Less than a week before we go..... Wow!

Compared to all of the slow-draging days and weeks in the wait for LOA, and the wait for TA, these last few weeks are flying right by!  I am now down to just five days.   Five days!  We finally received today the final itinerary for our travel: this is as close to flying on the seat of my pants that I can handle!  It feels good to know where we are going to be staying, and who is going to be assisting us.  This is what it looks like on paper:

Oct. 5 Fly out of USA to China, changing planes in Japan on the way
Oct. 6  Arrive in Beijing
Oct. 7  Visit Tienemen Square, Forbidden Palace,and Temple of Heaven
Oct. 8  Visit the Great Wall of China and take a Hutong tour
Oct. 9  Take a train from Beijing northbound, up to Harbin (10 hour journey)
Oct. 10  ELLIOTT DAY!!!
Oct. 11  Start the official Chinese adoption process
Oct. 12  Tour Harbin
Oct. 13  Tour Harbin
Oct. 14  Receive Elliott's final set of adoption paperwork including his passport, fly south to Guangzhou (4.5 hour flight)
Oct. 15  Medical appointment for Elliott
Oct. 16  Free day to tour Guangzhou, paperwork
Oct. 17  Free day to tour Guangzhou, have TB test read at med clinic
Oct. 18  Visit Animal Park (zoo) in Guangzhou
Oct. 19  US Embassy Appointment at 8:30am, where we adopt Elliott according to USA law
Oct. 20  Receive Elliott's immigration paperwork and VISA, hop on a train to Hong Kong (2 to 3 hour ride)
Oct. 21  Get on a really big airplane and take a really LONG flight back home!

So, there you have it!  There are lots of little steps sandwiched in there, too, and hours of paperwork.  I have no doubt that we will be keeping busy.

Here is a map of China.  See if you can find Harbin, Beijing, and Guangzhou.

I have been looking up weather in the different cities.  I have found that Harbin, although colder in the mid-winter months, is much like Michigan.  And there's a good reason why.  It's at almost the same latitude as us in Michigan!

Harbin: 45.45

Grand Rapids: 42.88

Average daily high in October: 58

Guangzhou is at 23.05.

Key West, by comparison, is at 24.34

Going to be nice and hot! Daily average: 78

I had a really rough day at work today, and left with a major headache.  All the stress of working my 12-hour shift when nothing seemed to be going easy, combined with sleepless nights and endless packing and preparation lists left me with a pretty stiff headache.  And of course, I get to walk out to my car in the middle of a severe thunderstorm.  I was ready to get soaking wet, but when I stepped out, the rain suddenly parted ways, and I got to follow a double-rainbow home from work.  It was truely amazing!  The last time I saw such a bright double rainbow it was the day before my wedding day.  I had no idea at the time, ten years ago, what joys our marriage would bring us.  And now here I am again, nervous and hopeful that I am once again putting myself on the line in hopes of gaining something (someone!) truely wonderful, and standing under a beautiful rainbow.  Coincidence???

Baby, we're going to China!

After the single most expensive and chaotic 12 hours, I have finally confirmed the following:
*We depart from home on October 5th and arrive in Beijing on October 6th
*We will be staying in Beijing until Sunday, October 9th, and we'll be on an early train from Beijing to Harbin
*We will finally, at long last, after months of waiting, hold Elliott in our arms the morning of October 10
*We will travel by plane from Harbin to Guangzhou on Friday, October 14
*We will confirm our adoption on October 19 at the US Consulate in Guangzhou
*We will travel by train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong the evening of October 20
*We fly home on October 21 and arrive home on the same day considering the time zones

Hotels were three times more expensive because of the Canton Trade Show going on in town, and I spent HOURS on the computer and the phone bargaining down different hotels and begging for every applicable discount.  We settled on the Holiday Inn Shifu in GZ and I am very satisfied.  I got a GREAT rate on airline tickets (thanks, Todd!) although I could have bought a nice little car for that same amount of money.  The last arrangement for us to make is for a hotel stay in Beijing and booking a tour guide to take us around Beijing.  I have that almost wrapped up, but that will have to wait until this weekend with the 12-hour time difference I'm working with and my 12-hour work shift tomorrow.  Beijing hotels are not booking up nearly as fast as Guangzhou is because of the GZ Trade Show.  I have time.

It feels great to have some of the biggest headaches behind me.  Just a few smaller details and a few suitcases to pack up and we're all set.  We have our farm helpers arranged to take care of our farm and our home while we are gone (thank you Vanderweys!) and our sweet little girls (thank you Wissinks, and thank you Grandparents!).  It's finally all falling into place, it's just going to take some time for the sticker shock to wear off after all of the damage I did to that poor little credit card today.  I think I can hear it crying from inside my purse.

Leaving for China in 19 days
Getting Elliott in 25 days

Up for work in 6 hours....  *yawn*

Gimme a T! Gimme an A!

Every time the phone has rang this week, I found myself holding my breath in hopes that it was the TA call from Tiffany.  I have found myself running, literally, to catch every single phone call while I have been at home.  So it is rather funny that the one phone call that I totally missed was my TA call this afternoon.  I saw the answering machine light blinking red at me at 4:15 today and didn't even hear the call come in.  It was Tiffany, and we have TRAVEL APPROVAL!  Because we are at the end of a week filled with more than a dozen other TA's, and with the Chinese Moon festival coming up in the first week of October, the soonest we will be able to travel would be Oct. 5 for an Oct. 10 Gotcha Day.  That's if all goes as we have planned.  It's not the Sept. 29th CA date that I would have given my left arm to have, but it's less than a month that hopefully we will have Elliott with us.  Forever with us.  We won't have confirmation of our travel dates and our itinerary until the first half of next week because tomorrow starts out a weekend and the TA came in at the end of the day today.  But we're back on track and celebrating tonight!!!

Having a tearful moment....

I was really really really hoping for TA today.  There were NO travel approvals issued last week from the CCCWA, and that created a backlog of about 20 of us on the RQ site that are waiting for permission to go get our children.  There was indeed a flash flood of TA's today, but we weren't included.  Most TA seem to come on Mondays (with the exception of this week, as yesterday was Labor Day Monday) so I'm doubtful we'll be purchasing plane tickets this week or packing any bags.  The hardest part is trying to remain patient with a positive attitude when other families are crusing right past us with quicker approval times.  We are definitely on the longer side of the wait times, and have been so throughout this whole adoption journey.  If the average wait times are 2 to 4 weeks for a certain step, you can bet your last dollar we'll be waiting the full 4 weeks.  And so we wait.  And wait.  And wait.  And now all of the September CA appointments have been taken, so our best chance at leaving at this point will be mid-October.  I keep repeating:

 Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

But still, a few sad tears have escaped today.  And I don't usually cry easily.  It's overdue.