Oath Day!

Peyton woke up her usual smiley, happy, snuggly self! She asked for and drank nearly a full bottle. She was. Up pretty early...a little before 6:00, and we were in the tub by 6:30. Bathtime usually lasts just long enough to wash her body and her hair because she has shown zero interest in playing in the tub. I'm assuming that's because it was down to business in the orphanage! Well, today, for the first time, she grabbed a toy and wanted to play after she was all crab! I hollered to Darren so he could see and snap a few pictures. It was good to see her being a kid and learning that there is time for play with us.

After I finished getting her ready, Darren took her for a walk around the hotel so I could shower. She wanted me to put my shoes on and go with them and cried when I sent her out the door with Darren. She is to the point now that she won't go to him at all. She only wants me to hold her. In fact, Darren tried changing her diaper for the first time, and she gave him a dirty look and scooched over to me. He did change the diaper though, and put WAY too much powder for her rash on, but he did it. He had the powder all over his hand. I sent him to wash his hands while I finished with her. Silly daddy!

When they got back, I was drying my hair. When I finished, Darren got in the shower while Peyton and I did make-up. She loves to copy me, and I pretend to put a little make-up on her. Today, she pretended to use my eyelash curler.

Then it was on to breakfast. A bowl of congee, a piece of bread, and a piece of chocolate bread, and she was a happy little girl! We then went back to the room to straighten up and get our things ready for the day.
We hung out and played until just before lunchtime, and I wanted a family photo of consulate day, so we set the tri-pod up in our room and snapped a few. Peyton was really cute in all of them. She liked that I was carrying her back and forth to set the timer and the flashing self timer light. Then, we thought we would dress her in the Chinese outfit e bought for her in Shanghai, even if it was a little big, and try to snap our own red couch photo.

On our way out the door, I bent down to pick something up off the floor, and my camera slid off my arm and landed on the marble tile. It cracked my UV filter, and because it was bent from hitting the ground, we couldn't get it off. I was so mad at myself for letting that happen, but I was thankful nothing else broke. I was planning to take it in for service when we got home after being in all of this humidity, and it for sure needs to go in now. Hopefully nothing else was damaged.

We continued down to the red couch for our family photo, and Peyton looked adorable! She hasn't let me put a bow in her hair since the 2nd day we had her. I wanna put a bow in her hair so bad! Oh well. We snapped a few family photos, but she wouldn't sit by herself for any pictures by herself, so I tried holding her away from me, and Darren got a few cute ones of her from the shoulders up without me.

We brought her other dress to change her into so we didn't have to take her back to the room. While Darren tok her dress and the tri-pod back, she and I watched the parakeets. They are so cute, and she is fascinated by them!

Then we went to Lucy's for lunch. She ate a bowl of chicken congee and about 1/3 of the noodles Darren and I ordered to share. After lunch, we were going to go back to our room and give her a nail before leaving for the consulate. As we walked out of Lucy's, she asked me to put her down, didn't want to hold my hand, and headed into the park. Miss independent all of a sudden! We followed her around the park for 10 minutes or so, and then she was done! She had beads of sweat on her upper lip when I picked her up.

By the time we got back to our room, there wasn't much time left for a nap, so we let her play and prayed she'd be good! We headed down to meet the other families to board the busses to go to the Consulate to take our oath. While we were waiting, another group walked out to their bus, and Peyton cried when we didn't go with them. It was a sweet little cry, if there is such a thing, because she was so excited when she saw those busses and didn't understand why she couldn't go too. It made both Darren and I sad.

Finally, it was our turn! We found our front seat and headed off! Peyton was a happy girl! When we arrived, we took several flights of escalators, which she totally loved. Then we had to show our passports and go through security before entering a large room filled with chairs, kind of like a DMV waiting room, only bigger and much nicer. We were there with 47 other families, so it was crazy in there! We found seats and let Peyton roam. She stayed close to us and twirled around and acted silly while she ate cheerios from her snack cup. They called for the parents of Sun Bao Yan to go to the window. We showed our passports; they gave us some documents, and we went back to our seats.

While we waited for the other families to be called to the window, we were talking to the family sitting behind us. As I was talking, Peyton started to mimic my hand gestures. We all cracked up.

Finally, all of the families had bern called up, and it was time to take our oath as a group. We were asked to raise our right hands and repeated after the official that we swore the information we provided on the behalf of our children was accurate to the best of our knowledge. Peyton saw everyone raising their hands, looked around the room, and raised her hand too. She is adorable. Then she clapped as it ended and everyone else clapped too. She was a good little girl!

Not long after we got back on the bus to go back to our hotel, Peyton started falling asleep, and for once, we were trying to keep her awake sound. We could go to dinner before going back to our room for the evening. We gave her a sucker. It kind of worked. Poor little girl was so tired!

We went to Lucy's again and ordered 2 bowls of congee for her and a pasta dish for Darren and I to share. The congee is usually super hot, so we have to put some on a plate so she can start eating while Darren blows the rest to cool it down. I usually blow on what's on her plate to get her started, and she usually helps. Once she has a few servings from the plate, what's left in the bowl is usually cool enough for her to eat. We put the bowl in front of her, and she was blowing each bite before putting it in her mouth, just like I do. I love her! She makes us smile! Then, when our dinner came, she dug in and ate a good portion of our pasta! Darren ended up eating the 2nd bowl of congee.

Next, we stopped by to pick up he etched stone before going back to the room. It turned out great! We then let Peyton play until 7:30 before putting her to bed. She was playing with a little tea set we brought, and she was pretending to feed herself and wanted me to pretend to feed her. She always has such a great time right before bed that I feel bad making her stop, but I did it anyway. She didn't put up much of a fight before she was sacked out. She was TIRED!

After we were sure she es asleep, we turne the lights on and packed since it's hard to do that when she's awake. Now she and Darren are both fast asleep.

This is our last night in Guangzhou! Please pray we have safe travel to Hong Kong tomorrow night. We leave here at 7:00 pm and take a late flight to Hong Kong. We stay overnight there and depart for home at 9:15 Saturday morning, which will be 7:15 pm Friday evening back home. I will update when I can! Hugs and kisses from our happy little family!