3 ½ weeks to go!

We are communicating back and forth with our agency about travel plans while in China.  I think we have solidified plans for our flight from Hong Kong to Yinchuan and back again, as well as the hotel plans for while we are in Hong Kong at the beginning and end of our trip.  I really wish we have more time to spend touring Hong Kong, but we only have one day at the beginning of our trip and one day at the end of our trip.  I wanted to see Victoria Peak, but Chris is very unsure about the mountain.  He’s a chicken!  I think we are planning on seeing the big statue of Buddha and a few Taoist temples.  I love touring temples.  I’m sure Chris will like it too.  After we pick up Saiya, we will probably be wandering around the many parks Hong Kong has.  The weather should be very nice in the middle of September.

US Consulate Confirmation!

We received confirmation of our Visa appointment date from the US Consulate in China today!!  We will be traveling for SURE on August 26 and returning home September 11.  We are so excited!  I will be booking our flights today and then the rest of the travel arrangements will be made by CAWLI...  I'm off to pack Saiya's things and book flights!!

Weather in Ningxia in September

I was browsing through some of the Ningxia information sites and came across the climate section for Yinchuan City.  Below are the average temperatures for the latter half of the year.  As you can see, I will have to re-pack (yes AGAIN) Saiya's bag with some warmer clothes.  Lows in the near 50's is going to be a little chilly for our girl.... and me!!  HAHA!


Average Data        July        Aug        Sep        Oct        Nov       Dec
Average High (F)   84/87     80/84     72/75     60/64     43/47     30/34
Average Low (F)    62/66     60/63     49/52     36/39     23/27     10/13

Planning Travel

We have opted to travel in late August.  Our travel dates are August 26 through September 12.  We are very excited and are working hard to get everything in order before we leave.  There are moments of panic, of course, as we realize that we are going to be bringing home our daughter at last!  Those moments of sheer terror are brief, but we worry like all new parents I guess.  Haha!

I have placed our plane tickets on hold.  I am hoping that by Friday we will know a final decision on the consulate appointment for Saiya so we can book the tickets.  Delta will hold our tickets until Friday.  My dad said that because he has enough airline miles, we can use them to get Saiya’s ticket as well.  That saves us almost $1000!!  We really appreciate my dad letting us use his airline miles to get tickets.  It really helps not to have to pay for that portion of the travel costs.

Once we have confirmation from the consulate about the visa appointment (which is tentatively scheduled for September 7), we can put in for leave from work.  Chris is planning on taking 5 weeks and I am taking four.  The last week we are home, before Chris goes back to work, we are planning on putting Saiya in daycare for half-days so that she gets used to the teachers and the idea of her spending time some place that is not home.  I will drop her off when I go to work and Chris will pick her up around noon.  When he goes back to work, he will be picking her up after he gets off.  I’m happy that I will be able to drop her off in the morning.  At least this way I know her clothes will match!  HAHA!!

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

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my 31^st birthday.  I have been doing a lot of reflection this month since it has been a little over 1 year since we started the adoption process.  We are very excited about traveling to China to pick up our daughter.  Last night I had a dream that Saiya and I went on a cruise together.  I think it’s strange that my dreams about Saiya have gone from us traveling to pick her up, traveling in China with her, traveling home with her, and now about things we might do together as a family.  I dream about her a lot!  I hope that she knows we are waiting anxiously for her and that we will be there very soon to bring her home.  We still have our fingers crossed that we will be traveling on the 29^th, but we are prepared just in case we don’t get our travel approval in time.

Still packing and re-packing.  Anything to help pass the time and hold back the madness that is the “hurry-up and wait” process of adoption.  I pulled out some really cute dresses for Saiya to wear while we are in China.  I even think i have one planned for her Visa Appointments in GuongZhou.  :)  She is going to look so cute in the clothes we are bringing!  Of course, Cherokee wanted to help!

Travel Decisions

So as it stands right now, the other families who were supposed to be traveling in late August don’t want to wait that long. Now CAWLI is trying to put together a group to go to China on July 29-Aug14. I seriously don’t think that we are going to receive our Travel Approval in the next week, but we will see. If we do, then we will be going in the July 29th group. If not, then we will be going sometime in August, even if we have to travel to China without a travel group. Heading over there by ourselves is not really what we want to do as it costs slightly more because we have to pay for things like transportation and guides by ourselves rather than share the cost with other families. Keep your fingers crossed that we get our Travel Approval VERY soon!!

We got a picture of some of the children in the orphanage. Our daughter looks so tiny! We might have to rethink the items we packed. I’m not sure if we packed a lot of 4’s or 3’s for Saiya. I will have to repack her bag… again. Haha!!