Travel Dates

We got our travel dates today. Here's the lowdown:

Fly to Beijing October 5 just before midnight.

Arrive in Beijing October 7.

Visit the Great Wall of China October 8 (tentative)

Holt Orientation October 9.

Travel to Guizhou October 10.

Gottcha Day (the day we get Grace) October 10 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travel to Guangzhou October 15.

US Consulate visa appointment October 19.

Visa issued October 21.

Fly home October 22 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 weeks and counting.

Consulate Appointment

We received our US Consulate appointment today. It will be on October 19. We need to arrive in Beijing on October 8. We should get our confirmed travel dates tomorrow!
We plan on going a day or 2 early so we can see The Great Wall of China and adjust to the time change.

Looks like we will be leaving in 5 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travel Approval!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got our Travel Approval today!

My morning started out with a trip to the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles to retrieve our passports with our Travel Visas, this time with both boys in tow. The drive up took about 1 hour 15 min. I wasn't able to get my "usual" parking space, but I did park just 2 spaces behind it in another broken meter spot. Put my money in (I'm just an honest person), grabbed Jayden's hand and walked the block to the consulate. Upon entering the consulate around 10:10 am I noticed there were only about 20 people sitting in chairs waiting for their number to be called. When I was there on Monday there must have been 200 people. Oh well. I got in a very short line to pick up and pay for our travel Visas. There were only about 6 people in front of me. I was so excited that we might get out of there in just 5 minutes. I was wrong. 2 of the people in front of us appeared to be travel agents or couriers. The woman in front of me literally picked up probably 500 passports. This took quite awhile. Apparently a few of the Visa applications had minor problems. When it was finally my turn I took just 1 minute at the window paying for and getting our very expensive visas. The boys did well and didn't complain much.

After getting the Visas I took the boys to the California Science Center. Admission is free, we just had to pay for parking, no meters this time. They really enjoyed themselves.

When we got home once again my in box had a nice little surprise. Our TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seems I only get the exciting stuff when I'm gone for the day. Article 5, new pictures of Grace, and Travel Approval all came when I was gone for the day. I don't get anything exciting when I'm home and checking my e-mail every 15 minutes :)

We should know our confirmed travel dates next week. Looks like September or October!!

New Pictures

I drove up to the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles today to get our travel Visas for China. We still don't know when we are going, but the Visas are good for 6 months. I left the boys home with Grandma. The drive wasn't too bad, just took me about 50 minutes. I parked in my "usual" broken meter parking space, put in my money because I wanted to be honest and walked about 1 block to the consulate. I waited just about 1 hour before my number was called. It took just 30 seconds to turn in our paperwork and passports. I was told to come back on Thursday to pick them up. The drive home was only 35 minutes.

When I got home there was a nice surprise in my in box. New pictures of Zhu Zi Yue. She is now 17 months old and weighs about 17 pounds and is 30 inches tall. I think she's beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Article 5

We got our Article 5 today! This just means that our paperwork has all been sent to the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs). Travel Approval from the CCAA is averaging about 3 weeks after Article 5. Could be more, could be less. Traveling after receiving TA is usually 4 - 6 weeks. What does this mean for us? We don't really know. If there weren't trade shows and Asian games we would guess October. We just don't know.

Treadmill

I feel like I'm on a treadmill. Time is passing by very quickly, but we aren't getting anywhere, we're still in the same place we were 3 weeks ago. We were hoping to travel to China this summer, now the start of the school year is just 3 weeks off. Where did the time go? Stop the treadmill! I want to get off!