It's over (almost)(finally)

Today was our last, official, in country adoption appointment. Yesterday the American Consulate reviewed all of our paperwork and found it fit to issue a Visa to Max to enter the country and become a US citizen. Today, we had to appear at the consulate to take an oath and swear that all of this information was true. Sorry, no pictures, there were no cameras allowed. Too bad since we all looked pretty spiffy (or as spiffy as we've looked throughout this trip). This sounds really dull, but it was actually an amazing experience. There were over thirty families there making this same oath with us. These are families most of whom we don't know personally. But, we've been seeing them all with their children throughout our week here. Even though the families and the children are all different, you can see the same look on their faces that you know is on yours. It's just this amazing feeling that your family is finally united. You almost can't believe that it's real. Before the oath they recognized the children with August birthdays, so Max got to be held up and everyone clapped for him. The little ham loved it. I'm sure everyone was jealous that we had the cutest kid in the room, but they held it in well. Then, we all stood and swore that we had told the truth in our paperwork. Not a very monumental oath, but just knowing that this was it, we had made it, Max is our son, we were all teary eyed. We then collected Max's Chinese passport and visa along with his "Brown envelope." These are the things that will make him a US citizen as soon as his passport is stamped in Newark, NJ. Wohoooo!!!!!