Travel Plans

We got confirmation of our appointment at the American Consulate for March 16th. So we will for sure be traveling March 4 - March 19th. Seems like such a long way off but I know it is only 4 weeks now.

Our travel schedule is like this:

Thurs, March 4: leave the US
Fri, March 5: Group arrive in BJ (Radisson SAS Hotel)
Sat, March 6: Group Sightseeing in BJ-TianAnMen Square, Forbidden City and the Great Wall (Juyongguan), lunch is included; CHI orientation

Sun, March 7: fly to Guangzhou. If skipping BJ, arrive in Guangzhou today. (China Hotel in GZ)
Mon, March 8: meet your child
Tues, March 9: do adoption process, registration and apply for the passport
Wed March 10, sightseeing or free day
Thurs, March 11: sightseeing or free days
Fri, March 12: get the passport and all papers back. (other CHI families will arrive in Guangzhou today)
Sat. March 13: medical exam for all children
Sun. March 14: free day or sightseeing
Mon, March 15: medical rechecks for children over the age of 2
Tues, March 16: ACS appt confirmed
Wed, March 17: take oath at the ACS and sign DS230 forms
Thurs, March 18: receive children’s visas late in day depending on date of ACS appt.
Fri, March 19: you can leave Guangzhou on this day and return to the US


We are not skipping Beijing and we will leave Guangzhou on the 18th by train to Hong Kong and will fly home on the 19th from Hong Kong.

I can't wait to go.

We Got Them!

We got our Travel Approvals today! And our Visa's arrived via Fed Ex today. So, 2 more things off the list! Yippee! One step closer.

Now that we have our TA's our agency can request our appointments with the American Consulate. They have requested March 16 or 17 as our first 2 choices of dates. It they confirm one of the these two dates our travel will stay with the estimated dates of March 4-19th.

The agency has to give 3 dates so their 3rd choice was March 23rd. If this is the date confirmed we will not leave until March 11 and return on March 26th. Boo! Surely we will get one of the first 2 dates.

They said it could take several days for a response from the American Consulate. Hopefully we will know by the end of the week or early next week which date they confirm for our appointments and what our travel dates are.

Visa's and Travel Approvals

Well, our courier emailed me tonight that our passports and Visa's were picked up from the consolute today and sent back to me via Fed Ex. I should have them by tomorrow at noon. One more thing to not have to worry about.

We have heard since last week that travel approvals for 12/28 referrals were arriving but had not heard from our agency that our TA's were here. Today RQ reported that the next batch of referrals was arriving and I couldn't stand it anymore. TA's for the last batch are almost always here before or about the same time as referrals. I finally emailed our agency and asked when they thought we would get them. They quickly responded and said our TA's were sent on Friday and should be here today or tomorrow. One would think they would know for certain the date (since they are not sent USPS there should be tracking on them). But at this point any info is better than none.

I did not here from them before 5pm today so I am assuming we will here tomorrow that the TA's arrived. Now they can request our American Consulate Appointments. Once those appointments are confirmed we will have official travel dates and can book our airfare.

I am keeping busy washing and folding clothes that I've gotten from Jen, Cheryl and Nicole. I just realized that a tote in Paige's room (that I've had for several years now) contains clothes from Nicole and not toys. So I have to go through those. This is good news though as Jen gave me mostly dresses and I still needed more casual clothes and this tote is full of nice casual clothes. I'm feeling a little like I won't have to do any shopping for girl clothes, which kind of bums me out since I've only ever been able to shop for boy clothes and always looked longingly at the cute girl clothes. I'm sure I helped Nicole pick out some of the stuff Sabrina wore that is in that tote though! And I am certain a few new things will find their way into Paige's closet. :)

Hopefully late this week or early next week I can confirm our travel dates.

Visa Applications

Well, I sent off our Visa applications to the courier today. She should submit them on Monday the 25th and get them back on Monday Feb 1 so we should have them by Feb 2 or 3rd I think. It was kind of nerve racking to put those passports in an envelope and send them off. They would not be quickly replaced! I am sure it is done all the time with no problems and I'm just stressing.

I have bought a few play clothes in size 18 mos to take with us to China. I plan to start going through clothes this weekend and next weekend that we accumulated from others. I just need to wash and put away the stuff.

Hopefully I can get Mike to paint the letters for Paige's walls this weekend so I can hang them up next week.

