A miracle

I think the easiest way to tell this story is to print the letter I sent to Ruby at the time. We went from feeling pretty low to being incredulous that things had worked out, and then right into business mode trying to figure out what to do. Scott was encouraging me the whole time, pushing me through to get it all resolved when I just really wanted to be done with the whole Vilina saga. Here is the story:

When did I last talked to you? Monday when there was no hope? Tuesday, we went back to the consulate to urge the people to send the documents to Beijing. Wednesday, Medina called me and said Beijing had sent permissions to San Francisco and would I go to the consulate a third time. I was so reticent! I thought it would be a big waste of time. At this point, she had missed her Tuesday flight. We were staying in Oakland, Sofia had arrived, and I did not want to spend her first day here sitting in traffic on the Bay Bridge trying to get into the city. But the only way to get a hold of anyone in the consulate is to be there. I knew too well that if I went back to Utah, we would be at the mercy of the consulate, waiting for an indefinite amount of time. So we went. Crawled along in the legendary San Francisco traffic. We waited in line at the consulate while the other girls ubered to the Japanese Tea Garden.

We went to the pickup window, even though we didn't have a claim ticket to pick up anything. I had had it. I was willing to try anything. The woman who was initially so helpful was there. Josephine. She said she would call me in a couple of hours. I thought, "fat chance." But I had gone, just to make Medina happy.

 I went and met the other girls at the Japanese tea garden. Vilina was a nightmare. Her spoiled brat side came out strong! I am sure she felt a lot of pressure. I was so done with her, I sent a picture of her to her parents, looking at her phone while we drove through the famous and beautiful Golden Gate Park. Her dad, who never communicates on our WeChat group, left a scathing voice message, mustering up all of his English to tell me to tell his daughter to get off her phone and look out the window! It's universal. Vilina was mad at me. She refused to appreciate the tea garden.

  Then we went to Haight Ashbury for lunch and the consulate called!!! They said the document would be ready in an hour!!! She cautioned me not to come sooner than that, so we went to lunch at a Thai place where I had incredible duck soup. Then we went, we marched right into the consulate, and the woman, Josephine, handed us the Entry and Exit Permit. Just like that! No explanation of why it suddenly took three days instead of six months or more.

I dropped the girls at Union Square and Vilina and I sat in a cafe and planned travel options for like two hours. Vilina didn't want to come out and say what she wanted to do. Go home now, go to Boston for awhile first, or go back to Utah and fly out in a couple of weeks. She finally said she just wanted to go home. Miraculously, we got a flight for the next day and a hotel for that night. The hotel is an hour away, so it's hassle upon hassle, but closer hotels were $500 a night! It was actually nice to drive out to Vallejo last night. We stopped at a nice outdoor mall last night where the girls shopped. I am at the San Francisco airport now because I have to wait for the plane to leave before I can leave. But she is on her way home! When her flight leaves I will drive to pick up the other girls at the hotel and continue on to Utah where we will pick up Irene.

People from Hong Kong! The Chinese in San Francisco are for the most part, part of a diaspora that emigrated from Hong Kong and the surrounding Canton province, which is now Guangdong. So they all speak Cantonese.

Traffic at 3:30 in the morning.

Salt Flats. I dropped Vilina off at SFO, drove 11 hours and the girls went with Scott to the Salt Lake airport to pick up Irene. Life is crazy!

And the next day, we saw Hello Dolly at Davis High. It was excellent!

I had to bribe Ptolemy to go by promising him Fortnight (video game) time.

Sofia Arrives!

Sofia arrived! She flew into San Francisco so that we could show her the city while we were there getting Vilina's entry and exit permit. We planned the timing perfectly. And we hit the ground running! Tuesday morning, Medina called from Beijing and told me that the Consulate in San Francisco had not sent the documents to Beijing like they said they would. She wanted me to go and find out why. Oh dear. in retrospect it is funny because if the consulate had sent the documents to Beijing on Monday like they said they would, Vilina could have gotten her permit on Tuesday and made her original flight. I don't know why they did not send the documents but the consulate is insanely busy and they probably just did not get to it. So Vilina and I made the trek across the Bay Bridge in rush hour traffic to arrive at the embassy before the line was insanely long. I used my yellow Post-It note actually so that I wouldn't have to wait in line and I just went back to the same window. Same grumpy girl. She took one look at me and went to get Josephine, the supervisor. Josephine said that it was her boss who was responsible for sending the documents to Beijing and there was nothing she could do. She reminded me that it could take months. At this point we we're thinking that Vilina could be with us permanently. The political climate in China is not favorable to Uyghers. They are in danger. So we put the consulate out of our minds because there was nothing more we could do, and we went back to Oakland.

We picked up Sofia at the airport, dropped her stuff off at the hotel and went back to the city. While we were sitting in traffic on the Bay Bridge I had the brilliant idea to go to a baseball game. Actually, it was probably Scott's idea because he has all the brilliant ideas. There was a game that very night and I booked five tickets.

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant in Little Italy that Araceli chose.

I drove the girls around the city, dropping them off at Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli and ending up across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Tensions were pretty high with Vilina. I don't think she could process the disappointment and the uncertainty with the consulate. and to be honest I don't know if she even wanted to go back to China. She kept complaining that her dad was going to be so very angry at her for not completing all the homework he assigned her to do over the school year. I was so done with her, as sweet as she is. I was like, "Welp. You didn't do it. You were lazy. Deal with it."

She refused to get out of the car at the Golden Gate Bridge. So I sent this picture to the king family and said, "Vilina got a new outfit." I don't know why it cracked me up so much but I laughed about it all day.

I love baseball games. It is the best way to feel the pulse of a city and be in the action. The game itself is an art form. And this venue is breathtaking with the sunset over the Bay. Vilina hated it. Ha ha.