Peanut and PopTart: There are good days, bad days…..

and going half mad days! I think we have experienced them all over the past
couple of weeks leading up to and while in China to complete Aidens
adoption! I would compare the adoption process to climbing Mount Everest in
Nepal. In the beginning it’s just a dream, then you decide that you will
undertake the challenge of climbing a peak that many fear, let along
attempt. You prepare as best you can then set about the task at hand,
scaling the peak to satisfy that dream of standing at the top of the World.
Today we reached the peak of the mountain and now we have to descend back to
our own base camp in Holly Springs, North Carolina.

Wednesday was the day that we go to the United States Consulate Office in
Guangzhou. We know this well from when we adopted Savannah, but it’s still
emotional. After breakfast a few of us met as a group to visit the local
jade market to pick up some items to remember our trip to China and
Guangzhou! Our intent was to get something for Savannah and Aiden to tie
them to their birth country, something for Ann Marie and myself as
remembrances to the trips that we took to complete our family and a couple
of other items for friends. The walk over through the markets was again so
eye opening and fun, but the real treat lied about 30 minutes walk from the
hotel. What the locals refer to as the jade market is really a 6 story
shopping mall style building that houses hundreds of wholesale jewelry
makers offering items that range from low cost beaded necklaces to items
well out of our budget, and what was just what I saw in by brief stroll
through the maze of isles and hallways. After selecting our items we
settled with the proprietor and headed back out for the hotel. A quick
in-room lunch from Lucy’s and we were shortly downstairs again for the bus
ride to the consulate!

The ride to the consulate was short and we were hurried inside to complete
our final steps for making Aiden a permanent part of our family in the eyes
of the United States Government. After clearing into the office through
security (we packed nothing as we already new the drill!) we were taken to
the first holding area while Judy our guide arranged all the paperwork she
had been working on all morning. After a short sit we were moved to a
second holding area where a consulate officer soon approached us. She
advised us due to the small group we would just complete the oath in the
same area and process out very quickly! Great news indeed! A few minutes
later we raised our right hand, completed the oath, signed our paperwork and
we were headed out the door as a completed family! After a ride back to the
hotel all the families met in the playroom and shared stories as the kids
played and the adults contemplated how we could get back to the United
States any quicker than we had planned! It was surreal and such a
comforting time, all four of us sitting with the other families as “The
Kennedys”!

Later we met our friends Tim and Shelly from Minnesota and their son Caleb
for dinner at a local restaurant suggested to us by another family in our
group. It was quite the adventure and will no doubt be retold many times as
we had an entertaining time! When we first arrived we were aware that very
few people in the restaurant spoke English and we were what looked to be the
only “tourist” in the place, but we felt comfortable as our friends had told
us there was a really good picture menu! After seating we were first
surprised when the servers came out with prepared appetizers without us even
ordering them! What looked like sautéed peanuts (we think), marinated
cucumbers and a vegetable looking dish with some type of noodle. There were
no utensils other than two sets of color coded chop sticks which we would
later deduce were intended to be one for serving and one for eating. This
was tricky for Tim and Shelly who were chopstick novices, but not for their
son Caleb! The tea was a welcome site that we could all enjoy, but then we
moved on to the menu! Very detailed photos were a welcome site, but the
large menu selection was narrowed to a delicate few items that we felt we
could with an open mind trust! We settled for beef with peppers, pork
dumplings in soup, pan fried noodles with chicken and shrimp, beef and
noodles as well as some egg custards torts. We made these choices over
several possible selections such as Horse Sashimi, Corn Worm Soup, and Fried
Diced Snake with Nuts. Oh yea, that only touches the basics we could select
from as the menu was really packed with items I could only imagine would
push our taste buds and digestive tracks into overdrive. We chose the safe
options and enjoyed a really good meal with only the occasional joke about
what “meat” really meant and if we would pay the price come morning time!
The highlight to the meal was the egg custard torts as they were
surprisingly tasty and brought a final smile to everyone’s face! Bill paid,
we departed the restaurant into the Shamian Island night for a brief stroll
around the neighborhood before returning to the hotel to being the process
of shutting down for the night. A special thanks goes out to Tim, Shelly
and Caleb for sharing an entertaining evening with us!

Tomorrow Ann Marie has secured a visit to the pearl market in the morning
and we will meet with Judy one more time to receive our final paperwork that
will use for the trip home! It’s so close we can almost taste it! An early
evening tomorrow may mean a shortened Blog entry, but rest assured there
will be an entry! So, till then……

Michael (Did someone order me the Corn Worm Soup?), Ann Marie (Please tell
me that is Yuan and not American Dollars!), Savannah (Can I have the White
Swan Barbie since Aiden is a boy?) and Aiden (Do we get a breakfast buffet
like this at home?) Kennedy