Greetings From the White Swan

Hi Everyone,

We made it to Guangzhou and had Kiera’s medical exam done this morning. Tomorrow we go to the American Consulate to apply for Kiera’s visa. To answer your question, Jayna, yes, that should be our last step as far as paper work is concerned. At least in China. Once we get to the US there will be some more stuff to do. But by then she will be a US citizen.

We are at the famous (at least in Chinese adoption circles) White Swan Hotel. There are lots of Americans with Chinese children here, all doing the same thing that we are doing. This is everybody's last stop if you are American and adopting, no matter where your daughter is from, as the American consulate is here in Guangzhou. I must say, I have been looking forward to this leg of the journey.

You can tell that we’re not in Kunming anymore because the prices have shot up to take advantage of all the Americans. But the hotel is spectacular - there is a gorgeous waterfall in the lobby and a fantastic view of the Pearl River. I'm sure Will will take pictures! We rarely get to stay in a place so beautiful. I wish that Kiera would be able to remember it. At least we have lots of pictures and videos to show her as she grows up.

She behaves a lot like Shannon did as a baby. This morning she grabbed an open bag of rice cereal and flung it around the room sprinkling cereal everywhere. Kinda reminds you of the Rice Chex incident, doesn’t it Shannon?

A lady just came to the room with a special Barbie that they give you at the White Swan when you are here with your adopted Chinese daughter. You can’t get them anywhere else. I had heard about the Barbie and I was frantically looking around the room when we got here yesterday. Will kept saying, “They’ll bring it, they’ll bring it.” And sure enough they did. Barbie and I are both blue-eyed blondes and are holding Chinese babies, but the resemblance between Barbie and me ends there. Still, it’s very cool – we’ll keep it for Kiera until she’s old enough to appreciate it.

There are stores every few feet outside the hotel called “Sherry’s Place”, “Jessica’s Place”, “Amy’s Place”, etc. They all advertise laundry and strollers and sell Chinese baby clothes. Guess we’ll be shopping this afternoon! There is a market not far from here that we are going to hit this afternoon. We are sure to have some more interesting pictures later on. Stay tuned!!!

For some reason I'm not always able to post pictures again, so keep checking on http://new.photos.yahoo.com/ourlittleflower/albums. I will upload some more pictures there.