No confirmed appts today....

I should have updated this earlier today, however, I got busy doing a dozen things and didn't. We did NOT receive confirmed appts today for the US Consulate. Our agency says not to worry we will probably have them tomorrow first thing and that we are still on track for a Sept 10th departure. So in other words, when it does arrive, we will have about 24 hours to confirm all international aif, intra China air, hotel, etc. Luckily the agency takes care of most of that and we just pay ofcourse. Hopefully tomorrow we will finally have confirmed travel dates!! The closer we get the more anxious we are to get over there and get home!!

TA's just arrived

Travel approvals just arrived!! Now everything will start to move pretty fast. The agency will confirm our adoption appt with the civil affairs office in province. That is when the adoption is final in China's eyes and usually happens the day after you receive your child. The next appt to confirm is with the US Consulate. This is one of the last things you do before you return home and this appt is what determines your final travel dates. So we should know by Monday, maybe tomorrow but for sure by Monday when we leave. We are hoping and the agency says its a good chance we will leave on Sept. 10th!! Two weeks from today!!! Am I ready??
Yea, I am down to the last few details. I will post some photo's later of the guest room with all the stuff I have collected to take with us. Keep in mind this is not stuff I feel I can't live without but is stuff highly recommended from those been there done that folks. You should also know we are each allowed one checked bag not to exceed 44lbs and one carry on not to exceed 11 lbs and we are there for 14 days.
I am soooo excited the TA's are here!!

TA's .. hopefully this week!

Good news! I spoke with our agency a little while ago, it looks like they expect our TA's (travel approvals) to arrive on Friday! Hopefully they will, if so, it will be a fast turn around of getting some details arranged but we will be able to depart on Sept 10th. This is very good news!!!

I also have given my good friend Darci access to our blog today. Sometimes in China the families are unable to access their blog due to the firewall so we will e-mail Darci as a back up and she will post our updates here for us in the event that happens. Only a few items left on the to do list now! Lets hope those TA's arrive Friday!!

New Pictures of Yi Xiao Kai

Look what we got in our e-mail!! New updated photo's of Xiao Kai!! We are so ready to go get her! Doesn't she just look sooo sweet!! Hopefully our travel will firm up next week. Travel Approvals have just started arriving and we hope our agency will receive ours soon. As for the other million things to do before travel, well I have almost finished collecting everything from the packing list and the Visa's are now in our passports. We have also secured some airline tickets with miles based on our estimated travel dates and these tickets have flexibility if the dates need to change. So whats left?? We need that Travel Approval !!

Shower Pictures

We have the best friends anyone could ever ask for. As you can see they planned a party to celebrate with us our recent good fortune. The food was delicious... all types of appetizers, a main course of Lasagna, salads and breads then a fantastic and beautiful cake!!! As if that wasn't enough they showered us with alot of great stuff we need!! We got bed sheets, digital thermometers, rear view mirror (for car seat), parenting books, bibles for the girls, playtex liners, nipples etc, a high chair and a double stroller!! I must say it really hit me when they rolled that stroller out and unknown to me they had gotten our dolls to place in the stroller. I just can't hardly believe that after all this time we are almost there and have two precious blessings to love and care for. Hope you enjoy the photo's.....I will try to post more. It only let me add 5 here.

Travel Planning

Well, we are on to the next step. In the last 24 hours we have received about 8 e-mails covering all types of travel information. The next big step is getting our Visa applications and passports down to the Chinese Consulate. This is pretty easy for me since it just happens to be in Houston.
We also have plan tickets to research, packing list to finalize, and medications to gather so we will be well prepared when we get there. We don't yet know when we will go but it looks like we just might get to leave in early September. We will get more information and exact travel dates soon, hopefully in the next two weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we get to leave in September.