Hello for Friday morning ... and good-bye to the blog - at least for the next 48 hours or so. That's the time that we'll be in route back to the states!! WOO HOO!!!
B.J., Hank and Jackson ... you guys are all at school while I'm writing this. Your Aunt Laura will be in town tonight to stay with you at our house and then, the next night me, daddy and Zoe will be back with you!! All of us, back at home!! Yeah!!
Here's something about our day on Thursday ... We met for the "swear or affirm" ceremony at US Immigration and they gave us Zoe's United States Travel Visa attached to a page inside her Chinese passport and they gave us a sealed brown envelope in a sealable ziplock bag.
About 50 families were all in a big room together and we stood and said a very short oath ... just that all the information both written and verbal that had been used for this adoption was all true. They told us that we could not be like "Curious George" and open the brown envelope ... It must stay closed until we reach Chicago and go through Immigration there. Then, we verified the information attached to the outside of the envelope (Zoe's Chinese and American names, etc.) and sealed the clear bag, too.
We also learned that Zoe will still be recognized as a Chinese citizen, too, but warned that she should never travel outside the U.S. on her Chinese passport ... only the U.S. ... especially as a young and reckless college student! Guess they've had some previous problems with crazy college aged kids getting into trouble and then the U.S. Consulate not being able to help with their issues because they weren't traveling on an American Visa.
Once we hand over the sealed envelope to Immigration in Chicago, they will stamp her Chinese passport designating her as an American citizen!! Just a little more paperwork when we get home and we can get her a Tennessee birth certificate and a US passport ... Leaving behind the rice and vegetable farming community of Jiangcheng district of Yangjiang City in Southeast China ... to come to Brentwood, TN!!
I'll post some pics of our day ... none from the Immigration appointment because no cameras were allowed. The picture of me (in yellow t-shirt) and Zoe was snapped by Bain, on the bus, on the way to our Immigration appointment.
Earlier in the day, we went to Guangzhou's largest mall and the biggest mall in southeast Asia. Hint to the boys ... they had several toy stores!!
It was about 8 or 9 stories high and covered a huge block of the city. On the top floor, was a movie theater and we ordered popcorn from the concession stand ... It was a combination of butter, caramel and grape popcorns ... not like home, but really good ... and, also not like home, it was cheap! Imagine cheap movie theater popcorn ... only 20 yuan for a large ... about $2.20.
There was a two story carrousel at the top along with a huge fun park for kids ... bump cars, video games, arcade-style fun. We were guessing that on Sunday (Chinese people's day off and the day that places get very, very crowded), it must be packed at this fun place. They also had something that looked like a giant haunted house (not sure exactly what it was ... maybe a haunted house ride).
Everyone stared at us, of course, and many people smiled and waved at Zoe. Lots of people pointed to Zoe. I took a picture of the Ford dealership and you can see the Chinese man staring at me. (See Ford sign to the left in the picture)
We found the Nashville "Batman building" but without the "horns" then we found the "horns" on the building next to it. You can see the haze that hangs in the air ... smog, I guess. It was 10 AM and sunny today ... hot, in the 80s.
The other thing that you see in the city is cranes. At one spot in Beijing, we saw about 50 cranes all in a block or two of the city, working on the construction of many, many highrise apartment buildings all at once. Bain got to see first-hand why building products are so high ... the Chinese are keeping the demand high!
Our guide here in Guangzhou told us that Chinese people don't own real estate like they do in the U.S. They can lease it from the Chinese government but the lease ends in 70 years and ownership is returned to the government. They "mortgage" their homes just like we do and make payments ... but there is no "passing down" of your property to your children. Therefore, there is no incentive for them to improve the property or build a big home on a piece of land as an investment because they will lose it eventually.
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