Finding Faith in China: Nov 13, 2008

This morning we slept in late, did some more shopping, and ate at Lucie's for lunch. On the way to lunch, Faith spied Lucie's in the distance, and began to pull at me while speaking Chinese. I finally figured it out when I noticed her using the sign language for eat. Boy Can She Eat! An entire adult size meal is no problem for her. Her favor food is definitely french fries and shes becoming quite fond of soda too. After lunch we headed back to the hotel and prepared to go to the U.S. Consulate. Alissa stayed behind with Kate. She is the daughter of a family we met well ice skating in the U.S. who were instrumental in bringing Faith into our life. Believe it or not they are here adopting also! The Consulate was amazing! 40 families representing 26 different states. There were kids everywhere! We were asked to stand, put our right hand up and vow that all we had said in our adoption paper work was true.Also, they looked at us & compared our passport photos to our faces. That was it. Faith had three melt downs today because she couldn't have things that weren't hers. It didn't last long but she hides her face , not wanting any one to see her cry & she is very quiet about it. I was a little concerned about her reactions to me but I new that I couldn't let her get by with what she was doing. About a half hour later, after all the crying ended, she looked up at me, gave me a kiss, & said, "I love you" It was sooo... sweet. Then I knew for sure I had done the right thing. She's becoming extremely comfortable with Daddy. She loves to craw all over him when he's lying down watching T.V. Believe it or not she sleeps through his snoring too which has become a joke to her. They were lying down together & she was pretending to sleep with him & then began to imitate his snoring. It was a Kodak moment. Our good by dinner followed which I wish I could have taped more of, but we were so busy saying our goodbyes to families we've grown quiet close to. Alissa ate pigeon until we told her what it was and she got grossed out. It still doesn't beat the carp I ate though! One of the highlights of the dinner was our table mascot, which Richard created out of the pigeons head attached to a chopstick sitting in a empty sprite bottle.It was fun until the waiter took it away. He thought it was as funny as we did though. Morgan, our group leader, explained to Faith & Quin that they were going to their own homes. There faces looked quiet sorrowful & a bit questioning at the same time. It made us all sad. We vowed to do our best to keep them in touch with each other. They live in Atlanta, Georgia right along our travel route to Florida every spring. They've invited us to stay in their guest house when we travel through. We are also hoping to make a trip to Colorado, the home of A.A.C., our agency (the BEST), and the home of the Bandimere family. Their daughter Grace was also in Faith's orphanage. She is much more quiet spoken like the rest of their family. These are awesome families & now our friends. We are anxious to come home, but this has definitely been an experience of a lifetime. I'm grateful to be an American!