My passport was pulled for inspection at the office in GuangZhou. This means they are holding my passport until I come for a sit-down interview.
GuangZhou is a city in the south of China, about seventy five miles from Hong Kong. Without my passport, I'm not able to board a plane to travel down there. So, tomorrow morning, I'll be leaving on a sleeper train for the twenty-hour journey south.
Because I'm not able to say much during the interview, I'm told my chances of getting a new visa are slim. So it's most likely I will just be retrieving my passport and then crossing over into Hong Kong to get my exit/entry stamp. If I do get the new visa, it's not certain whether they will be able to process it that day, or if I'll have to wait and have it mailed to me. I'm hoping that whichever outcome happens, that I will have my passport in hand so that I don't have to take the train back to Beijing, but rather FLY!
I have bottled water and toilet paper packed, and in the morning I'll make a few PB & J sandwiches to tuck in my bag. So you can be thinking of me, I'll be leaving Beijing at 11 am, and arriving in GuangZhou at 7 am on Monday. I'm especially hoping that I don't have any smokers in the cabins around me and that I don't have to fight motion sickness, and I'd be grateful if you'd keep me in your thoughts regarding those matters as well.
Here's an idea of what my train will be like. This one looks exactly like the first China-train I took back in 2004. The middle and top bunks stink because you can't sit up on them, so you have to hope the person on the bottom will share of you're lucky enough to find a vacant seat along the aisle. I'll have a middle bunk tomorrow.
In other news, two of our girls, Faith and Talithia, both had their second leg-rodding surgeries last week. They're home now but are in casts and trying to entertain themselves from their posts on the couch. Then on Monday, our little Noah had a break in his femur. He has rods, but his bones have outgrown them already. Everyone is in good spirits, but they're a funny bunch to walk in and see in bandages! Little Lydia's adoption papers are all in now, and on Monday they have a meeting at the embassy to have them all notorized. We hope it's all in order and can proceed smoothly from here.
Thanks for all your thoughts! I'll update as soon as I'm back to a computer.
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