Yesterday afternoon we went to the Chen Family Temple. It was built in the 1890’s by three wealthy and influential members of the Chen family to honor their deceased relatives, as is customary in this culture if one achieves a measure of stature and/or fortune. It has also been made into a Chinese Folk Museum, so there were some interesting artifacts included. Following this, we traveled to the Pearl Market. It was an interesting place to visit, but seeing as how we were not in the market for any pearls, we merely people-watched and observed the surroundings.
Today was our big appointment at the U.S. Consulate. No pictures to show, as they did not allow any cameras to be taken into the building. The adoptive families as a group repeat and oath of truthfulness in the documents they have prepared. There were about 20 or 30 families competing their adoptions and taking the oath today. At the completion of the oath, we were given a sealed brown envelope that contains the documents that we have to present at U.S. Customs and Immigration upon arriving in Chicago and, upon perusing these documents and stamping their approval, Cammo will officially be a U.S. citizen.
As I write, Angie has taken Cammo downstairs to take some pictures of him on the well-known Red Couch, as well as some other pictures around the premises. He is wearing his new outfit, so these should be interesting and more traditional looking.
Tomorrow will be an extremely long day for us. We waken at 0500 Guangzhou time (1600 Tulsa time on Wednesday) to get ready for our first flight, an Air China flight at 1000 from Guangzhou to Beijing. We then have a 3 hour layover before taking a United Airlines flight at 1600 (0300 Tulsa time on Thursday) for the nearly 14 hour flight to Chicago. In Chicago we go through U.S. Customs and Immigration Service as part of a 4 hour layover before boarding a United Express flight to Tulsa which departs at 2000 and arrives in Tulsa at 2155. I will check my email first thing tomorrow morning and will also check it in Chicago on my cell phone. I will probably send a blurb out when we arrive in Chicago to confirm our departure to Tulsa is on time. We arrive a bit later in the evening, but would love to meet anyone who would like to venture to the airport at that time.
Once back home, I will probably continue to use this distribution list for a few days, then will convert back to blog’ing on our site for those interested in continuing to follow our journey. We look forward to introducing you all to our little man on our return! He is very excited about leaving, although I don’t think he’s looking forward to all the plane rides to get there.
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