We received our in-country itinerary this morning. This is what the upcoming trip looks like - subject to change, of course:

Feb 26
Fly out of Charlotte, NC at 4:36 pm.

Feb 28
Arrive in Beijing at 10:55 am (10:55 pm on Feb 27 EST) and check in at the Wangfujing Grand Hotel.

Mar 1
Fly from Beijing to Shenyang and check in at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Mar 2
Meet our son!

Mar 3
Registration and notary in the morning. Then we’ll take the train from Shenyang to Dalian and check in at the Ramada Hotel.

Mar 4
Apply for our son’s passport in the morning and visit the Friendship Square (also called the You Hao Square).
Visit the Star-Sea Park (also called the Xing Hai Park) in the afternoon.

Mar 5
Visit the Russian Street in the morning.
Take the train from Dalian to Shenyang in the afternoon and check in again at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Mar 6
Visit the Provincial Museum.

Mar 7
Visit the Zhong Shan Park.

Mar 8
Visit the Bei Ling Park

Mar 9
Pick up our son’s passport.
Fly from Shenyang to Guangzhou and check in at the White Swan Hotel.

Mar 10
Take photo and have medical check.
Visit the Pedestrian Shopping Street.

Mar 11
Apply for visa at 9:30 am.
Visit the Six Banyan Temple

Mar 12
Visit the Liu Hua Lake Park.
Pick up our son’s visa.
Fly from Guangzhou to Beijing and check in at the Sino-Swiss Hotel.

Mar 13
Fly out of Beijing at 12:10 pm.

Mar 15
Arrive in Charlotte, NC at 6:34 pm.

I’ve spent the better part of 2 days working out our flights for the trip to China.

Mission accomplished but let me tell you…I don’t care if I e-v-e-r have to book another flight. EVAH. What a headache.

So the question of the day is: how many planes does it take to get us to China and back?

The correct answer would be…drum roll, please…8!

We leave Charlotte on February 26th at 4:36 pm. Then it’s on to Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seoul and arrive in Beijing on February 28th at 10:55 am (February 27th at 10:55 pm EST).

Coming back, we leave Beijing on March 13th at 12:10 pm (March 13th at 12:10 am EST). Then it’s on to Seoul, Los Angeles (where we’re staying for almost 2 full days to visit friends), Atlanta and arrive in Charlotte on March 15th at 6:34 pm.

Carmi and I had a conference call with our case manager at 3:30. We were indeed going to have some extra time in-province so we were given 2 options:

Scenario 1 is that we fly out of Charlotte on February 23rd instead of February 27th. This isn’t a good option because there would be a considerable increase in cost across the board for airfare, hotel, food and sightseeing (and shopping).

Scenario 2 is that we still fly out of Charlotte on February 27th but have no time in Beijing. We would fly into Beijing, board another plane and fly straight to the provincial capital. We would also pay an additional (relatively small in the grand scheme of things) “fee” to expedite our son’s passport process. This isn’t a good option because, if nothing else, we’d like to see the Great Wall again.

So what did we decide?

We chose a slightly modified version of scenario 2.

We fly out of Charlotte on Thursday, February 26th which will give us some much-needed rest after our trans-atlantic flight and also one full day in Beijing on Saturday. We fly to the provincial capital on Sunday and meet our son on Monday, March 2nd.

I like the sound of that.

We meet our son on March 2nd.

I received a phone call from our case worker late this afternoon with some good news and some…eh…maybe-not-so-good news.

The good news is that we did receive a consulate appointment and it’s set for March 11th.

The maybe-not-so-good news is that we might have to be in China for 3 weeks.

Our son’s province has been known to require extra time. There are 2 families we know of who adopted from our son’s orphanage within the last 6-8 months who were only in China for the usual 2 weeks.

Our agency is working hard on our behalf for a 2-week stay and we should know something definite tomorrow.

If we do have to stay for 3 weeks, we’ll be leaving on February 24th which is…hmmm…only 2 weeks from today!

Carmi and I received word today from our agency that our travel approval has arrived from China!

We were praying for a possible call since we heard that other agencies received TAs this week. We had actually, though, resigned ourselves to the fact that it didn’t come today because it was very late in the afternoon.

Carmi was still working from home so I took Karys and went to pick Eliana up from gran’mommy’s house at 5:30. We were back home around 6:00.

As soon as the garage door shut, Carmi opened the door to the house and said, “You ready to go to China?”

Aaaaah!

She had j-u-s-t hung the phone up after talking with our case worker as the girls and I were pulling in.

Tentatively we will leave on February 27th and return on March 12th.

If you do the math, that means we leave in 3 weeks.

3 weeks, people!!

Not only has the US government granted permission for Karys to leave the country but hey…they’re even nice enough to let her come back in.

That’s right. Karys’ passport came in the mail today.

And that little book is itchin’ to get stamped by China.

When we mailed Eliana’s passport renewal request last Monday, we also had to send along her old passport, her original Chinese birth certificate and her original Adoption Registration Certificate.

Eliana’s new passport arrived in the mail on Saturday so the extra $140 we paid motivated somebody down in New Orleans. But Carmi looked in, under and around that package and those other three documents which should have been returned with the new passport were nowhere to be found.

We were both prepared to make some phone calls this week. Fortunately, though, the documents came in a separate package today.

We’re breathing a little bit easier. And still waiting on Karys’ first passport which should come by the weekend. Maybe accompanied by a travel approval???