We're On Our Way!

Yeah!!!! TA!!!!!

We received our Travel Approval/Notice of Coming from China!! Our appointment date at the Consulate is January 29th. We will be meeting our little Anne Min Mei the morning of the 22nd! It is almost hard to believe that it is finally happening.

We are booking our tickets tomorrow with Lotus Travel. We hope to leave the morning of the 17th, and arrive in Beijing in the afternoon on the 18th. There are two tours I am actually interested in; 1) The Great Wall and Temple of Heaven, 2)Summer Palace, Lama Temple, and Panda Zoo. Now, those of you who know me, know how torn I am between the Wall and the pandas...I will ask if there is any way we can combine the Great Wall and the Panda Zoo tour into one day. I know that we will be visiting other temples - not so famous, but still beautiful - in Kunming, and around the Yunnan Province.

We will leave Beijing and fly to Kunming on the 20th. Our meeting date - the date we are requested to be in Kunming - is the 21st. Although we are not scheduled to receive Annie until the morning of the 22nd, history tells us that they may bring her to us on the 21st if they know we are arriving early. We will finalize the adoption in the Notarial Office in Kunming the day after we meet her. Then, we will spend the rest of the week in Kunming waiting for her passport and paperwork to be ready. During this time, our facilitator, "Grandma" Xiulan will visit us every day - she has to see the babies every day to be sure they're all doing well - and probably hire a driver/bus to take us sightseeing, shopping, etc. We did not get to the Stone Forest in Kunming on our last trip, and will definitely do that this time. Of course, it all depends on how Miss Anne Min Mei is feeling and bonding with her new forever family...

Then, not sure what day, we will fly to Guangzhou, in the Guangdong Province where the U.S. Consulate is located. There, hopefully, we will be staying at the beautiful White Swan Hotel. Xiulan will take our paperwork to the appointment at the Consulate on the 29th. We will go to the Consulate the following day, along with many other families, and swear to take very good care of Anne Min Mei, and get her visa to come home! We are going to stay over one more night in Guangzhou, and travel the morning of the 31st to Beijing, and then on to Newark, where Annie will become an American citizen (same place as Emma did), and then home to Boston! We are shooting for a flight that will arrive at Logan at around 8:00 p.m. on the 31st.

And then, the real fun will begin!! We will try to broadcast from the other side of the world to all of you. If you don't hear from us, check back here at the blog and see if I was able to at least update here. I hope we will be able to download our pictures to the Kodak Share website, so that you can view our journey while we are still there. Modern technology is a wonderful thing!

When I last heard from our connection in Gejiu, he said that they were having a hard time with e-mail due to earthquake in Taiwan. He did manage to let me know that he went to see Anne Min Mei in JianShui, and took pictures of her and the orphanage. He said that she is an adorable little princess, and that he thinks we will be the perfect family. He is sending his parents home to the U.S. with a picture CD to mail to us. I can't even begin to tell you how thankful we are to have him there, and how comforting it is for my heart. He is such a nice man!!

It won't be long now...10 days to departure!!! We're packing today!!!

Love to All,
Nancy & Barry & Emma & Annie :)