Goodbye,China!

Last night we went on the river cruise with the other families with our agency. It was fun to see the city lite up. Lots of buildings light up at night. We have heard the food makes you sick so we stuck with rice and cookies.

Today, after breakfast I have a couple of shops I want to run to for last minute purchases. At 1:45 the bus will pick the Andersons and us up. We both need to have our luggage ready. They are flying to Beijing right after the U.S. consulate and we are taking the train to Hong Kong. We will go to the White Swan and take pictures. When you adopt from China everyone has to get red couch photos at the White Swan. It is a tradition. At 2:45 we head to the U.S. Consulate. We have to swear all our paperwork is truthful and show our passports. We will then get Grace's passport with visa and the mysterious brown envelope. Julia had a brown envelope. Under absolutely no circumstances are you allowed to open this envelope. It is to be given to U.S. Customs when we arrive in Newark.

Immediately after the ceremony we will go to the train station. We are hoping to catch a 5:00 train, if not it will be 7:10. Then we will have to find a way to our hotel once we reach Hong Kong. We will overnight in Hong Kong and leave at 10:25 a.m on Continental to Newark, N.J.

This will be our last post from China. Don't know if there will be any posts from Hong Kong or not. We have enjoyed sharing this adventure but everyone is ready to be home.

There are so many things we take for granted. Clean water is probably the biggest thing we all miss. We can't drink the water,use it to clean cups,or even brush our teeth with it. We, also, miss being able to talk to our friends and family,having a yard to play in, being able to drive anywhere we want, diet coke(well that's just me), the smell. It smells like China here. The air in U.S. is so much cleaner. We are tired of bartering for everything we purchase. We miss going to church on Sundays. We miss our nice soft bed.

I asked the others what they missed and these are their answers. Dallas misses BBQ,baseball, and golf. Nicholas misses baseball and golf. Zachary misses his house, his room, and his bed. Julia misses Chase. Kristopher misses comfortable beds and popcorn(I miss that,too).

Grace is a wonderful addition to our family. We will always have fond memories of Russia and China. The China experience was much better but we are blessed to have both our girls.

I have lots more pictures to post. I will post some more when we get home.

Goodbye from China!