...And We're Done!

As of today at 4:30 p.m. Guangzhou time, we finished the final steps in completing Silas' adoption.  Our guide picked us up at 3:00 p.m. and we drove over to the U.S. Consulate.  Once we arrived, we were led through two security checks.  At the second one, we had to leave our phones and cameras, which is why there are no photos of today's events.  :(  We were led to a room to wait with five other U.S. families adopting Chinese children.  Typically, you wait with 30-40 other families, so this was an unusually small group.  Silas was the only boy and the youngest child in the room! (We also think he was the cutest and smartest, but we might be biased.  :))  We stood with all the other families and took an oath attesting that the information we provided to the U.S. Government on behalf of our son was true and correct to the best of our knowledge.  After the oath, we were provided with a visa for Silas to enter the U.S., and a brown envelope that we must present to the immigration officer when we land in L.A.  The immigration officer will stamp Silas' paperwork, and he will be a U.S. citizen!  Because it was such a small group, the consulate was able to issue the visas today.  We weren't expecting to get the visa until tomorrow, which is why we were staying until Friday morning.  Because of the early issuance, we could feasibly leave on Thursday, but we figured trying to change the tickets and pay the change fees would be more trouble than it is worth.  So, we're doing some sightseeing tomorrow with our guide, Lucy, who has been just awesome.  All we have left to do after that is pack!  We are rally looking forward to being home with our new son, getting into a routine, and introducing him to his family and friends.

Here are some pictures we took today while Silas was playing in our hotel room.  He loves to play with his toys, and he's working so hard on his standing and walking.  He's come a long way in just over a week.  When we met him a week ago Monday, he wouldn't  even crawl.  Now, he spends more and more time on his feet every day (the Chinese "squeeky shoes" help a lot), and we make a game of walking to Dad and walking back to Mom.  He gets such a look of pride on his face when he does it without holding on to us.