We’re going to China!!!!!

Things have happened so quickly that I haven’t had time to update our blog to let you know!  Our biggest surprise was receiving “soft” TA just 3 days after our Article 5 pick up!  Soft TA means that our agency was able to see our status in the CCCWA’s computer system and see that we had been issued Travel Approval.  It was “soft” because they didn’t have the TA in their hands.

Three days after that, our agency had our Travel Approval in their hands and the real whirlwind began!  Lots of decisions to make and a little bit more waiting to be had.  As much as we wanted to finalize all plans, we had to wait on our hands while our adoption agency requested an appointment for us at the US Consulate in China.  This is what the whole trip hinges on!  Luckily, we only had to wait 1 more day to receive confirmation of our appointment.

I spent most of yesterday emailing back and forth with our travel agent about airline tickets.  We are responsible for purchasing our tickets to get us to and from China.  Our adoption agency takes care of the rest.  By the end of the day, we had tickets to and from China, nabbing the LAST 3 seats together on the plane from Hong Kong to Chicago.  Yes, we made it by the skin of our teeth!

Today, I have been working on some train tickets.  We have decided we would like to veer just a bit from the group and take the bullet train from Beijing to Zhengzhou, instead of flying.  Train tickets are also getting hard to come by as we near Chinese New Year.  I am nervously awaiting a confirmation on the tickets!

The big date of departure is January 28- one week from today!!  We will be leaving the kids at home in the capable hands of their grandparents.  We are SO grateful for their willingness to do this for us and our children!!  They may never be the same after this experience....haha.

I will post more travel details when I have them.  We have a phone conference with our adoption agency, tomorrow.  We have already hooked up with several of the families who will be traveling with us.

In the meantime, I have set up a private Fa*ebook group.  I don’t think I can keep up with the blog while we’re traveling, but we want people to be able to follow along.  Fb is easy to update.  I plan to catch up the blog after we’re home.  No promises how soon, though!!