Travel Date!

Hi Everyone!

It has been one crazy week! The good news is we finally have our travel date-- we leave for China on March 19th!

Here is the quick rundown:

Monday received an email from our agency around 6:00 pm that said:

1. Our Consulate Appointment is set for April 7th,

2. We are to leaving for China no later than March 20th,

3. Delight Travel will be emailing you flight schedules and need to book you by tomorrow,
4 PM Pacific time.

4. The US Consulate in Guangzhou does not have a record that our fingerprints were updated and we need to contact our local immigration office to get this resolved.

Response to #1 YIPPEEE!!

Response to #2 Holy Crap! That means we are in China for 3 weeks!

Response to #3- OK

Response to #4-- WTH?! That is as clean as I can keep it-- sorry.

We received our paperwork that our fingerprints were all set and documented (for the second/third time around) on February 4th!

Needless to say, I spent some time Tuesday morning calling the National Visa Center, emailing USCIS, and then I discovered I could make an appointment with USCIS in Providence. So I did, and was able to talk to someone in person. We are pretty sure that everything is worked out now.

The three week trip-- Wim and I felt this was too long for him to be away-- between the kids and his job, we have decided that he will fly home after two weeks and Josie and I will return on the 9th as scheduled.

Wim will have been with Josie long enough so that the adoption will still be treated as both parents attending (basically-- less paperwork stuff to do when we return home).

Next Drama--Tuesday night-- our dog sitter decided that she wanted to charge us 25% more than we had originally agreed to--- months ago! After everything else we had to deal with, I am sure that those of you who know me well have a pretty good idea how I responded.

Never fear-- we found someone else for our pet sitting needs and the new dog sitter will be an even better fit for Phoebe. So, all is well that ends well.

We've booked our flights, secured our travel arrangements with our agency, and now all we have to do is pack. Flights in China are limited to one checked bag per person, 44 lbs max. I've started working on this and I think it is going well. I also think there are a few things that will get pulled from the pile.

This will likely be my last post from the US. We are taking my very old lap top with us and have discovered a few kinks-- but thanks to Uncle Earl it appears that the kinks are worked out.

I am using the laptop to post this blog, download the photos below from the camera and upload them to here. So, if you are reading this-- all has gone well. If you are not reading this, I am likely on my way to the liquor store to get a shot of whiskey! Just a little stress!!!!


It appears that this is as good as posting the pictures will get without a mouse, which we are not planning to bring. These are pictures of Josie's room and play area in the living room. The final picture, which was suppose to be first is of our stork-- the FedEx Delivery man who brought us our referral.

You should have seen the look on his face when I asked him how many babies had he delivered.

Next Post-- Beijing China!

WOOO-Hooo!