Consulate Appointment - Day 10

We had our appointment at the consulate at 10 AM this morning and we were the last ones called to the window. The adoption family side of the room was empty when we finally went up and we were probably one of the quickest to be processed. I really am missing having someone along to help take pictures. Neither of our guides have been photographers, so the important moments of this trip have either been missed, photographed by another family (thankfully so at our gotcha - only reason we got some good ones that day), or the blurry ones by the guides. I think they've seen it so many times, that they just want to get the picture and go. It's all routine for them. So much for capturing a life changing moment for these children and their new families.

Those are the best of the 4 we got. The others were so blurry I've already deleted them. The consulate is on the 5th floor of a nondescript office building. The room were the families gather is nothing special and no cameras are allowed. The standard photo spot is here in front of directory. You'd think they could provide something for families since every American family adopting from China has to go through this office. Hard to believe this is a big day when everything looks and feels so ho-hum.

We passed on an invitation to go to the zoo, but when I mentioned that I needed to visit a bookstore, our guide offered to take us. I'm pretty sure it is the one I was going to try to visit anyway and this way the guide paid our transportation costs and helped me find a title for a friend. Sorry no pictures, but it looked just like a bookstore. :)

We got back to our room and ate a couple snacks we saved from breakfast and then took a taxi to Shamian Island. I needed to do a little shopping there for the last of the gifts. The weather is still gray and threatening rain, so I left the camera behind. Shamian Island is very picturesque, but having been there before and knowing that Lucy wasn't going to be up for much walking we opted to travel light.

We are ready to go home. Lucy keeps asking, when are we going to America. She seems very anxious to get to America. She wanted to know if she would get a blue American passport. I think she's okay with waiting until we are in America to get one (she travels on her red Chinese passport for this trip), but she's anxious to have an American passport.

It's hard to tell how much she understands about what is happening. Alice has had a difficult time understanding that she is an American citizen. Citizenship and ethnicity are the same in her mind. She was born in China, she is Chinese ethnically, so how can she be an American. It will become clearer with time. Lucy seems content with moving to America. We haven't gone much further than that in our discussions so far. She has been forward focused this whole trip, with no sentimentality, no looking back, no asking when she'll come back. We'll see how long that lasts.

Another milestone of sorts has been happening the past 24 hours or so. Lucy is starting to show me some teenage attitude. She has been annoyed with me a few times while we're out and I've moved her along faster than she wants to go. It's just been little stuff here and there. Thinking back to our trip with Alice, we actually experienced some similar issues (expressed differently) about this far into the trip. I think it shows she is getting comfortable enough with me that I am not getting her "best company" behavior anymore. You know how kids always behave better for strangers than for their family? I think I'm becoming less of a stranger, so I get to see more of the real Lucy. She's a good kid, but she is almost 14 so you can't expect perfection! LOL