January 8th - Today we headed back to the US Consulate to finalize our 7 years of paperwork! When we arrived there was a very long line with many families we met at our hotel or on Shamian Island who were also adopting. Finally we went through security - Kristin's Baby Einstein Music player caused some delay as they kept asking what was in the backpack - showing us on the screen - we had no idea, but eventually we pulled the toy out and fortunately they did not keep it and let us go through the line.

Finally we were in a small room that quickly filled up with lots of families adopting who were also there to take the oath and turn in paperwork. After our group oath, our name was called 1st. We answered a few questions and w ere told they would try to have our paperwork ready in the afternoon, but could not make any promises. We were okay since our departure date was two days away, but other families in our group were leaving the next day. Fortunately everyone received the paperwork in time. In the afternoon we headed to Shamian Island again - it was another beautiful day and again many photo shoots were taking place. I got a great little drum set to use during our Ancient China unit at school and the drum will also be a great way to line up students from recess.

Yesterday was a free day - we said goodbye to the Smith family who were headed to Hong Kong for the day and then ate lunch with the Divis family before they headed to Beijing. Scott and I spent time in our room playing with Kristin and packing for our trip home. She has been scooting to get around, but Tuesday night she crawled for the first time and today she was crawling even more! It is amazing how much she has changed in 8 days - it seems like she has been with us forever.

This morning we are up early leaving for Beijing at 8 am. Unfortunately we have a 6 hour lay over in Beijing and will arrive in Dulles around 7 pm January 10th. We are so excited to be going home and can't wait to see everyone!