Our Itinerary!

China Itinerary

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009 - Depart Louisville at 8am

Friday, Sept. 11, 2009 - Arrive in Beijing, China at 3:15pm

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 - Tour Great Wall, Olympic Park, Forbidden City,...

Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 - Fly to Nanchang -- GOTCHA DAY

Monday, Sept. 14, 2009 - Civil Affair Office
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 - Visit Tengwang Pavillion
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009 - Visit Anyi Village
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 - Visit local park
Friday, Sept. 18, 2009 - Fly to Guangzhou
Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009 - Medical Exam
Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009 - Church
Monday, Sept. 21, 2009 - Shopping
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 - Free Day
Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009 - US Consulate to take Oath
Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 - Fly Home - Arrive in Louisville 6:05pm

Moving along

I had the week off from work but decided that since we would be traveling soon I didn't really need to take all that time off. I ended up working Monday and Tuesday and then took Wednesday off. It was nice to have yesterday off as I have a lot I need to do.
We were having some problems with some paperwork. I think I may have mentioned it before but we had to do an addendum to our home study as Emma will be 2o months when we get her. Our paperwork reflects that we requested a child 6-18 months (which she was at the time of referral) but China will want to see that we will take a child up to 24 months. I started on this the week we got our referral but have hit a couple of bumps in the road. Finally yesterday we found out the paperwork was being processed and we would have it by the beginning of next week! (Takes a little stress away!)
I also came home yesterday and our Visa's and travel paperwork had arrived! Things are starting to fall into place. I still have some things to get in order around the house and of course I need to start getting our stuff together for the trip. I did at least make 2 trips to Target, it's a start! The big challange starts in making sure we stay under the weight limit! We are allowed 2 suitcases under 44lbs., 1 carryon and 1 personal item each! I need to weigh the suitcases and see how much they weigh empty.
I had emailed a couple of bloggy friends about what they took on their trip and have gotten some great responses (thank you to everyone!) but if anyone wants to share any tips I would love to hear it. I would love to know if there is anything you couldn't live without, things you wish you would have taken or things you wish you would have left at home! You can leave me a message here or email me at Kramer651@cs.com

Our other site!

Baby Jellybeans

We have another website that I started before this one.

We are hoping to use it while in China.

Waitingonemma.com

Another step closer!

Airline Tickets have been booked!

We got a call from Mike at AHH today. He wanted to let us know that our Consulate date has been confirmed for Sept. 22, 2009! That means that we are leaving on September 10, 2009. I don't have our schedule yet but it looks like we will fly out on Thursday, arrive Friday, tour Beijing on Saturday, fly to Emma's region on Sunday and either get Emma on Sunday or Monday!

Mike and I both got the nervous stomach as we booked the tickets. It made everything seem official. I can't believe we will be in China in 2 1/2 weeks! Hang on Emma, Mommy and Daddy are coming.

I will post the official schedule when we receive it!

Another big surprise!

OUR TA HAS ARRIVED!

Once again we were caught off guard! Yesterday afternoon right before I left the house I checked the rumors to see if anything was going on. Of course another quiet day! I was so hoping referrals were going to arrive so we could find out all about sweet Hannah. Since there was nothing happening I went to eat lunch with Mike. While eating we of course talked about Emma, our TA, the rumors of referrals and how it looked like it was only getting to 3/24/09. I was so sad for all

of the families waiting as we too would still be waiting! Anyway, Mike said it looks like since nothing is going on that there is no hope of traveling before November. Now, we were told that would be when we would travel but we always hoped and prayed that it would come earlier. Now with it being August 20th, it looks like there is not a chance of going before. We finished lunch and I left for home. DeeAnna had called to talk to me about the shower they were planning for us on Sept. 26. While on the phone a call came in. When I looked to see who it was I saw the Lexington number! DeeAnna of course said "Go, take the call!" On the other line was Mike, our travel coordinator. He laughed at me at how I answered the phone and said he could tell I was on the road (think it may have been the radio was a little loud. Oh, I know, I shouldn't be riding around talking on the cell!) He asked me if I wanted the good news or the great news! I told him which ever he would like to tell me. With that, he told me that our TA (travel approval) had arrived. I couldn't believe it as there hadn't been any talk of it on RQ. I was so excited! Now, he said, would you like the great news! I told him that I thought he had already told me the great news! (Laughing again, he told me), It seems that China has changed their holiday schedule so we are anticipating that you will leave for China on September 10, 2009 and arrive home on September 24, 2009.

How could this happen twice? I was caught off guard again! After all this time of waiting I am so unprepared! Now, I have been getting a few things done but no need to move so fast, I had (HAD being the key word) 3 months to get ready. My 3 months just turned into 3 weeks! (guess I shouldn't complain as Pug Mama only had about 48 hours to get ready!)

Now the countdown is on! We will know by next Wednesday the official dates of travel. If all goes as planned we leave to get in Emma in exactly 20 days!

Emma's care package

As I told you in my last post we sent Emma a care package this week.

We used Ann at Red Thread China.

I had already posted the picture she sent us but I really like seeing at the top of the blog so I wanted to put it there again!

This is a picture of what was included in the care package we sent.

It included: a photo book with 8 pictures, a musical bear, a book, candy

and tea for the caregivers, a disposable camera (we hope the caregivers will

take pictures of Emma and the orphanage for us), and a letter that we wrote along with

questions that we hope will get answered. Thank you Ann, we can't wait

for Emma to get it!

Look what we got!

Before I left for work this morning I checked my email just to see if there was anything I needed to see in there and boy was I surprised. I yelled for Mike to come and see! The email was from Ann at Red Thread . We had ordered a care package for Emma from her this weekend and she send us this!!!



This picture was taken yesterday! It looks like they got our precious little one all dressed up for the photo! It looks like she has had another hair cut, I can't wait for it to grow long enough for some bows. She looks so much smaller without all of those clothes on. Emma is now 22lbs., 30in. tall, and her feet are 12 cm. We are so blessed to have this photo sent to us by Ann! I highly recommend her services as she is an absolute angel!
Still no word on travel, I will keep you posted.

Lots to do!

Things have been really busy around here this week. We had a crazy week with the weather and had a lot of flooding in the area. My work just happened to get hit really hard and they had to close down the OR's from Tuesday afternoon until Saturday. I am sure with all the cancelled surgeries we will be overwhelmed next week.
I have spent yesterday and today getting paperwork in order. We are going later today to get our passport photos for our Visa's and get them in the mail today. There were a ton of other forms to print (I think I used a whole forest worth of trees). We also got our letter written to send to Emma's orphanage and the pictures we wanted to send. We are using Ann to send the carepackage. We had heard wonderful things about it was all so true, she is amazing!
I've gotten lots of emails about the delay in our travel. Nothing is set in stone yet but our agency seems pretty firm on our travel dates. I am still hoping that our TA's will come in very soon and they will go ahead and send us in September. Believe me, I am getting our stuff together just in case but if I have learned one thing from this whole process it is to not get my hopes up but to always expect the unexpected!
I hope to have some news soon and I still want to upload photos from referral day. I'll see what I can do!