O C T O
B E R 3 0 - 3
1
Tomorrow
we leave Hubei Province for Guangzhou which
is in
Southern China. Elizabeth will have no memory of her
life here and in many ways it is sad to think she will
most likely never return. We take with us our memories
to share with her, pictures, and the paperwork the
Chinese Government has given us and now her life will
be as an American. When our plane touches down in L.A.
in one week, she will become an American citizen.
As of today, Elizabeth is still a citizen of China,
but we have now completed all of the required
paperwork on the side of the Chinese Government. Now,
in Guangzhou, we will finish the final step of the
process and complete the U.S. part.
In celebration of the completion of China's part and
since all the babies were just about ready to have (or
just recently had) a birthday (one year), we had a
party thrown by our CCAI (our agency guides) and were
handed official paperwork by an official of the CCAA.
It was a great relief to have the 'red ink' behind us.
When a child is abandoned in China, Chinese Law
requires a "finding ad" to be placed in the Province's
main newspaper for a given period of time. This small
ad generally contains a photograph of the child, a
description of what she/ or he was wearing, and the
place where they were found. Today, when we opened our
official paperwork packet, was a copy of the finding
ad for Elizabeth! The picture was taken when she was
only days old. This is the earliest photo we have of
her. What a treasure this copy of a newspaper is to
us.
The past few days have been busy with sightseeing many
areas of Wuhan. One of our favorites was a beautiful
National Chinese park called East Lake. The weather
was perfect and we walked quite a bit around the lake.
Elizabeth is quite a good traveler. She loves to take
in all the sights but doesn't want her Daddy to get to
far away. Mom, well, lets just say she is 98% Daddy's
girl, but this is good... because yesterday it was
99%.
Seriously, she is fine with me as long as Dave isn't
in the room. If he is in sight, she wants her Daddy!
He has been rocking her to sleep and she will go out
almost instantly when it's bedtime if he holds her and
gives her the night-time bottle. She is sleeping
through the entire night ..unless Panda somehow gets
misplaced. If she wakes, we put Panda next to her and
she's out again. Whew!
The next post will be from Guangzhou. Our luggage will
be out in the hall at 9:00 am tomorrow morning, and we
will board the plane that will take her away from the
only land she has ever known. She has been through so
much change and loss in her short life, but she will
never again have to wonder 'who her caregiver is' or
who her Mommy and Daddy are. We will be here for her
until God calls us home just as our parents have done
for us.
So, our sweet Elizabeth, don't look back. Look ahead.
Love, Mommy and Daddy. |
Oh
please don't let my Panda fall overboard
Hope this stroller lasts long enough
to get us back to the U.S.
Shades
Koi at East Lake
|
