Thursday and Friday

Thursday and Friday were both free days for us.  This has been a really busy two weeks so we were pleased to have a bit of a break.   

Thursday afternoon, we hired Ann of Red Threads to take us shopping.   We went to the Toy Market at One Link Plaza.  Words cannot express how quickly Ann shops.....there is no browsing allowed!   I made a list but I never even had a chance to get it out of my backpack!  We got silk dresses for Abby and Claire.    Each dress was between $3 and $5.   Josh got four Lego sets....each complete set costing between $5 and $10.   Will made the biggest purchase, buying a drone for $40.    I do not even really know what that is, but he was certainly excited!  

After finishing at the toy market, we headed to the Pearl Market.  I got Claire a nice pearl necklace to have when she gets older.   We also got some Christmas shopping done!

Done shopping, Ann got us a taxi and we were on our way back to the hotel.   

At 4:30, I met our guide in the hotel lobby to pick up Claire's visa to America!

This means that we are all done with paperwork!!   We can finally go home!!

Friday, we ate our last breakfast at the Garden!   I will truly miss having someone make me omelets every morning!!

After breakfast, we spent time doing a little shopping and a lot of packing!  We had a buy an extra suitcase.....all those good buys at the Toy Market have to go somewhere!!   

We leave Saturday morning at 4:30 am.  Our first flight leaves at 7:00 am out of Guangzhou.   We fly from Guangzhou to Beijing, Beijing to Seattle, Seattle to Atlanta, and then Atlanta to home.  We arrive at our local airport at 8:02 pm Saturday night.   We are all so happy to be almost home!!   

Consulate Appointment

This morning, Claire and I went to the US Consulate for her visa appointment.   No cameras or electronics are allowed so no pictures to show!   

Our appointment was at 8:30.   We were first in line so it was easy and quick.   They asked me a few questions and then interviewed Claire to be sure that she was still agreeable to be adopted.  Thankfully, after spending two weeks with us, she still liked us enough to say yes!!

We came back to the hotel and took a few pictures of Claire in her consulate outfit!

In the afternoon, the kids wanted to check out the pool.   The water was a frigid 68 degrees but they did not seem to care!  Anita, Will, and I put on our jackets to go sit by the pool and watch them!  As far as we know, this is the first time Claire has ever been in a swimming pool.  She had a great time!!

Safari Park!

We love this place!   This was definitely on our to-do list even though we did it on Abby's trip a few years ago.  

We started with a train safari through the park.  Claire was so excited with every animal sighting.  She constantly turned her back to the animals and motioned for me to take her picture.   It was hilarious!!

Some of the animals were a bit smelly....

And others were a bit scary....

But she loved each and every one!!

Once we finished the train ride, we went to feed the giraffes.  For $3, you could purchase a snack of leaves for these animals.   This was so much fun!

We watched several shows and then went to find the elephants.  Unfortunately, they were no longer offering elephant rides but you could purchase food for the elephants.  Josh was disappointed but decided feeding the elephants was acceptable so we did that instead.

Abby was not so sure about the elephant's trunk coming though the fence in search of the food!

We watched an elephant show which was a hit for sure.   Look at Claire's face to see how much she enjoyed this!

We saw some pandas, which is always cool!

On our way out of the park, we saw one of the park characters.   Claire was not afraid at all and wanted her picture taken with the koala bear!

We left the park around 5:00 and headed back to the hotel.   We were all so exhausted!!