From China...part 2

It's hard to believe that we go home the day after tomorrow. In so many ways, I am ready. It will be nice to stop living out of a suitcase and settle back into life at home. I can't wait to see everybody and have them meet our son.

More pictures from this past week:

This is from the area we were in last week, or closer to the area where Caleb is from. We traveled to Wuwei for a day to see his orphanage and I took this along the way.

Caleb says good-bye to a stuffed figure in the lobby of our hotel in Lanzhou. The day before we left, these large figures showed up, promoting the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Just this evening, I was talking with another mom of a cleft child about being overprepared for this. It's true: I was expecting to have to mash his food or break out a blender to puree everything for him. But the truth is, the kid eats everything you put in front of him. What I didn't need were the special cleft bottles, Nuk nursers, and Playtex liners. I also threw one sippy cup into the suitcase before we left. It's the only thing he will drink out of at all, so it gets washed repeatedly (someone pointed out that sippy cups are made in China, but not used here). Yeah, it's the only one I've got. The other bottles, well, someone in the orphanage will hopefully now get good use out of them as they've been donated to a better cause.

We arrived in Guangzhou late Friday night and it is so different from the Gansu province that we came from. For one thing, it's humid. It actually rains at times. We spent Easter Sunday outside with the rest of the town because it was such a nice day.

Today we had a meeting with all of the families at the White Swan hotel (kind of the "main" hotel in this town where a lot of adoptive parents stay) to go over what was happening at the consulate in preparation for our return home. All of our paperwork was approved without any issues, and tomorrow there will be a swearing-in ceremony. Caleb will receive his visa and will officially become a US citizen when the plane lands. The tradition here is to take a picture of the babies on the famous "red couch" of the hotel (ok, maybe just famous in the China adoption realm). The kids can be dressed in traditional Chinese attire, so we found a regal little suit for Caleb to wear.

We'll be coming home soon everybody! See you then!