Our Journey - What We Expect

Beijing - After we get to China and spend a few days touring Beijing, we will then fly into Wuhan, Hubei Province. Our guide will meet us at the airport and take us to our hotel. Everything will be ready for us to meet our daughter the following morning!

Day One in Wuhan, Hubei Province - During our first full day in Hubei Province, we will meet our daugher. She may be brought to our hotel or we may meet her at the Office of Civil Affairs. We will begin filling out forms for the Bureau of Civil Affairs. The paperwork is quite simple, but it is in Chinese. Our guide will help us with the forms.

Day Two in Wuhan, Hubei Province - On the next day, we may go to the Office of Civil Affairs. It is here that we will submit the paperwork we did the day before. We may be asked questions by the officials, such as, Why are you adopting from China? Do you promise to educate this child? How many square feet in your home? The officials are interested in hearing about our love for our children and our respect for the Chinese culture. Once the questioning is over, we may ask if we can take pictures of the officials with our new baby. Usually, they love it.

Days Three and Four in Wuhan, Hubei Province - For the next two days, we use our time for sightseeing, because it usually takes two days for the Notary or Registry Office to take the papers from Civil Affairs and do their work. We may be invited to the Notary Office, and the officials here may be a bit more formal. They may put on braided uniforms to conduct interviews with us and to stamp our documents. The questions asked here are often exactly the same as the ones we answered at Civil Affairs.

The documents we get at the Notary Office are the adoption decree and the birth certificate. The documents are in both Chinese and English. Next, we get our daughter's passport at the local security office. We will have help with his, probably from our guide. We will have to take our daughter to get her passport photos. We then prepare to fly to Guangzhou for the final leg of our trip, probably on the fifth day.

Guangzhou - Once we arrive in Guangzhou, we will meet a new guide who will take us to our hotel, The White Swan. The White Swan is famous for hosting families who are adopting fronm China. Despite the fact that we have already filled out endless amounts of paperwork, we will be asked to complete even more paperwork.

During our three or so days in Guangzhou, we will take our new daughter to have a medical examination by Chinese officials. The final step is that we present all of our documents to the U.S. Consulate. We will be required to take an oath. Then, our new daughter's visa will be processed, and we will be on our way back to the USA!!