** Adoption countdown: 2 days until Pam, Terry and Matthew return home **
GUANGZHOU, China (Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008, 7:40 p.m.) – It took less than a minute, but was a fitting end – well, almost end – to an emotional journey for two Mississippi parents looking to build their family by adopting an orphan child.
Pam, Matthew and I hopped aboard a White Swan Hotel bus late this afternoon, joined a group of other Americans adopting Chinese children and headed to the U.S. Consulate.
There, we received Matthew’s U.S. immigrant visa and immigration packets we need for him to enter the country. And we took a brief oath swearing that all of the information we provided for the adoption was correct.
A copy of the packet is in the picture on the right. That was it. Nothing else to do.
All we have left is to keep the official packet sealed and untouched until we arrive at our U.S. entry point – which, in our case, is Detroit. As soon as our plane touches down and we go through immigration, Matthew automatically becomes a U.S. citizen.
This, along with a meeting this morning with Holt International Children’s Services staff, dominated our second-to-last day in Guangzhou before we begin our long, long journey home.
And believe me, after more than two weeks away, Pam and I are more than ready to go home and sleep in our own bed.
The White Swan is a great hotel, but the beds here are literally as hard as a rock. I don’t think I’ve ever slept on anything harder except when I interned at The Clarion-Ledger in 1984 and slept on the floor of a reporter’s Jackson apartment.
On Wednesday, Pam and I plan to do one last shopping tour in Guangzhou, including hitting the Pearl and Jade Market. We also hope to visit a local market down the road before we return to the White Swan Hotel to pack.
We must be up and out of the room by 5:30 a.m. Thursday in order to catch our flight to Tokyo. There, we’ll change planes, head to Detroit and then to Jackson.
We still are scheduled to arrive on Northwest Flight 2978 at 9:21 p.m. on Thursday night, Dec. 18, 2008, at the Jackson-Evers International Airport.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
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