Day 13 - Consulate Appointment

Today was our last day to do official adoption business.  Our morning started at 7:30AM in our hotel lobby.  From there, we took a ride over the medical exam building to pick up some papers.  A few minutes later we were walking across the street to the U.S. Consulate.  This is the place where we hand over all of Maelee's medical records and formally interview for a U.S. Visa for her Chinese passport.

Overall, the kids did well there.  We enjoyed meeting other adopting families.  We even got to see the family that we had first seen back in Chengdu.  Nathan and Micah talked Pokemon with one little boy from Denver, Claire hung out with us grown-ups, and Hannah went and played with some of the toys they had sitting out.  By 9:30AM, we had finished our "interview" and were heading back to the van.

So I've decided there are a few perks to working with a smaller agency after all.  First, we were able to get the U.S. Consulate early and were then able to leave early.  Second, our guide was able to snap a photo of us outside the Consulate.  Third, our guide and driver were available to take us a few places rather than just straight back to the hotel.  Since we had that luxury, we decided to try out Baiyun (White Cloud) mountain today.  It is a place that a lot of folks go to when in Guangzhou, but it can't be reached easily by subway.

Before Baiyun, our guide took us to Yuntai Garden.  Supposedly, this garden was set up to commemorate the history of the Silk Road.  To us, we were reminded of "It's a small world" ride at Disneyworld mixed with Epcot during the flower festival.  All this park needed was a boat, some music on repeat, and some robotic dolls.

Chinese rock garden

One of Daddy's little princesses

After the garden, we took the 10 minute cable car ride up to the top of White Cloud mountain.  You know the best part of going up there?  Blue skies and .... white clouds.  The second best thing ... a McDonald's around the corner as soon as you get off the cable car.  We spent about an hour and a half up there and walked around a little.  Deanna even took the boys up a steep staircase to a summit of some kind where you could get a good view of the city.

Up, up, and away

Big smiles at McDonald's

View from the top

The next stop on our adventure today was the hotel for some R&R.  We followed that up with an hour of swimming.  Then, we decided to go on another journey to find a restaurant we read about on TripAdvisor.  It was called 13 Factories and was named after the old 13 Factories district where international trade originated in Guangzhou.  Supposedly, it had good American food and promised to whet our appetite with something other than pizza.

Claire made a friend with an 8 year old from Hong Kong who didn't speak a lick of English

Kids watching Yo Kai Watch in English on Youtube

Matt decided it would be best to take the subway instead of two taxis, so the whole family geared up and took a 40 minute subway ride back to the soccer stadium.  We then walked for another 30 minutes before finally finding our restaurant in a back alley down a dark street.  The kids, of course, complained of being hungry and were getting pretty mad at dad for making them walk so far.  Once we got inside the restaurant, though, they started to perk up.  What was the reason for their sudden chearfulness?  Milkshakes!

No stroller tonight, just two baby wearing parents

Qiao Qiao liked the pasta tonight

Nathan and Claire were Hangry on the way to the restaurant.

Tonight we ate some of the best American food this side of the Pacific.  We ordered 5 milkshakes, 2 orders of quesadillas, 2 orders of sliders, an order of Alfredo spaghetti, and a Factory Burger.  The food lived up to the hype and we left with full bellies.  Oh, and the best part of the night ... God blessed us with a taxi right as we were leaving the restaurant.  He took all 7 of us back to the hotel and we were able to get the kids to bed by 8:30PM.

Blessings for today:
- U.S. Consulate appointment is done
- Getting to have a picture outside the consulate ... a first for us!
- New sightseeing experience ... Maelee did phenomenal
- American food
- Taxi back to the hotel

Prayers for tomorrow:
- Tomorrow we should get Maelee's passport back with a U.S. Visa in it.  Please pray that we do!
- Tomorrow is also our last full day in Guangzhou.  Please pray that we would glorify God tomorrow and that our children would be respectful to their parents and to each other.  We are going to try going to the zoo and feeding the giraffes.  Deanna also wants to get a little shopping in before we have to leave.