Red Couch Day- UPDATED w/ PHOTOS

Today was a big day. We hit the ground running this morning and did some shopping. I feel like I could really get into the shopping here....great deals!! :-) However, every shop has pretty much the same thing...so once you have bought most of the stuff in one store...you have pretty much covered every shop on the island.

Most importantly today....we had one more moment of becoming "officially" a family. Today all of our paperwork passed through the Consulate with flying colors. No more paperwork (until we get home of course as there is followup paperwork for a year I think). But no more paperwork in China. And tomorrow all we have to do is show up at the Consulate and take an oath and get Isabel's Visa to travel to the US with us. Our appointment is at 3:30 tomorrow and we will have to take a 45 minute bus ride to get there....stay there for at least an hour waiting and then take the bus back. So although there is not much to the actual appointment, it will take up most of our afternoon.

Second most important thing we did today...the infamous red couch photo. Every family that comes through the White Swan has their picture taken on the red couch. In fact, families that don't stay at the White Swan will come over to the hotel just for the photo. This afternoon our group all went downstairs for our photos. We all bought our daughters traditional Chinese outfits to wear for the pictures. We took turns having family pictures done, did a large group photo and then did an attempted children only photo. Jeff was standing to the side for the children only shot...so we will have to get pictures from other people to get one that is taken from the front. But I think our family photo turned out great. I also took some single shots of Isabel in her dress...she was so darned cute! :-)

All of the kids and families looked great. We have been so lucky to end up with such an incredible group of people. Jeff and I have not only grown our family by Isabel, but have also gained an even larger family through the friends we have made in our travel group.

We do have one family that was not included in the photo as she just found out her daughter may have the chicken pox...yikes. They are still trying to determine if that is what she has. If so...they think she has been contagious for about four days. She and her kiddo have unfortunately had to stay away from the group until we have final word. And we have all been told to keep an eye out for each of our kiddos as well. I really hope it isn't the pox as I think the will have to stay in China 1-2 weeks longer if she has them as they won't let her travel. :-(

I don't have pictures of our shopping adventures this morning...but I have plenty of red couch photos. As has been the case every night...I will have to wait until morning to post the photos. Oh, and I also have a photo of the meds we were given for her. She has been taking them, but we are not really sure she is showing many signs of improvement. Luckily we will be home in a few days and will be able to get her in to her pediatrician soon. Speaking of which...there is little sleep to be had in a tiny hotel room with a kiddo coughing through the night. So, I had best try and get some sleep while she is still quiet. G'night.