Lots to do and Derrick is on 2 basketball teams so we are busy with practice 2 nights a week and games all day on Saturdays.

Still no news on Travel Approvals.

Travel Plans

Well, we got a travel package from our agency. It has our Visa applications and some other paperwork along with our estimated travel dates of March 4-March 19. The don't think we will travel any earlier than that. Bummer cause I am ready to go. Well, I'm sure there are lots of things I still need to get ready. I just need to get busy doing them. Going to try to fill out visa application and get passport photos this weekend. We have been so busy at work we just haven't had time to take a breath.

Waiting still...

Well, we are still waiting. Seems like after 4 years a couple more months would seem like nothing but it seem like forever, it does.

We finally got an email today from our agency to verify our travel info (names, passport numbers, etc). I got it sent back as quick as I could so they could mail all our stuff over to China. That is the first step before we can get a Travel Approval and then appointments.

I've been going through some of the stuff I've got from Cheryl the last couple of nights. Now some of you have seen my kitchen and I still think where am I going to put all these bottles and snack containers. There has to be a bunch of stuff in those cabinets that needs tossed just where to start. I have too many cabinets to have this issue!

We still need to work on the walls in Paige's room too. I've got the wooden letters to spell her name so now Mike needs to paint them and put hangers on them. And we need to put the chinese word stick ons that Kristen gave us up. They were rolled up in the container so I have those laying under some books to flatten out.

I guess I'm passing the time tomorrow at Bonkers if the weather permits. Both boys have straight A's for the quarter so that means a reward trip with a friend and Derrick has chose Bonkers and since it is a snow day tomorrow again he thinks he is ready to collect. I'm sure Dustin will want a bigger trip (he already gets Branson and White Water for the 1st quarter so who knows what he'll ask for this time). I might have to rethink my new reward program though it seems to be working as this is the 1st time I can remember both boys having all A's in the same quarter and I don't think Dustin has had all A's since he left elementary school (and even then is wasn't always all A's just occassionally). Don't get me wrong he gets good grades, it is just a mixture of A's and B's. I guess the reward must be good enough to make them work harder and that was the goal.

Translated Info

Well, late Thursday night we got our translation of the referral docs. All the info is listed as normal as expected but it is nice to see it in English. The date of her medical report was indeed 10/22/09. I'll try to summarize some of the info for everyone:



Ji Ao An was found on June 19, 2008 at Yang Di Po Village, Bai Yu Town, Hua Zhou city. She was 24.8 inches and 13.6 lbs when found and initial diagnosis was that she was a normal baby. They estimated her birthday to be Nov. 19, 2008 based on her development. We have no idea what possessed someone to abandon a 7 month old baby. My hope is that if they could not care for her that they knew we were waiting to do it for them.



Her growth rate looks good. 2 months after her initial exam she had gained to 25.6 inches and 14.8 lbs and at 11 months (just 2 more months later) she was up to 28.1 inches and 17.8lbs. That is the last medical info we have on her. I found some Chinese growth charts online and compared her stats and she was right on 50% at each exam.



The report says she is able to turn herself over at 9 months and sit idependently and could grab toys with hands. At 11 months she could stand leaning on a bed and walk with a baby walker and bang blocks together. She is a quiet and cute girl (should fit in fine with my quiet and cute boys, huh). She looks for music and is bonded to her nanny. She likes to listen to music and watch TV (again a fine fit for my boys who love TV). She has not had any serious illnesses after admission expect an occassional runny nose, cough and fever but recovered well after treatment. Sounds like a baby, huh?



Her routine is to get up at 6am (ouch!), nap from 11-1 and to bed at 9. She eats 5 times a day mostly baby foods (they call it gruel) and formula in morning and evening. Her favorite food is bread (Mike read that and said well, she's your daughter).



She seems to have had all the normal vaccines our boys had DPT, Hep B, Polio, measles and one I've never heard of BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guèrin). It looks like she was due for her final Hep B in December after this report was done so I'll have to remember to verify that she got that while we are there.



My agency gave me an guestimate on travel of 3/4 but I sure hope we get to go sooner than that. I don't think we will get to go before CNY but I was hoping to go right after it on 2/20 or so. Only time will tell. First step is to return our Seeking Confimation Letter which we are headed to town to do now. I'll let everyone know when we will travel as soon as I do.