Excerpts From My China Journal - Nov. 19, 2015

We're getting closer!  Today we got up early and went to the consulate to apply for the girls' visas.  There were nine other families there at the same time, with only ONE other family with a child over the age of 2!  While I'm really happy for the little ones being adopted, I can't help feel bad for so MANY older kids who are looked over.  :o(  Pretty much every kid there appeared to have some kind of special need.  Several cleft lips, some eye "injuries", other facial abnormalities, etc.  One adorable 4 or 5 year old sibling was a BBE, I though the might look to be from Russia.  :o)  Everything went smoothly and easily and we were out of there lickety split.

Can it be?  Are we really getting close???  (LOL - notice how the girls still don't stand close together)

After this, we went to the Jade and Pearl Factory.  I learned that jade was MUCH more expensive than I thought it would be!  Either that, or Helen didn't know how to get good prices.  I did get some things, although not nearly what I was hoping to get.  Oh, well!  I was surprised that Helen did not charge me for her time shopping!  That was super nice.  Took a taxi back home and both girls promptly took naps.  ;o)  Wait - I forgot - on the way back, we stopped at a cafeteria-style restaurant and, while the food was very... Chinese, there was a lot of it and the bill was $5 for ALL of us!!  Why didn't we discover that place before??  LOL