Well it is official by US standards.  I have taken the oath and unexpectantly cried like a baby!  I wasn't expecting the swearing in ceremony to be emotional.  I guess it is the end of 4 years of hard work.  Maggie is my daughter - I am so blessed!

We started the day off at the Six Banyan Pagoda Buddha Temple.  It was very pretty.  Two of the six banyan trees are left.  They are 1200 years old.  They were just beautiful.  The people were praying to the Buddha.  The light incense and wave the smoke upwards to get the Buddha's attention so they can pray.  The pagoda was really pretty too.  There was a priest conducting a blessing for the adoptive children for some families.  We went in and looked at the three Buddhas.  They were for past, present and future.  It was a nice place.  After that we went to the Toy Market.  It really was a really large mall.  A little too busy for my standards.

We came home and Maggie took a nap.  We left for the Consulate at 2:15.  We were not able to bring any cameras to the consulate so no pictures of that time. I really hate that as it would have been nice to have gotten that on video.

We will be packing tomorrow and leaving the hotel at 5:00 p.m. for the airport.  Please pray for Maggie to have a good flight.  I thought I would spare the other passengers on the plane and not bring the squeeky shoes!  We take off at 9:00 pm so maybe she will be ready to go to bed.

We will be meeting my cousin again in Los Angeles for dinner on Friday night.  Saturday morning we will be having breakfast with a family who adopted a little girl from Maggie's orphanage.  They live about 30 minutes from the airport and wanted to come meet her.  How fun to meet another little girl from the same orphanage.  They even resemble each other.

I hope those of you close to Birmingham can meet us at the airport on Saturday night.  Again, we fly in at 9:44 pm on Delta 1607.  See you guys in Birmingham!

Love to you all,

Tricia