Saturday, December 31, 2011

Visa applications




See those three little Chinese characters?  That's Rosie's name in Chinese.  Everything I read said that it was necessary for me to TYPE the characters on her application so she could get into China again.  After asking everyone in the world for help someone on ChinaAdoptTalk.com told me there was a little button at the bottom of the computer to press. Voila!  Done in 10 seconds (and three days!).  Meanwhile our adoption agency was e-mailing me telling me not to worry about it and to just leave that field blank...

Anyway, our TYPED IN CAPITAL LETTERS visa applications are mailed to our agency, along with our passports (not copies), Rosie's Chinese passport, a certified check to the Chinese government, and $180 CASH for the messenger.  The messenger wouldn't accept any other form of payment.  Why are we sending these to a messenger you ask?  Because the Chinese consulate doesn't accept MAIL, only hand-delivered packages.  I'm not making this up!  

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Balloon


Pat Marcus (the nice woman in the blue shirt) told me a great story.  She said that when Mimi was looking through the stuff in the backpack they blew up one of the balloons and everyone in the room played "hot potato" with it.  She had a great time and everyone could tell that she loved the balloon.  When she left the room she took it with her.  As another kid was walking into the room Mimi turned around and handed the kid the balloon!  What a sweetie!

Pat is an awesome volunteer who travels around the world helping kids.  Check her out here:  http://superkidscharity.blogspot.com/