December 2-3

Later this morning we depart Wuhan for Guangzhou. We've packed our checked baggage and are ready for the bell hops to take them to the luggage van to the airport, and we've almost finished packing our carry-on bags for the flight. The flight from Wuhan to Guangzhou is brief, only about an hour. We'll fly over the southern portion of Hubei province, over all of Hunan province, and over the northern portion of Guongdong province to arrive in Guangzhou. Guongdong province borders the territory of Hong Kong to the south, so we'll be a very brief flight from Hong Kong when we depart next Thursday.

Yesterday we traveled once again to the Adoptive Affairs Registration office here in Wuhan, where we received our official documents from the Hubei provincial government offices: Emily's Chinese passport, our official adoption registration document, and our certificate of thanks for the orphanage donation. When we received those documents, Emily's adoption into our family became official as far as the Chinese government is concerned. Therefore, our "business" here in Wuhan is concluded, and we travel to Guangzhou, site of the U.S. Consulate in China, to conduct the remainder of our business with the United States government.

We celebrated the completion of all the girls' adoption in a cake and Pizza Hut pizza party yesterday afternoon. Our CCAI representatives here in Wuhan arranged for a cake, Christmas decorations, and group photos in the hotel lobby - and for Pizza Hut pizza! It was one of the few times all of the adoptive families have been together at the same time, and the girls all enjoyed the festivities. We even had and "1" candle on the cake to represent, as Joanna, said, "the new beginning of our girls' lives." We also took the opportunity to express our appreciation of Joanna and Christina's work on our behalf by offering monetary tokens of our gratitude. Joanna and Christina have been fantastic, and we certainly could not have navigated the adoption process on our own without their assistance and support.

Yesterday, Joanna shared that most people in Wuhan, and all of China, appreciate our adoption of Chinese girls because they understand far better than we do how fortunate and blessed the lives of the girls will be as a result of being adopted out of China. She shared that the Chinese people say adopted girls have "jumped in the honey pot," representing the good fortune the girls will receive. I like the saying. Honey represents so many blessings in the Judeo-Christian tradition: sweetness, light, fertility, joy, heavenly blessings... and perhaps, in the life of Pooh, sustenance and life itself! We are already blessed by and because of Emily, and we pray both Sydney and Emily will live blessed, jumping in the honey pot" lives.

We are ready to depart Wuhan. Although we would have enjoyed a visit to Xiaogan, where Emily was found and fostered, we have experienced a little bit of interior China here in Wuhan. Although fascinating, interior China is no place for westerners to stay long-term with a toddler and an infant! We are eager to move on to Guangzhou for shopping, for our consulate appointment, and to be a little closer to home.

We took many photos yesterday and today, but we've not taken the time to load them onto the computer. So I'll post a couple photos from previous days so you can see Emily hanging out here in Wuhan.