Less than a week until our Forever Family Day!

Last night as we were making yet another (and hopefully last) trip to Target at 10pm, we realized that this time next week we would be waking up from our first night with Anna!

Thought I'd do another test post with the picture of Anna ... we just can hardly wait to scoop her up!!

Testing

Since blogger is typically blocked in China, I'm testing out the option to email our posts to blogger. If this one works, I'll try another later today with a picture.

 

Please pray that our flights all stay on schedule with this snowy, freezing cold weather we have happening right now ... not to mention the record breaking cold and snow that is happening in Beijing! Can't wait to get to the 60s in Kunming. Can't believe a week from now Anna will be with us!

Here is our itinerary!!

Well, we finally got our flights booked - our sweet China coordinator, Ming, ended up helping us get a good deal through another travel agency out of New York and saved us just over $350 on the flight we wanted!

Jan 7th we'll fly to Chicago at 6am and then go Chicago to Beijing and land in Beijing Friday at 4:25pm. Then on the way home, on Jan 22, we'll go Hong Kong to Chicago and Chicago to home, landing at 4:46pm Friday, Jan 22.

Here is what our in-country itinerary looks like:

January 8, 2010 - Arrive in Beijing.Your guide, Jean, will be there to meet your name

January 9-10, 2010 - Sightseeing in Beijing, which may include Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and the Great Wall.

January 10, 2010 - Flight to Province. Our guide will take you to the airport in Beijing to then fly to Kunming in the evening. Your local guide, Mary will meet you in the airport terminal with the AAI sign. On your way to the hotel, your guide will inform you as to when you will see your child. It may be that same evening or the following morning!!!

January 10-15, 2010 - Processing paperwork in Kunming. Our guide will arrange your daily itinerary while in this city. Simply follow their instructions regarding the civil affairs appointment, notary office and checking your adoption paperwork.

January 16, 2010 - Flight to Guangzhou. Our guide will take you to the airport to fly to Guangzhou. Your guide, Judy, will meet you there with your name.Your child will need to have her medical exam done in Guangzhou prior to the Embassy appointment. Your guide will arrange this for you.

January 18, 2010 - Medical exam today.

January 19, 2010 - Your appointment with the U.S. Embassy in Guangzhou is today at 10:00 am. You do not have to appear at this appointment. Our guide will carry in all your papers at the time of the appointment.

January 20, 2010 - Today is at leisure.

January 21, 2010 - You will visit the U.S. Embassy today for your ceremony and receipt of your child’s visa to enter the United States. It is a brief ceremony. You will likely be able to take pictures outside the building.

Evening train to Hong Kong.

January 22, 2010 - Flight home!!

We're heading to China next Thursday!

Our agency was able to get our consulate appt. on the 19th and they said we can leave for Beijing on the 7th! We're in the process of booking our tickets - we're sorting through our options and hope to have them purchased tonight or in the morning.

We're finding so fun to say "We're flying to China NEXT Thursday"!! After we book our tickets, our agency will take care of our in-country travel arrangements and should be able to give us an itinerary. Basically we'll arrive in Beijing on Friday, Jan 8th and do some sightseeing for a couple days, then Sunday we'll fly to Kunming and we should meet Anna on Monday - and she'll be with us from that point on! We'll stay in Kunming the rest of that week, then we'll spend our last week in Guangzhou.

We'll let you know when we get our exact itinerary nailed down. Just wanted to give you all the good news - that's all for now!!

WE GOT IT!!!!!

Our agency called at 1:15 and said "Merry Christmas, we have your TA"!!!! I went from squealing on the phone to a mess of tears in about .5 seconds!

Now what? Now our agency has to get us a consulate appointment (CA) and then we can book our tickets. The consulate appointment will happen at the end of our trip, so once we have that date, we work backwards to our departure day. There are only a certain amount of appointments allowed per day, our agency is going to request our CA for Jan 18 first (if we get it, we'll leave Jan 7th), then they'll try the 19 (and we'd leave on the 8th) - if we can't get either of these dates, they'll request the 25 (we'd leave on the 14th). Please pray we are able to get the earliest appointment possible!!

Normally we would know our CA probably tomorrow, but because the US Consulate in China is probably already closed for Christmas, we might not know anything until Monday.

We are in shock! So excited! Best Christmas present ever!!

Nope, nothing yet...

We are still hoping that just maybe we'll hear something today or tomorrow about our TA.

We've been working on shopping from our packing list the last week or so - I've never made so many trips to Wal-Mart and Target or spent so much money so fast in my life! Whew! The goal is to actually start putting things in our luggage this weekend. So exciting!!!!

We'll let you all know as soon as our agency calls with our TA!

2nd Shower

Our friends Stacy and Misty through us a shower this past Thursday. We had a great time celebrating with our friends and Anna received many more great gifts. Thanks to everyone for making this time so special. Thanks to Lindsey for making an awesome cake and cupcakes!!








These baby showers have helped make this all seem real! We are getting so excited to get on that plane to China and bring our little girl home. Our agency is still hopeful that they might be able to give us a great Christmas present next week ... our TA! Last week several people on the adoption boards I follow received their TA and their timeline is about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ahead of us. I think it's pretty realistic to think we'll be heading to China by the first week in January (please don't let me eat my words!). We'll keep you all posted!

