Last day in China, Parents for the rest of our lives

The latter half of this week was mostly spent in and around the hotel. Wednesday night we ate at the Italian restaurant around the corner from the hotel. It was good. I had lasagne fungi, John had a calzone, and I ordered a cheese pizza for Thomas. Thomas didn't like the pizza. I think it was still a little too hot when I gave him a piece, so he ate french bread for dinner. Thursday morning was our trip to the US Consulate to submit the required paperwork for Thomas' Visa and the swearing in ceremony. Thomas will automatically become a US Citizen when we arrive in San Francisco so John and I swore on behalf of Thomas that all our paper work was authentic etc. It was actually an emotional moment with a room of adopting parents and their new children taking the oath at one time. We were the first family called up to submit our paperwork and then we were done with all our appointments and bureaucratic paper work except to pick up the Visa and immigration packet on Friday. Thursday night we ate at the Cascade restaurant here in the hotel.  John ate the buffet while mom, grama, and I ordered from the menu. John had snails and octopus salad. Yuck. I had curry chicken and hot and sour soup which I shared with Thomas. After dinner we headed over to Starbucks for coffee and dessert. I started to develop swelling around my lips and mouth so we went back to the hotel. Good thing I brought a small pharmacy with me. I took both a claritin and a benadryl. After a bit I also started to get a little congested and scared John by telling him that if I get worse he will have to call an ambulance. Ambulances here in Guangzhou don't get special right of way like in the US. Luckily, the meds kicked in and I was feeling better. The swelling didn't go down until the next morning. Well Friday morning, it was mom's turn to not feel well. She woke up with Vertigo. She did not bring her medication. However, I did bring some motion sickness pills, Diphenhydramine. Mom is still affected today but not as dizzy and nauseated as yesterday. This meant that we didn't do much yesterday with mom pretty much not able to go anywhere or watch Thomas. John and I did go out for dinner to Pizza Hut. It is a sit down restaurant with a large menu of both pizza items and Chinese items. It was fun to look through the menu. We each ordered smoothies to drink and the bacon pizza. It was fascinating to see what the other people ordered. After, we stopped at McD's to get grama a chicken sandwich and then picked up a salad for mom at the hotel deli. While we were out Helen dropped off Thomas' passport/visa and immigration paperwork. Also a certificate of adoption from the US Consulate showing the adoption is approved. I can photocopy it and send it in for my disability and to add Thomas' to my health insurance. Today, I got a lot done. While mom Skyped with Ryan and Tiffany, John and I went over to the grocery store and got some more diapers, then to Starbucks, and then to a store next to McD's where I bought some cute t-shirts. I also wanted to spend all my Yuen as I would lose money changing it back to US dollars, because the dollar lost value while we were here. The other day John commented "kids are fun". We are both learning a lot of patience. The most difficult part is that Thomas doesn't always understand why he is in trouble when we tell him no or take a toy away. He is a very good boy and lots of fun, I just don't want him to hurt himself or others. He seems to have gotten the message about not playing with the electrical outlets. Not throwing his toys at me or John is a more difficult one. Anyway, right now he is playing fairly quietly and I am keeping him up through nap time hoping he will sleep on the plane tonight.