Tuesday, June 14, 2011
CONSULATE APPOINTMENT!

Today was a very long day! We started our day at 6:00 AM! Piper didn't sleep well last night and that made us all very tired when we woke up! Piper was up and down all night. At one point she woke up crying and we did everything to try and console her. Nothing worked until Erik turned on the t.v. and magically Piper stopped crying and settled down and went back to sleep until the morning. We think Piper spent a lot of time in front of the t.v. while living with her foster family! We couldn't skype the with the children this morning because we had to get ready and eat breakfast before we met our guide to go to the consulate at 7:10! Piper didn't really eat much for breakfast, but did eat her usual watermelon. She did try a chocolate chip muffin and seemed to like it! She certainly has a sweet tooth!

We drove on the bus with several other families to the consulate. The bus was hot and right as we got to the consulate building Piper threw up all over her dress and me! We were not prepared this time because the past two bus rides Piper did fine. Thank goodness I had extra clothes for Piper. Unfortunately, I didn't have extra clothes for me. Apparently, she still has motion sickness in the car! We hope she does better on the bus ride to the airport! We arrived at the consulate about 40 minutes before our 8:30 AM appointment. The building was hot because the air conditioner hadn't started working yet. Between being so hot and smelling like throw up, I felt like I was going to pass out! I drank water, but it didn't help! Erik held Piper the whole time and I sat on the steps! The humidity is really taking its toll on me! We made it upstairs and through security to enter the U.S. Consulate! That part of the building had air conditioning and I started to feel much better! Erik held Piper under in the back of the room under the vent to keep her cool! We took the oath that every citizen who immigrates to our county must take on Piper's behalf! Then, each family was called up to the window to turn in our paperwork to apply for Piper's U.S. Visa! We will receive her visa tomorrow afternoon! We left the building by 9:30! Piper still didn't feel very well on the way home. She was sweating and fussing! She didn't get sick because she didn't have anything in her stomach. We arrived back at the White Swan Hotel a little after 10:00 AM.

We had a half hour to get Piper ready for her red couch pictures! We got back to the room and I took a shower and gave Piper a bath. She looked so adorable in her traditional Chinese outfit! It brings back such fond memories of Sophia and Parker's red couch pictures. We will never forget our first two travel groups! A special hello to Chloe, Emalie, Maggie, Lizzy, and Audrey from Sophia's travel group! Plus, a special hello to Parker's travel mates~Emma, Mya, and Leah! We have three families in our Living Hope travel group. We added another family to our group picture too! We spent our time with them in Nanchang. They are from California and their daughter's name is Teagan!

We came back to the room after the red couch and travel group pictures to rest! Piper and I played on the bed and Erik wrote some more e-mails for work! We went to lunch at Lucy's again! Piper ate lots of rice and french fries. I got pizza! It certainly looked like pizza, but it didn't taste like pizza! We were back to the room by 1:15 PM for nap time. It was hard to believe it was only 1:15 PM when we got back to the room because it seemed like so much happened today! I slept for about two hours and Piper slept for almost three hours. She really needed a long nap today. We had to wake her up this morning! We took Piper to the pool today after her nap! Erik went in the pool with her and I was able to just relax and take lots of pictures of our Piper! Erik was right when he said she loves the pool! She was so happy to be in the water!! I think she is going to like going to Ocean City in August!!

We went to dinner! Piper ate pretty well at dinner! We are always happy to see her eat! We ended our night by taking Piper to the playroom. It always seems to be empty when we go to the playroom so we have the whole place to ourselves! Let's hope for a good night of sleep for everyone! Tomorrow is our last full day in China!

Notes from Dad:
Wow - what a day. Tricia had a little melt down at the consulate this morning. It was super hot in there, and she's super pregnant, and she smelled a little like throw-up. All of that contributed to a rough morning. I might be partly to fault on this one. We knew that Piper is prone to puking in transit. Usually I have a plastic bag ready to catch, but today the bag was zipped away in my backpack. By the time I could get it out the worst was over. We threw away the dress Piper was wearing - too much damage from the big purge. It's going to be a fun 28 hour trip home!