journey to karys
Friday, September 14, 2007
China Eve
{extended}Saturday, September 08, 2007
Crunch time
Five weeks ago, we were saying, “Baah…we have five weeks. Plenty of time!”
Could you please tell us what happened to the last four weeks? Somebody stole them.
Final preparations began in earnest today.
After the soccer game, Carmi went shopping sans Eliana to buy gifts for those people in China who play an important role in our trip like the orphanage nannies, the orphanage director and our guides. The gifts are small and inexpensive but practical for them.
Somewhere along the way, she managed to find her way back to Kohl’s.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I prepped our laptop for it’s very important job. There was 2 years worth of junk on there so I copied all of the digital pictures to an external storage device and then reformatted the hard drive. Doesn’t sound like a tough job but it took 3-4 hours to update the operating system and reinstall the other necessary software.
It’s coming down to crunch time.
{extended}Friday, August 24, 2007
Notice of traveling to China for adoption
This is a sweet document to receive in the mail.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Our China itinerary
Our itinerary is tentative because there are still details for our agency to work out. We’ve got some extra traveling this time around. For the moment, though, here is what our schedule looks like:
Sep 14
Fly out of Charlotte, NC at 10:00 am.
Sep 15
Arrive Beijing at 3:00 pm China time and check in at the Wangfujing Grand hotel.
Sep 16
Tour Forbidden City in the morning. Take afternoon train to Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, and check in at the Hebei Century Hotel.
Sep 17
Take taxi to Baoding, apply for Karys’ passport and return to Shijiazhuang. We have requested to visit Karys’ orphanage in Baoding but don’t know yet if we’ll be able to. This is also the day that Karys becomes ours but we also don’t know if this will happen in Baoding or Shijiazhuang.
Sep 18
Sightseeing in Shijiazhuang
Sep 19
Sightseeing in Shijiazhuang
Sep 20
Sightseeing in Shijiazhuang
Sep 21
Receive Karys’ passport.
Sep 22
Take train back to Beijing and check in again at the Wangfujing Grand hotel.
Sep 23
Tour Summer Palace and the Great Wall.
Sep 24
Fly at 10:00 am from Beijing to Guangzhou and check in at the White Swan. Karys will have her health checkup.
Sep 25
Consulate appointment.
Sep 26
Swearing-in ceremony.
Sep 27
Return home!
I’m already tired just thinking about it!
{extended}Monday, August 20, 2007
Travel approval
Carmi and I received word today from our agency that the China Center of Adoption Affairs (also known as the CCAA) has approved our travel to bring Karys home. So it’s official!
For the benefit of those who haven’t previously been following our journal (shame on you!), we leave in 24 days on Friday, September 14th and return on Thursday, September 27th. Our travel group will include me and Carmi, our 5-year-old daughter Eliana who was adopted from Shaoyang, Hunan in 2002 and Tema, one of Carmi’s sisters.
You can see pictures of Karys here and here.
{extended}Monday, August 13, 2007
Eliana’s mug shot
We quickly finished supper this evening and hustled over to the local CVS before they closed to get a photo taken for Eliana’s visa.
Is it just me or does this look like a mug shot??
I mean, I did tell her not to smile but for some strange reason she seriously seemed a little uneasy with the young girl behind the camera. I stood behind the crouching girl waving my hands and making faces to put Eliana at ease but she never flinched.
{extended}Friday, August 10, 2007
Plane tickets have been ordered
Our plane tickets have been ordered for China.
We leave Charlotte at 10:00 am on September 14th, connect in Chicago and arrive in Beijing at 3:00 pm (3:00 am EST) on September 15th.
On the return flight, we leave Hong Kong at 12:45 pm (12:45 am EST) on September 27th, connect again in Chicago and arrive in Charlotte at 6:48 pm EST on the same day.
{extended}Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Leaving on a jet plane
We’re going to China! Well…I guess you already knew that but now we have a date.
Our agency emailed us with the news on Friday. We didn’t see the email until late Saturday evening so good thing it wasn’t an emergency.
The plan is for us to fly to China on Friday, September 14 and return home on Thursday, September 27. We’re being squeezed in during this time period because no adoption agencies send families to China in October for a couple of reasons:
First, October 1 is National Day in China. National Day is the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In 2000, this holiday was stretched from 3 days to a full 7 days to make a “golden week”. Pretty much everyone in the country has that week off.
Second, there is a ginormous trade show held in Guangzhou the last 2 weeks of October every year. Also, the U.S. Consulate is located in Guangzhou and all adoptions are finalized in a ceremony there. Due to the trade show, no hotel rooms will be available for adoptive families.
I’m off to order some tickets!
{extended}Thursday, August 02, 2007
Back atcha
Carmi returned our Letter of Acceptance to the adoption agency this morning. When they receive it (tomorrow), they’ll immediately forward it to China and we begin our wait for Travel Approval.
It’s amazing to think how critical that one little check mark is.
One of the families in our agency received TA only 14 days after returning their LOA so…we best be putting our packing lists together.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Our LOA has arrived
We have received some most excellent news.
Our case manager called Carmi and told her that our Letter of Acceptance arrived from China this morning for Karys’ adoption!
The LOA will be forwarded to us which we’ll receive tomorrow. Basically we’ll just check a box that says YES we want to adopt Karys (duh). Once it’s returned to China, we’ll wait for Travel Approval.
The process seems to be right on schedule and we should travel around mid-September.
{extended}Friday, July 27, 2007
Move along…
The “package” is now in Ohio as of 4:30 am EST…
Update: The package is with the courier in Charleston as of 8:39 am EST.
Update: The package was delivered and signed for at 11:03 am EST. :grrr:
{extended}Thursday, July 26, 2007
Here we go again
Another package was sent from Beijing to our agency and is now sitting in Los Angeles.
Hoo boy…here we go again…
Update: The package left LA at 6:45 pm EST.
{extended}Tuesday, July 17, 2007
False alarm…again…
Well we missed again.
As I mentioned in the previous post, one family received their travel approval and another family received their LOA. Once more, the family who received their LOA was logged in AFTER us.
{extended}Two more packages
Two more packages arrived at our agency yesterday from China. I know this because one of our friends received a call this morning from our agency with their travel approval.
{extended}Saturday, July 14, 2007
Fingerprints…again…
On June 29th, a little letter arrived from the US Citizenship & Immigration Services office informing us that we were scheduled for fingerprinting (for the second time) on Wednesday, July 18 at 2:30 pm. We were fingerprinted the first time back on April 5, 2006 but fingerprints are only good for 15 months. Bet you didn’t know that fingerprints could change, did you?
We found out from another lady adopting through our agency that, unbeknownst to many, Saturdays is a walk-in day. She said there is usually not a big crowd so we opted not to take a half day off from work and try our luck. Walking in around 11:45, we were greeted by 40 or so people. Probably 90% of those were Latina.
45 minutes later, they called my number and Carmi soon followed. I was making small talk with the young lady taking my fingerprints and said something like, “You guys are busy today.” She looked behind us and with a smile replied, “Not really.” Geesh, I’d hate to be there on a day when it WAS hectic.
She made quick work of me and as Eliana and I waited in the back of the room for Carmi, I counted a total of 65 people in line. I guess a lot of others heard that same useful piece of information.
{extended}