Today was our appointment for the US Consulate. We left the hotel at 7:30 this morning with only Kai so the other kids could sleep in and hang out. We knew waiting would be involved and they would get bored quickly.
On the way to the hotel, we used our guide as a translator to get inside Kai's head a little. We have never heard Kai talk so much! He was comfortable with our guide and she had a way of engaging him in conversation. He took alot of initiative on his own to talk to her which is unusual for him. She asked him a few questions for us.
1st question: What did you think of the foot massage? We were really curious about this one. Kai said he was comfortable but sometimes it hurt. He didn't know if he liked it or not.
2nd question: Was he afraid to go to America? He said no. He told our guide, "I'll tell you a secret. Before I met my family I was afraid to go to America. After meeting my family, I am excited to go." This made me cry in the van...good thing I was seated behind him.
I then asked Kathy to try to make him understand that we knew there would be times when he would be sad and that we did not want him to hide his feelings from us. It was ok to be sad around us. She told him this and he said that when he was coming to meet us at the Civil Affairs office, he cried a little but he doesn't want to cry anymore. He said he misses his friends but he is now excited to go to America.
When we got to the US Consulate, we were not allowed to take anything including cell phones. We were only allowed to take in adoption papers. Very high security here. We met with about 11 other families, none of whom we were familiar with, and we all stood and took an oath. We then proceeded to do paperwork. It took about an hour but Kai made a very interesting observation that he shared with our guide. He said, "There are a lot of Chinese trying to go to America." Our guide Kathy, then proceeded to tell him how fortunate he was to be going and living there." It was really good for him to pick up on that and feel special about going to America. Kai is not a US citizen yet. As soon as his feet land on US soil, he will be a citizen.
I had an interesting mix of feelings while at the consulate. My heart started beating very quickly initially. I am not sure what made me nervous because there was no reason to be. At the same time, it felt so good to be back on US "property" if that makes any sense at all.
After we went back to the other kids at hotel, we took a field trip to a nearby Buddhist Temple we heard about. We found it relatively easy in the middle of the Jade market and watched as locals came by to do their prayers.
We took the local route back home instead of going through all the shops again. This is everyday living here.
