Consulate Appointment and Shamian Island

On Monday July 1, we had an early start.  Our Consulate appointment was this morning, and we had to leave our hotel at 7:50 am.  Ava ate another great breakfast, and we got dressed in our Red, White and Blue to commemorate our day.

 

Unfortunately, the US government will not allow you take cameras inside for your appointment.  Since our group was large, we didn't ask our guide to hold our cameras.  Another FB friend also at the appointment but with a different agency did get pictures for us, but I haven't gotten that picture from her yet.  So here is only picture I have from our Consulate appointment, and it was taken in the van on the way!

At the consulate appointment, you must go through security and then sit in a large waiting area.  An American consulate worker then gave us lots of instructions regarding the brown envelope we would be getting from them the next day along with the visa stamp inside our child's Chinese passport.  We took an oath swearing that all of the documentations we had were true.  We were then called up individually to DMV like windows where we handed over our paperwork to a worker.  Then we were done!  Once we land in the US, Ava will become a US citizen!

After our consulate appointments, we ran back to our hotel and then headed to Shamian Island.  Shamian Island was once the adoption hub!  The US consulate and medical office were once located here so many families stayed on Shamian Island.  It is beautiful and so peaceful.  There were once many stores that catered to the adoptive family, but many have been forced to close.  With the US consulate and medical office move off the island, the stores have a hard time remaining open.  We did visit a couple of shops, bought some more dresses and squeaky shoes.  Again, we were really pressed for time, and didn't get to see nearly as much of the island or shops as we wanted!

What we did see was beautiful!  Shamian Island is a bit like Charleston...you can see the British influence in the architecture.

    

Shamian Island's beautiful landscape and buildings make a great backdrop for photo shoots!  We saw many including bridal and fashion along with married couples.

 

 

A handbag model

After stopping at the first shop, we headed for the legendary Jenny's Store!  She is well known among adoptive families who are believers.  We bought several pairs of squeaking shoes, a wooden chinese doll, and a wood puzzle of China.  Wished we had gone here first because she also had so many silk dresses that looked to be nicer than the previous shop.

Shamian Island also has many statues.  There is one particular statue that I couldn't wait to visit because many adoptive families take their child's picture there.  Well, Ava was scared to death of the statues and screamed!  So no picture perfect photo of her here!

We all then headed to Lucy's for lunch.  Lucy's is another adoptive favorite as they have lots of American food and sweet tea!  I had a hamburger which was very good and Jeremy had Malaysian fried rice and chicken satay.  It was very good and Ava loved it!  She also loved the lemons...silly girl!

 

After lunch while we waited for everyone, I quickly walked to see the Pearl River which separates Shamian Island from GZ.  While there, I saw several men doing Tai Chi.  What a beautiful place to exercise!