U.S. Consulate Day...

Yesterday was pretty uneventful... we returned to the medical clinic to get Matthew's TB skin test read  and the lady there made a pretense of measuring something on his arm but correctly called it negative  (the area around the injected site was red, so I was all ready to argue with her if she had called it positive... I wasn't about to subject Matthew to an unnecessary chest Xray when he's already had so much exposure to the smoggy, poisonous air in Wuhan for first two years of his life).  We then hung out on Shamian Island for a while doing some shopping (and ate at Subway!), and took an (unpleasant) taxi ride back to the hotel, where we took a nap, ate dinner, and went to bed.

This morning I felt incredibly nervous, pacing back and forth like an agitated cat.  I think it's because my mind sees the end in sight – just a few more steps to take to be done with our trip – and I've been so homesick for the past week and a half I can hardly stand it.  We headed this morning at 9 AM on our final step in the adoption process here in China – the United States Consulate.  Our guide, Elvin, with his typical excellent organization, had collected all our paperwork from us a few days ago and all we had to do was show up with our passports, go through a couple of checkpoints, sit for a while, raise our right hands and repeat a few words spoken to us, hand some papers to a clerk and we were done.

Tomorrow afternoon we get Matthew's visa allowing him to travel to the United States as well as all of his adoption papers that must remain sealed until he sets foot in the United States.  Then we head on a train to Hong Kong.  We will be traveling to Hong Kong with the Reickards, another family who has been adopting a child here with us, and we've spent a few minutes this afternoon trying to figure out the least expensive way to take our families from the train station in Hong Kong to our hotel, about a 23 mile journey.

Matthew has been a wild man today!  He is truly showing his nature as a rambunctious 2-year-old boy.  We love this little guy so very much and we can hardly wait until we have him with us in the States!  We spend 2 more nights in China, then we head home!!

Joe