Day 13 - Consulate Appointment (Tuesday)
We all woke up a bit earlier than usual at 6am and made it down to the breakfast buffet by 6:30ish to ensure we were ready for our 7:30am trip to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou. Our agency paired up with the families from Holt International for a large bus rental and traveled together. All US visas in China are processed here and in 2017 they granted almost 2,000 adoption visas to immigrating US citizens (adopted kids).
Once we arrived we went
to the medical records building nearby where we received our official results from Saturday’s testing. We took these results along with our visa application package to wait in line for about an hour with about 11 other adoptive families. Many Chinese citizens and a few U.S. citizens were in line also waiting to enter for their own visa applications or citizenship issues.
The US Consulate building is about the size of a football field and three stories tall. The entire compound is even larger with some pretty intense security features. I’ve been told that the entire consulate building was shipped/flown in from the US brick by brick for concerns of security issues. Once we passed through security (like an airport except you can’t bring any cellphone, smart watch, computer, bag, etc. in with you) we proceeded directly to the second floor, window 8 where we checked in and received our order of service for our appointment. Think social security office but with every window having a prison-like security window with microphone and speaker.
A leader from the consulate gave us a few instructions on what we’d receive on Thursday...our child’s Chinese passport w/US visa, a packet of information for their immediate citizenship upon arrival in the US, and a Hague Convention adoption certificate. We then were given an oath about the accuracy of our statements and were seated to await our turn. When it was our turn we paid the final visa fees, signed a final form or two, and gave some more fingerprints. A pretty simple and quick finish to a 10.5 month process! Thankfully all went well and on Thursday we should receive Mia’s Chinese passport back with a US visa that allows her to enter into the US where she’ll immediately change into a US citizen!
One of the most interesting parts of the time in the consulate is watching all of the adoptive kids interact. Of the 12 kids I think only Mia and one other girl were 11 years old and the rest were between 2-5 years old. The young ones were an interesting mix of playing together (sometimes sharing, sometimes competing) for the the kids all had different stories of their upbringings and needs but they were similar in having some families filled with amazing love! It was truly a blessing to see children being loved so well in spite of their differences and needs. So beautiful.
After our Consulate appointment we journeyed back to the hotel and regrouped before exploring and looking for a special noodle shop. Unfortunately we couldn’t take any photos at the Consulate appointment but when we returned we were able to catch a photo with Han, our adoption guide in 2014. He is so sweet and it was great catching up with him, but he lamented the drastic downturn in the quantity of Chinese adoptions too :(
Our first adventure around the corner to the left resulted in finding a fancy restaurant (Macau Restaurant) but not the one we had been told about. We returned to the hotel and wandered to the right this time, and just about when were ready to give up, we found it! The famed Muslim Noodle house of Guangzhou, China lol.
It was a tiny hole-in-the-wall type establishment that was packed out. We had to grab our own menus, write down our own orders, and grab our own drinks but it was worth the wait! For about 1/5 the price of the hotel Chinese restaurant we had a tasty and delicious meal! We all had some variants of noodles and loved the experience. Brittney and Jonathan actually used their chopsticks more than native Mia, who is now a full-fledged fork-convert Bhaha.
After a tasty lunch we wandered across the street from our hotel through a mini maze of tunnels to a lake park. The park had a lot of construction going on, but it was both busy and beautiful. The kids and adults both enjoyed a special exercise-playground of plyometric equipment. It was a lot of fun and we saw people of all ages using it to stay fit. Plus it was sandwiched between the 10+ ping pong tables and 4 badminton courts that were constantly in use!
After our 5k in the park we had a bit of hotel room rest before heading to the pool (for maybe the 6th day altogether!) and finished with a Dominoes dinner. Thankfully there were no traumatizing experiences at the pool (see day 12) but there were plenty of lap swimmers getting their fitness time in. It was a great day of bonding and an accomplishment of our main appointment in Guangzhou! Tomorrow (Wednesday) we have nothing important planned...except a highly-anticipated trip to Safari Park!!
