As you might have read last week, we received travel approval last Thursday, Sept 8th. We quickly learned that the consulate appointments were all gone for the last week of September. With this news, the reality that we could not travel until October became very real! UGGGG! We certainly didn't want to wait until October, but there was just no other choice.
We had to wait through a long weekend (another holiday in China means the US Consulate is closed) to learn when are consulate appointment was scheduled for. We heard Tuesday late afternoon that our agency requested October 17th, but found out last night that we were unable to get that date, so we have our Consulate appointment on the 19th.
I am thankful that I contacted our travel agent (that works with many many adoptive families) on Tuesday. We had worked through different flight options so when we got the official Consulate appointment date we just had to switch the date of our return flight. He did that last night and this morning we made one final change to the flight from Chicago to KC and then we paid for the flights!
I am very thankful that we put flights on hold when we did, as flights were booked up quickly. We are leaving a day earlier then we had hoped, but in doing so we are saving over $1000.
We are flying from here to LAX and then from LAX to Beijing through Hong Kong. We will be in Beijing for 3 days. We are blessed to have a contact through some friends at church. She and a friend will serve as our guides while we are there. We will be going to The Great Wall of China along with other famous Chinese historical places.
On Saturday we will head to Hangzhou. We will have 1 1/2 days in Hangzhou before we get Myah on Monday, Oct 10th. The adoption will become final on the 11th. We will remain in Hangzhou for the passpost processing until Friday when we will fly to Guangzhou. It is in Guangzhou that Myah will have her physical, and Consulate appointment. The day after her consulate appointment we will get her visa and be free to leave. We will take a van to Hong Kong and fly home on the 21st.
We are excited that we will be greeted when we get home by Jeff's parents. They are coming to KC for a conference and are going to stay, see the kids and wait for us to get home, so we can introduce Myah to them. While we had hoped that we would be back to the US sooner to have several days with them, we are thankful for the few days we will get!
So there you have it... the news of our trip! Stay tuned for more info and it become available!
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