Last few days on our China journey...

We arrived in Guangzhou on Friday night and checked into the nicest, NICEST hotel...wow. If you ever adopt from China you have to stay at the White Swan hotel. It is "westernized" so we felt right at home. Yeah pizza!! Yeah hamburgers and fries!!Yeah chicken nuggets!!Yeah omlets!! Ok, it may not be good for you, but it is the first American food we have had in over a week, so sue us:>
On Saturday Ruthie Jun had to go for her physical in the morning. The White Swan is located on an island where you can get out and walk around without fear of being ran over by the enormous amount of vehicles in the area. There is a park with a playground and lots and lots of walking areas. We would spend each afternoon just walking around and spending time with Ruthie Jun.
On Sunday we toured a Buddist Temple. It felt really weird to be in a place that is so removed from anything my family believes in and to see people worshipping Buddah. Our guide was very firm that he felt we needed to tour this temple so we could share the experience with Ruthie Jun when she is older (they are real big on the children learning about their Chinese heritage), but I wound up just feeling very sorry for the people there...so lost and without Jesus in their lives.

On Monday morning our guide Nelson took all of the paperwork we had gathered over the past 8 days to the American Consulet. We had to wait by the phone in case they had ANY questions about our desire to adopt or any problems with the documents. At noon we were told there were no problems and Ruthie Jun WOULD be allowed to come to America and become a citizen!!!Whoo Hoo!! (Like I would leave China without her:> )
Tuesday morning we had a free day, but after lunch we had to go approx. 30 minutes away to the American Consulet to personally swear we would love and care for Ruthie Jun. There were other parents with us (2 greyhound bus loads) so it was special to share this with other families.
It took about 30 minutes for the procedure then we were off to go back to the hotel.
We packed and "patiently" waited for the morning to come so we could be off to the good ole' U-S-of-A.
We left the next morning and after 4 planes and app. 24 hours we arrived home. I have never been so glad to see anyone as I was DJ, Ryan and Matt. Our very good friends Valynda and her daughter Kendall, Yvette and her daughters (and some of Peyton's very best friends ) Olivia and Cammie and her son (and one of Matt's very best friend) Joseph, were there to welcome us home.
We had the photo album we had sent to Ruthie Jun in May that had pictures of all of the family and Peyton would sit down with Ruthie several times each day to go over who everyone was, so when she saw the family she wasnt really scared. She got to meet the people in the photos and she was fine.
We went to Burger King (tasted soooo good) and went home. By the time we arrived EVERYONE except DJ was asleep.
God Bless the USA!!