Red Couch Pictures

Tonight our group headed to the White Swan hotel to take the tradition 'red couch' adoption picture. It's tradition that adoptive families take a picture a red couch to commemorate their time in China. It started, because so many adoptive families stayed at the White Swan hotel, which just happened to have red couches in their lobby. So many people took pictures on those couches that is now a tradition for adoptive families.

Here is the whole crew - 15 families in all

This morning Dad & I got to go to the Pearl Market. It looked like a 5 story mall, but it was all wholesale jewelers. They told us it used to be an ancient open air market, but this is a more modern version. They pointed us to the most reputable shops, so we could be sure we were getting the real thing. I have never seen so many pearls in my life. There was literally a 4ft. high stack of bulk pearl strands in the middle of the store. We got to chose exactly which strand and then they strung and knotted them right there in from of us. It was really neat and the prices were amazing.

Here are a few final sites from China from our walk to the pearl market this morning - We'll see you at home.

I almost forgot - we went to the American Consulate today and along with 41 other families,took an oath stating that the info we've provided them for our adoption was true. It was the last formality 'til we get to immigration in Chicago and Chloe becomes a US citizen :)

Our flights tomorrow are: Guangzhou to Beijing 9:20am to 12:30pm Beijing to Chicago 4:10pm to 4:20pm (chicago time) Chicago to Akron/Canton 7:30pm to 10:07pm