Travel Approval!!!!!!

We received our travel approval today!!!  Now we have a decision to make.  We must decide if we want to try and travel July 29 with a couple of families or travel August 26 with a travel group and a doctor.  We are leaning towards the August 26 dates for several reasons.

1.  CAWLI is sending a doctor with the travel group.
2.  We will have more time to notify work of us taking leave.
3.  It will also give me some more time to stock up on vacation time so that I can spend a little more time at home with my little girl.
4.  There are more seats available on the plane and we can sit together on the way over and on the way back (whereas, there are so few for the July dates and the odds of us being together on the plane are slim)
5.  Save one whole month of Day Care

If we leave on July 29, we will get to China sooner and we will have our daughter sooner.  Even though that is a wonderful incentive, there are too many practical reasons to wait until August.


We have waited this long, one more month will fly by very fast, I'm sure!!
(see below for a timeline of our process thus far)



7/1/09 Application to CAWLI

7/7/09 Intake Meeting with CAWLI

8/29/09 First Home Study Visit

9/3/09 Trip to meet CAWLI staff

9/17/09 Second Home Study Visit

9/21/09 Completed Heart of the Matters Parenting Training

10/15/09 Final Home Study Visit

10/28/09 Approved Home Study Report

11/20/09 Submitted paperwork to USCIS

12/8/09 REFERRAL DAY

12/23/09 Preapproval from China

1/6/10 Fingerprinting for USCIS and First Care Package Sent

1/28/10 USCIS I-800A Approval

2/1/10 Dossier to China (DTC)

2/10/10 Log In Date (LID)

3/24/10 Second Care Package Sent

4/20/10 Letter of Acceptance (LOA)

5/7/10 Third Care Package Sent

6/7/10 USCIS I-800 Approval

6/11/10 National Visa Center (NVC) Notification

6/18/10 Paperwork to US Consulate in China

7/13/10 NVC Approval (Article 5)

7/19/10 Travel Approval