Two Passports and a Red Couch

Mandi here again. Melissa e-mailed me letting me know they were in Hong Kong and would be leaving in less than 24 hours! I cannot believe they are going to be home tomorrow. I am SO excited to see them. And since they will be home tomorrow, this will be my last post for them. I know Melissa was hoping to be able to post herself once they got back into Hong Kong, but she was having problems. Obvioulsy I don't mind one bit. Hmmmm, maybe she can return the favor when we go back in a few months.

Tuesday, we spent the day at the US consulate. I don't remember if I mentioned it earlier, but there was a mistake on Olivia's passport, which was discovered while we were passing through the border between Hong Kong and China. Fortunately, they let us cross the border, but we were advised to get her passport corrected before traveling through other countries. So on Monday while we were at the consulate for Cora's visa appointment, we asked about getting Olivia an emergency passport. We were told it would be easy (yay!) - that they could create a new one within an hour and only one parent and Olivia needed to return to their office. Olivia and Brendan left in the morning, only to return empty-handed. Turns out I did need to be there, and so after lunch, we all headed back to the consulate office, where we successfully left with a new passport! What a relief!



For the first time, Cora and Olivia played together with the toys there. I mean, they really played together! Sorry - no pictures. Cameras aren't allowed in the consulate office.



We left the consulate to meet our guide to pick up Cora's passport and visa. We then all (our Indiana friends, too) walked to the White Swan hotel where we took the traditional red couch pictures. I bought both girls Chinese silks for the occasion. Olivia loved hers, Cora was not quite as enthused. Olivia kept hopping up on the couch to get her picture taken - what a ham. Cora cried through most of the pictures. Oh these girls of ours...