the red couch, Indigo was more cooperative than yesterday, but unfortunately Sarah did not want to pose. I guess this is the long start of wanting great photos of your kids and taking what you can get.

We stayed at the hotel for dinner because we have a long night of repacking, and shifting items into an additional suitcase we had to purchase here. We thoroughly enjoyed dinner. We went back to the outdoor bar-b-que place with Rick, Ellen, Sarah and their families. Indigo and Sarah were hilarious. Sarah is a very dainty eater and Indigo just loves to grab food and shove it in. She would be checking out Sarah's plate and would reach over to grab watermelon off of Sarah's plate. As you can see, she was filthy by the end of the dinner. The plastic bowl was her take out bowl from lunch time which had become a play toy that came to dinner with us. After supper Melanie took a bath with Indigo and then she had her bottle and off to bed. We have been repacking the suitcases and now have to get this posted before trying to catch some sleep before morning. We have an early morning departure for the train station for our travel to Hong Kong tomorrow. After tonight just two more nights in China and then headed home!