American Passport and more firsts

Yes it can be done. Weiwei became a citizen on Friday afternoon - and less than 96 hours later has an expedited passport from the Washington DC passport office:




And that's with Chinese documentation! The poor passport guy was shocked when I handed over Chinese papers in response to what he thought was a simple request.





I have to say that the 4+ hours of chaos and lines at the passport agency made me miss the quiet orderliness of the Chinese administrative offices. Of course - sadly typical American - the one lady was late opening her window and then I could see her back there talking and sipping a drink(despite the hour-long "check-in line" that had formed). Then she opened for 35 minutes and then was relieved by someone else.



PLEASE hear me...never try for an expedited passport if you can avoid it. We of course had no way around it.




WeiWei HATED the car seat. Being strapped in for the first time was miserable. By the third day she started accepting it without too much fuss.


She had fun in her first shopping cart at Babies R Us.


She liked seeing her cousins Giselle and Emma for the first time.



And, oh yeah, we put an offer in on a house we found while we were here. Busy, busy!




We are now sitting at Dulles about to load onto the flight for Heathrow. It has been an incredible adventure far beyond what we imagined. But, we are very ready to get home and be a family.


Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.



love,
us