China Day 16 - Taking the Oath
 

It's a tradition here at the White Swan hotel to take a picture on the red couch with all of the families in our group.  So here we are, group 886 all posing with our new family members!  We were shocked when we saw at one time how many people there really are.  It's amazing that CCAI (the adoption agency) is able to coordinate all of these adoptions simultaneously.
 

We also tried to get a picture of all of the babies together.  There was a split second when they were all sitting there together but I missed it with my camera so this is as close as I was able to come!  Talk about pandemonium!

Then the drill was to take a picture of each family.  Sue was looking down but otherwise it was a cute pic!

Here are a couple of pics of Sophie and I at lunch at a local Thai restaurant (from the day before, actually).  Sophie is eating a kind of fish chip that is quite spicy.  She loves them!

This afternoon we had a lovely meal at a local restaurant, and it was lovely because Sophie was -- asleep!  The food there was very inexpensive!  All of the food that Sue is showing below is about $2.80.  Sophie eventually woke up and here's Dad working the chopsticks to get some food into her.

After lunch we boarded the bus for the U.S. Consulate, to get her Visa to let her into the U.S. when we get home.  We had to take an oath that everything we wrote down from this point previous was correct to the best of our knowledge - 55 families from several adoption trips did this simultaneously!  No pictures of that because cameras weren't allowed!  Sophie ran all over and introduced herself to lots of people.

Tomorrow we leave our room at 6:30 for the airplane to Hong Kong, and then for the long trek home.  She is so active that we wonder how she'll do on the long flight.  Also United Airlines in their infinite wisdom has seated us separately so we'll see if we can talk them into 3 seats together.

Our travel will begin at 2pm on 12/7 AZ time, and end in Prescott about 5pm on 12/8, if all goes well!  We're really looking forward to being home after 17 days of being away, and seeing our boys again! See you soon!