We are done!!! Hooray!!! We are
sooooo ready to come home and see our boys and introduce them to their new little sister. Today we went to the American Consulate and were given our oath for
Maeve to get her visa and become a US citizen. (We were not allowed to take video or pictures :( ) She is not a full citizen until we pass through immigration in Chicago and they stamp her passport. Today was very special and a little emotional. There were 39 US families who took the oath together. That means 39 children were given the opportunity to start a new life in the US with endless possibilities. It sounds silly when we are in the US to say "America is the land of opportunity and dreams," but when you see this part of the world, that saying has true meaning. I can't imagine
Maeve's future had she stayed here forever. The US Ambassador to China was in town visiting and he gave us our oath. His brother adopted from China and he and his wife fostered a baby for one year until that baby was adopted. It was very special to have him here and he got a little emotional during the oath. He was originally in China in the early 1990s when adoptions weren't allowed. He helped change that rule and now ~70,000 children have been adopted to the US. This was a pretty powerful day!
I'm not sure how I feel about leaving tomorrow. I guess there is some sadness about
Maeve leaving her home country, but there is so much more happiness! This is a beautiful country with lots of pride. I hope we convey that to her as she grows up.
We leave our hotel at 5:50 am tomorrow (another early day!!). Apparently the planners of these trips have never travelled with children! Anyway we would leave now if we could. We then fly to
Hong Kong. We have a brief lay over and then fly to Chicago. Once in Chicago we have about 3 hrs until our flight home. We cannot wait!!!
This has been an amazing journey and very life changing for us. Thank you all for following along and we look forward to seeing you soon.
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Our new American Princess!!
4 comments:
Hey...you all are literally "in the air" right now! I KNOW you will survive it...for some reason, now that it is over, I think it might have been easier to have Taryn with us because it gave us something to do! Not to mention we had Twilight as one of our movies.HeHe! What about those fish noodles eh'??? Delish!
I will be following your blog...keep it up! Can't wait to see her meet her brothers!
Love, Rebecca
P.S. I am so turned around it is midnight and I am wide awake after sleeping 3 hours! Good luck with all of that!
Safe travels and Welcome Home Maeve!!! Enjoy getting to know your new home, your new brothers, and your new life ahead!!!!
wow, I just finished reading your adventure and I was teary-eyed through the whole thing. She is so beautiful and is going to such a great family. Ok I know you are home and busy but you need to post about your homecoming!!! I can't wait to hear what the boys said! Congratulations, I can't wait to hear all about her, susie!
Hi Andy and Susie,
So glad you are home safe and sound. How did the reunion go with Maeve's brothers? Fu Mei took to her dad pretty quickly but still prefers Julee or me. We are so tired and still trying to get on the right time. How about you? I have not unpacked all the stuff so I can't find your email. Will you email me at khk22@aol.com. I can't wait to hear from you! We miss you already!
Karyn, Al, Julee and Fu Mei
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