And, last, but definitely not least ... Happy Birthday to my dear, sweet husband! I love you and I can't wait to see you be a daddy!!!!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl

Today is Anna's 1st birthday!! Yesterday, at church, there was a beautiful, single rose on the alter in celebration of Anna's birthday, along with a sweet note in the bulletin. We had a hard time keeping it together as we sat and stared up at that flower during church.


Tonight Greg and I are going out to dinner to celebrate and then we'll come home and decorate our tree (yeah, a little late, but we've been busy!). We ordered this adorable rocker for Anna's birthday, it should be arriving soon. Isn't it cute?!
Hope you all have a good week. We have an exciting week ahead ... our dear friends from Sunday school, Misty and Stacy, are throwing us a shower this Thursday and we are so looking forward to it!

First Baby Shower

Yesterday we had Anna's first baby shower! Aunt Julie (Happy Birthday, Julie!) hosted a wonderful shower in her home!! We had such a great time getting together and celebrating Anna. Thanks to everyone for all of the wonderful gifts ... Anna really got some cute, fun things ... all much needed too!! (click on images to see larger)

Anna's crib arrived yesterday and our neighbor (thanks, Monty!) helped us haul it home. After church today, Greg is going to try to get it put together. I can't imagine what it's going to feel like to see her crib all set up! Her room is starting to come together - we'll get some pictures posted soon.

A little about Kunming, China

Kunming is the capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, a primarily agricultural province of 45 million. The Yunnan province is roughly the size of California, Yunnan borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar (Burma), Guangxi and Tibet autonomous regions and Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. Kunming has a population of five million and is located in one of the world's most geographically, ethnically, biologically and linguistically diverse regions.

Kunming is known as the "City of Eternal Spring". The average highs are in the 60s and lows around 50. After spending a few days in Beijing which will be in the 30's (probably colder with the wind) most days, the week we will spend in Kunming will feel great!

Kunming has become a major tourist city in China. One of the biggest draws for tourists coming to Kunming (other than the great weather and clean air) is the city's ethnic diversity. Yunnan is home to over two dozen of China's official 55 ethnic minorities.

There are many attractions to see in Kunming and while I'm not sure yet what our itinerary will be, one place we would love to see is on the outskirts of the city, The Stone Forest. The Stone Forest, with its limestone columns reaching as high as 40 meters (131 feet) is one of the more unique geographical phenomena in China.

Another place that I'm pretty sure we will get to see is Green Lake Park, which is in the city's center. It looks like a great place to take Anna for an afternoon stroll! Can't wait!!!!

L-O-A, baby!!

Our agency called at 12:30pm today to let us know they received our LOA in the mail today!!!! Greg and I had joked that we might get it this week, but I don't think either one of us really expected to!

Our agency is overnighting our LOA today, so we'll sign it tomorrow and overnight it back and they'll send it to China on Friday!! This is the 2nd of the 3 approvals that we need before we can travel ... our final approval (Travel Approval) should come in 2-4 weeks and then we'll travel 1-2 weeks after that!

We painted Anna's room this past weekend. We'll try to post pictures soon. Luckily we're pretty much done with our Christmas shopping, so I can focus on shopping for everything on our packing list now!

Hope you all have a great week!

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year! God is good!!

"In Process"

Our agency called this morning to give us a status update! According to their online system, our case is now showing as "in process". What does this mean?? Basically it means that the CCAA has pulled our dossier (which means that they found it after being over there for 3 years, whew!) and are now in the process of working on our LOA (letter of approval).

Our case worker said that people at this point typically receive their LOA within 2-4 weeks! When our agency receives our LOA, they will overnight it to us, we sign and date it and overnight it back to our agency, and they send it back to China.

The quicker we get the signed LOA back to China, the quicker they will process our TA (travel approval). The current average from LOA to TA is 2-4 weeks. Once we receive our TA, our agency will get us a Consulate appt. and make our travel arrangements and we will travel in 1-2 weeks!

It feels like we have a million things to do between now and then! Better stop typing and get moving!

Thanks to everyone for all of your sweet comments and emails. They mean the world to us and we're saving all of them to show Anna someday!

Here she is ...

This is the very first picture we saw at 4:35am on October 21, 2009

She is about 5 months old in these pictures and will be 11 months old this Saturday. Her files say she is outgoing, has a ready smile, is fond of music, likes to be teased, cries loudly when unhappy (ha!), has a good appetite, and likes to be held. We just can't wait to scoop her up and hold her tight.

This morning our agency called to say they had received our Pre-Approval from China! Now our dossier will be moved to the review room ... since it was already reviewed in Aug. 2007, the hope is that this stage won't take too long. So, the next approval (1 down, 2 to go) we are waiting for is our LOA (letter of approval). This might take anywhere from 4-8 weeks to arrive. Please pray for a swift and smooth process!

We are now free to send a care package to our little girl - planning to get crackin' on that this afternoon!

Adoption Awareness Month

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. We are so excited as our church will be celebrating for the first time this Sunday!

If you have a minute, check out this video from the orphansunday.org website:

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.