Farewell China

Praise the Lord, we made it through the US Consulate with a happy, non-meltdown Tyson. We got there very early and a bunch of other groups trickled in over the next hour. It took forever to get everyone in the room and ready to go. The actual oath ceremony would have been a big letdown if we hadn’t been forewarned it was going to be a non-event. It took all of two minutes. But, the big news is that Tyson now has a visa that allows him to enter America with his Chinese passport. As soon as he sets foot on US soil he becomes a US citizen and his China passport is null and void. China does not allow for dual citizenship. So Hui Qiang will officially become Tyson Qiang Jacques in about 36 hours if all the flights go well. His reaction to being in an official looking building with a bunch of white grown ups and little Chinese kids was night and day compared to the medical visit of less than a week ago. He has really attached to us and had no fear this time around.

So, tomorrow we are up at 430am and on the road by 530. Yay! It’s definitely an Ambien night. Hope we can get the little guy down by 930 without too much fuss. It will be interesting to see how things go when Melissa’s mom parts ways with us in Detroit. Ty won’t even go down the elevator to the lobby without his full entourage of three attendants. I’m sure he’ll be asking for her all the way home to Norfolk. Nai Nai get ready to fill some big shoes. Then again, he may be so exhausted from our trans-pacific flight he won’t even notice. Time will tell.

So this is the last posting I will do from China. Next time I’m logged on, we’ll be on American soil. Thank God for that. China has been awesome but we are exhausted. Life back in the States promises to be full of new challenges but we are ready for them. I can’t wait to go back to work!!! Melissa is going to take a few months off work to get Ty all settled in. We need to get him assessed by the international adoption doc and at some point get the cleft palate team to look him over. We’re not planning on getting the surgery for few months – the surgeons suggested we work on bonding with him for a few months before we put him through the trauma of a (possibly multiple) surgeries. One of the adopting parents here is an ENT back home and he took a quick look at Ty’s palate. He says the cleft is fairly narrow and should repair well. That would be great.

(Tangent here - Ty just counted to ten in English with the help of Lili who has craftily stacked Skittles on top of coins on top of cups to make ten piles. Whatever it takes…our son is a bilingual genius!)

I would be remiss in my last posting from the PRC if I failed to mention our guides, Alison and Susan. They are two wonderful Chinese citizens that work for our adoption agency; I simply can’t say enough great things about them. They are building up treasures in heaven for the amazing and selfless service they provide us wayward travelers. Every month they give up significant time with their friends and family in Beijing to live on the road with the travel groups that come through China. They have been with the group (and away from home) since we arrived here 2 weeks ago – for those of you back home that have felt the length of time we’ve been away through this blog, you know how long it’s been. Well, they do this at least once a month with a different group of trouble makers every time. And let me be the first to say that the people in our group haven’t been saints. We’ve had A LOT of special requests, various side trips and whiners – one couple took their newly adopted kid to Beijing in between Nanching and Guangzhou, missed the marathon paperwork session and still didn’t have their visa paperwork ready for the ceremony today. Needless to say they’ve required a lot of individual attention to get caught up – and Alison and Susan have been all smiles all the way through it. Almost no one is flying the regular pathway home – they are detouring through Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing – all trips that have to be arranged and monitored by those two wonderful souls. I guarantee that AHH isn’t paying them enough for all the stuff that they have to put up with. So, if you two are reading this – we love you and can’t thank you enough for taking such good care of us in China. Our trip was made PERFECT by your hard work.

In returning home, there are a few things I am looking forward to most. My own bed is the first – the beds at both the Marriotts have been the best hotel beds I’ve ever slept in but they aren’t mine. The next thing is, believe it or not, salad and fresh veggies – we’ve had to be very careful with the foods we’ve eaten here – so raw veggies and any fruit you can’t peel have been out since Tokyo. The next thing is American TV – and my DVR. Even CNN and CNBC here are run by the Brits out of Hong Kong. Melissa says she can’t wait to see Tyson in his own bedroom – I told her that was like answering “The Bible” as your favorite book. Boo! Makes me look shallow for longing for my pillow and Buffalo Wings. Her revised answer is Diet Coke – the Chinese don’t believe in it. Mom is ready for her bed and her white noise machine to help her sleep through the night – the 220 voltage here fried hers the first night in Chongqing and she’s had to muddle by for 2 weeks now. Tyson says ‘eschwela!” whatever that means.

So, pray for travel mercies and guardian angels on our wings all the way home. I’ll see many of you soon. Can’t wait!

See you later…