Off to Guangzhou

It's 1:00 PM on Friday, and today is our last day in Chongqing City. Michael is picking us up in a few hours to go to the airport, and fly to Guangzhou. Guangzhou is about 100 miles north of Hong Kong, so it will be quite warm there; Car will certainly appreciate that! Before we take off, we'll also receive Max' Chinese passport, which we'll obviously need to travel with him.

As much as Chongqing was the Chinese part of the adoption process, Guangzhou is the American part. There, we'll need to meet with the American Embassy, be interviewed, have a medical exam, get his American travel documents, etc. We'll apply for him to be an American citizen, so basically he'll only be Chinese for about a week.

We'll be met by another guide, Cordelia, who will shepard us through this process. I have been so impressed with the guides we have had so far. They are very caring, and responsive, and basically make themselves available to you at all times. It's very reassuring to know you have someone to call in case things go wrong.

Car noticed (quite shockingly) that we haven't really spent any money in Chongqing. "Jess, we haven't shopped!" We're told that Guangzhou is quite the shopping central and I think Car is ready to experience the vendors again. The questions is, are the vendors ready for Carolyn?? :)

We'll be staying at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou (http://www.whiteswanhotel.com/), which is supposed to be quite nice. It's where all the American families stay who are adopting babies. It'll be nice to meet some other people who are going through the same process.

We have Saturday and Sunday to tool around a little, then we'll be in appointments Monday through Wednesday. We'll fly back to Beijing on Wednesday night, meet our first guide Charlotte again, and fly back to the States on Thursday. I'm looking forward to seeing Charlotte. She usually only gets to see families BEFORE they adopt - not many of them come back to Beijing.

More from Guangzhou!!