Long Days

Ashlyn is awesome!!!!!!

 

As we are waiting for final paperwork to process, we are utterly bored.  Yesterday it rained all day long, which put us hanging out in the room for much of the day.  We were able to rent a dvd player from the front desk which helped to pass the time.  But since Abbey cannot understand the English movies and we cannot understand the Chinese, it kind of made it difficult.  She spent alot of the day on QQ chatting with her friends.  That's ok though, because I believe that is good for her.  We want her to know that her past is welcome in our family.  She will not be expected to leave it all behind, instead we want to blend it into our life.

 

Today we go to the American Consulate for an oath swearing ceremony then they give us her immigration papers.  This is the sacred brown envelope that cannot be damaged or tampered with in any way.  We will guard it with our lives!  These papers allow her to become a US citizen when she physically enters America.  It will be a joyful time, but also a little sad to think that she will no longer be a Chinese citizen.  

 

Tomorrow we get her final required item, her Visa.  It should be issued at 4:00 then we are free to leave!  We will leave the hotel 5:30am Saturday morning to catch a 7:30 flight to Shainghai (sp?).  It is only a 2 hours flight and then our flight to Chicago doesn't leave until 4pm.  It will be a long day in the airport with Sydney and then a long 13 hour flight to Chicago.  Hopefully she will sleep through at least some of it.  

 

I will try to post pics later today.  We are headed out to meet our guide soon.  

 

We are almost outta here!