Guangzhou - Day 14 - Consulate Day

Today we went to the US Consulate office in Guangzhou to complete Lia's Visa/Immigration paperwork and to take the "Oath" for her to become an American citizen. All adoptive families from the US are required to come thru Guangzhou to complete this final step in the process. The Consulate office used to be located right next to the White Swan hotel, which was very convenient...now it is located on the other side of the city, so we had to take a tour bus to get there.

The office itself reminded me a bit of any DMV office...a bunch of chairs on one side of the room in the waiting area, and several numbered "windows" on the other side. Basically, we just had to wait for them to call "the family of (child's Chinese name)...which sounds easier than it is, when you have 30 families with small children in the waiting room. The microphones sounded like Peppermint Patty's teacher on Charlie Brown "wha, wha, wha, whaaaah"... Anyway we finally heard what sounded like us and got the papers signed. After every family had been called, the Officer came out and issued the Oath to us as a big group. She acknowledged all the kids who had recent birthdays, the families adopting twins, the family adopting a 13 yr old girl (one week before her 14th b-day, when she would become ineligible for adoption!) and all the single moms who had waited their turns to make it thru the process...I have to admit I got teary-eyed several times during her speech.

There were no phones or cameras allowed at the Consulate, so we don't have any pictures of that, but here are a few photos of Lia from earlier in the morning: