Immigration and Shamian Island

Today we needed to stay in our room between 10 AM and noon in case the consulate had questions about our paperwork. We waited but no news was good news and all our immigration paperwork is in order. Some people have been running into problems because of home studies but everything is in order and we were approved. We will go to the consulate tomorrow afternoon for the ceremony which is our last official step in the adoption.

After lunch (noodle bowls in our room) we went with the rest of our group to Shamian Island. Many adoptive parents stay at the White Swan hotel on Shamian Island but our agency chooses to use a very nice hotel located near two parks that is about a 10minute drive from Shamian Island. Shamian Island was once a British enclave and the US Consulate used to be located there so the buildings are very Western. It’s also were the US Immigration clinic that we went to on Saturday is located. Shamian Island is well known for shopping now. We were able to get some fun stuff and we also enjoyed a Starbucks iced coffee!

Shiloh had taken a marathon nap in the morning (2 ½ hours) but didn’t sleep at all this afternoon. We were a little worried about a “meltdown” but still decided to go to a local Cantonese restaurant with two other families. She did great and really enjoyed congee (watered rice) and banana. My favorite was the curried vegetable/fruit pizza and Todd liked the fried rice the best. There were 6 adults, 3elementary aged kids, and 2 babies and the entire meal cost about $60 and there was a lot of leftover food. It was a great deal! We were a little worried when we first started looking at the menu because the first several pages were all things like fish heads and octopus but everyone found something they liked.

Our camera is not working now so I included a few shots of Shamian Island from Wikipedia.

We had another very good day with Shiloh. A couple highlights:

•When I was in a store shopping Shiloh got very upset (we had borrowed a stroller from the hotel and we had the sunshade up so she couldn’t see us). When Todd put the shade down she calmed down right away from seeing him (previously she would only calm down with me)

•She laughed and giggled this afternoon when we tickled her~ even with no nap!

Tomorrow afternoon, after the appointment at the consulate, we will take a bus to Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong is not far away the ride will be about 3 ½ hours because we have to go through two separate customs checks where we take out all the luggage. Please pray for smooth travel and health for our group.