Heading Home

Catherine's paperwork to enter the United States sailed smoothly through the U.S. Consulate today! All that's left is to check out of our hotel tomorrow afternoon, participate in a brief swearing in ceremony and the Consulate, and we're off to the airport and back home to wonderful, western Washington.

Tonight we had our Children's Hope International (CHI) group dinner where 36 adoptive families were treated to Cantonese food served family style. Elsie Chen and Simon She (pictured) were our CHI coordinator and local guide respectively. They both exceeded our group's expectations throughout the adoption process and stay in Guangzhou. These two handle all of the details for any necessary administrative and travel requirements while in China. They were also flexible and more than willing to assist families in our group with unique needs.

Thoughts of the flight home and arrival back in DuPont bring to mind the transition that our family will soon experience. Undoubtedly, we'll need some time to get over jet lag and time for Catherine to adjust to our family and new surroundings. So, everyone should expect us to lay low for a while as we focus on the adjustment.

Thanks to everyone who posted an encouraging comment on our blog. Unfortunately, while we could update and publish new posts, some sort of glitch kept us from viewing the final published product that you see here. We received your comments via email but were unable to post any follow up comments.

We would love it if you could pray for our flight back. Specifically, that we would be able to comfort Catherine during her teething. We're almost out of Baby Orajel, the only thing that helps. We will try to find some locally tomorrow.

Love to all,

Rich, Cheryl, Truman, Andrew, and Catherine