On the 29th of December, we finished! Because all of our visa paperwork was approved, our guide was able to move up our Consulate Appointment to today. We crowded into a shuttle and went to the swearing in ceremony with 33 other families! We are glad to be finished with all of the paperwork on China's side of the world.
We also enjoyed a river cruise on the Pearl River this evening. We are exhausted and have had quite enough of sight-seeing for awhile.
But it is only Tuesday evening here and we still have days to hang around before we can leave Friday. Barring the American government sending in a chartered flight for us to leave early, there is no way we will be able to rearrange flights during this holiday season to come home early. So it looks like we will fill our last two days with shopping and napping - preparing for a marathon flight home. Have I mentioned we have a four hour lay-over back in Beijing and an EIGHT HOUR LAY-OVER in Los Angeles??? That adds 12 hours to an already crazy amount of traveling time!
We know that seeing the girls, Emma and Savannah, will be our goal and we will just keep plugging along hour by hour until January 1st - our beginning of the new year with our whole family!