Travel Dates!

We received our travel schedule today, which includes:

Dec. 17th: Depart from Fort Myers
Dec. 18th: Arrival in Beijing
Dec. 19th: Great Wall and Hutong Lane Tour
Dec. 20th: Holt Orientation, Tour Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City
Dec. 21st: Travel to Hefei, Anhui for Gotcha Day!
Dec. 25th: Arrival in Guangzhou
Dec. 29th: U.S. consulate visa appointment
Dec. 31st: Visa issued
Jan. 1st: Depart from Guangzhou
Jan. 2nd: Arrival in Miami

Wow--so much to do before travel!

Consulate Appointment Confirmation

We were just advised that the consulate date will be December 29th! Tomorrow we will know what our travel itinerary will be!

CHINA--HERE WE COME!!!

We just received tentative travel dates from our agency--YAHOO!!! Looks like we'll be traveling December 18th-January 1st. As soon as our consulate appointment is confirmed, we'll be able to make the necessary arrangements for travel. Time to get busy on the lengthening "to do" list--will it ever end?!!

Waiting For Second Travel Approval

Our family hit a snag with our first travel approval, and our agency has had to apply for a second approval. They sent the request to China almost four weeks ago, so we're hoping it will come soon so that we can still bring her home in time for Christmas. We have been told that the government is several weeks behind in processing, so that makes us worried.

Although this has been a frustrating time for us, we have managed to keep extremely busy with our jobs and other activities. We have received our Chinese visas and travel vaccinations, and are working on getting her room decorated (very girly). Three of the walls are painted "art deco pink" and the fourth will be an accent wall, which is a work in progress. It will be a beach scene, with her Chinese name in characters over her bed. We will put pictures on this site as soon as it is finished!

We will post as soon as we have more information from our agency!!!

Travel Approval!

Now that we have travel approval, it looks as if we'll be travelling before Christmas--possibly by the second week of December. We will know more once we have our consulate dates. This will be the best Christmas ever!!!

Finding Ad & Photo!!!

We received the finding ad and photo of Kathryn from Brian Stuy of Research-China.org. Orphanages in China put an advertisement in a local newspaper to show that these children were found. We now have her earliest photo, taken when when she was only 5 days old!! She is smiling and so adorable!!

We have our LOA!

Today we received our LOA, which is the letter of seeking confirmation from adopter, also known as the letter of acceptance. The CCAA has officially accepted our petition to adopt Yang Xiao Chun. We are very excited, as we come even closer to bringing her home!