To Market, To Market, To Buy a Fresh Hen . . .

or cooked hen . . .


or hen's feet . . .


or seahorses . . .


or turtles . . .


or snakes . . .


or sugar . . .


or scorpions.




And to top off such an incredible morning of market going, the real highlight of today was our visit to the US Consulate to get Kate's ticket to travel to the States, her US Visa.

The consulate office in Guangzhou was packed with about 40 adopting families, most of whom we've seen around the hotel and island, all ready to take the last important step in this adoption journey.

The director of the consulate office, before ever being employed by the consulate office, adopted 2 daughters from China. Both daughters were from Guangdong province (where we are now), so now they are growing up back in their home province.

After giving us some instructions about our return to the States and going through immigration at the airport, the consulate director had everyone stand. We all took the oath that we would raise these children as our own, never to abandon or abuse. And with that Kate officially became a McKenzie! The minute she walks through immigration at O'Hare Airport she will be a US citizen!

We'll leave here at 6:30am Friday (6:30 pm Thursday in NC) and arrive home in NC on Friday at 9:30pm. A really, really long day of travel. I'm looking forward to being home, but not the incredibly long day-plus of travel it will take to get there. Oh well.