If this is Tuesday it must be Xian

We got our itinerary. I had put down a laundry list of possible sight seeing destinations - Holy Cow! They've got us booked for everything. We get the afternoon off the day we arrive in Beijing, then we hit the ground running. The Great Wall and Ming tombs - with lunch. Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City - with lunch. Then on to the Beijing Opera and Acrobat Show that evening. The Hutong (old Beijing) and Temple of Heaven - with lunch. Then we take the luxury overnight sleeper train to Xian on Saturday night and get Lian a day earlier than we thought - on Sunday. A day of paperwork, the registrar, notary, and passport application. Then back to the races, the Wild Goose Pagoda and Muslim Quarter. The famous Terracotta Warriors. The Bell and Drum Tower. The next day we get Lian's Chinese passport and fly to Guangzhou that evening. She has her medical appointment on Saturday, and we revisit the Chen Clan Temple that afternoon. Next day the Sun Yat-sen memorial which we somehow missed the first time we were in Guangzhou - it's set in a lovely park. The next day we make a trip to Lela's SWI to visit. It's about 3 hours north of Guangzhou. The 25th is our visa appointment, the 26th we get our visa and take an evening train to Hong Kong. We get in late, about 9pm, but still time to walk around the harbor area a bit. Next am we are winging our way back to Newark on Continental, a direct flight -only 15.5 hours. Due to changing time zones we get the oddity of leaving Hong Kong at 10am - flying 15 hours and getting in at 2 pm the same day- the longest 4 hours of our life. I bet I'll never have been so glad to see NJ before - Look! It's Ikea! And then we spend the weekend passed out at odd times due to 13 hours of jet lag. So that's the plan - we'll actually play it by ear with Lela and Lian's tolerance being the guiding factor.

Three little weeks

In just three weeks, by the evening of Monday the 17th, we'll have become a family of four. After waiting 18 months for this moment, it seems unreal. We don't even know what she looks like now, since our referral pictures are two years old. We know she's petite from the update we got in July, but it's not the same as a picture.
We have our plane tickets. If I pack my stuff too soon, I'll have to wash undies every day, not likely. Now we have to think seriously about exactly what sights we want to see in China for our agency to make plans. I think we'll stick to the main ones. I can hardly wait to see the Great Wall.

We're on our way to China!

Our Consulate appointment was squeezed in on September 25, along with 7 other families from our agency, so we now have dates and traveling companions. We'll depart 9/11, arrive Beijing 9/12, see the sights, travel to Xian on the 16th, FAMILY DAY - 9/17, on to Guangzhou on the 21st and home on the 27th. There are two other families going to Xian with us. I was seized with the urge to clean - Lela's room looks great and Lian's clothes are all ready to pack. I got a quote from one travel agent, yikes. I'm going to check with another tomorrow. Because Jamie had taken his mom to Canada to visit family and they didn't have the cell phone turned on I couldn't even tell him the news until he called last night. Let the making of lists commence, to climax in screaming panic over where the tickets are half way to the airport. But I'm much better once I get on the plane. Where did I leave my tranquilizers?

TAAAAAA!!!!!!

We have our Travel Approval, the much coveted TA! But that is not the last stop - nope now we need a CA - Consulate Appointment with the USA guys and gals in Guangzhou. If we can't get a date the last week of September, then we can't travel until the end of October, so we're still up in the air. If we do, we'll be departing Sept. 11 or 12.
And of course, I missed the call. Thursdays are not magic days - good news comes on Mondays or Fridays so Lela and I went out and probably missed the call by minutes. So it's official - I have now missed every important call for both our adoptions, batting 400 as it were.
One of my online groups for waiting parents had a pool to guess dates - I put in August 21 for TA, not really expecting it, but it's my birthday, so why not?
Our not so young baby is finally coming home. YAHOO - guess I'd better get my act in gear for travel.

Let's Go Mets

We got the LOA (Letter of Acceptance) via Fed Ex yesterday morning and Lela and I rushed up to Jamie's office to have him sign and then send back. I spoke to my agency about dates and it turns out that October is sort of a blackout month for adoption travel, a national holiday - actually a holiweek, at the beginning and then the Guangzhou International Trade Fair Oct 15-30, when hotel rooms in that fair city triple in price, if you can get one. So if we don't travel in September, we can't travel until the end of October. That puts us on a very tight time line. If the TA comes as expected around Labor Day, we'll only have about a week before departure - if we can get flights that won't kill our bank account. It's always something.

There was a huge storm yesterday morning, lightning and pouring rain. Where we live it was a strong but fast moving storm. In NYC, only 15 miles away, it was much worse with flooding and a tornado, which is a very big deal on the east coast. The city ground to a halt with flooded subway lines and roadways. The storm was gone by 7:15 am, leaving air so humid you still needed a raincoat. And it got hotter. It was 81 at noon and 92 by 2, with a heat index over 100 and air quality warnings.

But we had big plans - Lela's first baseball game. We are Mets fans by virtue of living on the train line that goes directly to Shea Stadium. By 6:25 the trains were back on schedule and we went off to the game. We met Aunt Christy at the ball park (she got the tickets through a knitting group) and up we went to the nose bleed seats. Since we were surrounded by knitters it was a little different but nicer than usual, fans trading skeins of wool, rather than hurling bottles. It turned out to be a perfect game. A breeze came up, it cooled off a bit, the game was exciting (Mets vs. Braves) with the Mets pitcher putting the game to bed in the ninth with the Braves at bat and bases loaded. Lela's favorites? The seventh inning stretch, singing "Take me out to the ball game", the wave, the eats, and - WINNING 4-3.

YAHOOOOO!!!!! What a Difference a Day Makes

We got our LOA today on day 81. And as usual - I went out and missed the call. I've missed every important call in both our adoptions - why should this one be different? I hadn't checked the lists today, so I didn't see the early postings, and our agency didn't get their package until the afternoon. So when Lela and I went out at 4:30 for an impromptu playdate, I thought it was just another day to check off. But when we got home at 6:30 there it was on the answering machine, "We have good news, you got your LOA, call us tomorrow to talk about travel dates." So we are looking at September travel. YIPPEE!!!

No News is Bad News

Our agency got a package this week but no good news for us. If we get our Letter of Acceptance this month, and Travel Approval in September, it will be a close thing whether we are able to travel to China before Guangzhou Trade Fair, Oct 15-30, when it's nearly impossible to get a room in the city. Tomorrow marks day 80 waiting for LOA and 8/10 will be 500 days since we first got Lian's file. I think we've all waited long enough.

I'm putting together a package and photo album to send to Lian so she'll have an idea who she's being sent off to live with. Today is photo staging day - I need to send her pictures of the house, the bedroom she and Lela will share (after a major tidying effort) the pets, Grandma Pines house - and us too. We have to prepare her for big sister Lela in full princess regalia. (An excuse to post a cute picture of the Princess Bride.) In case you don't know, Cinderella is Lela's alter ego, and she channels princess 24/7. She was born to wear high heels and play dress up - and leap tall steps with a single bound too, a good balance.