And we're off!

I'm not sure I thought this day would ever actually come. I can't even articulate all it's taken to get here. But we're ready to leave to bring our baby home. To our family and friends who have loved us and waited for this day with us...we have felt and heard in your voices your own anticipation. I wish you could all just come to China with us...For those of you who read our blog because you are waiting to adopt your own little one, hang in there...

I feel like someone should be really impressed by our tiddy packing job. Each of the two bigger bags is under the 44 pounds per bag allowed on the in China flights. A small carry on and two backpacks. The funny thing is that only 1/3 of it is clothes...we've got everything but the kitchen sink in these babies....literally. Unreal.

The iPod's loaded and I have two books with me I want to read. I know this is a crazy long flight but there's part of me that can't wait to sit for 20 hours. I feel like I haven't stopped in two weeks! Next time you hear from us we'll be in China!

What do you want for dinner? --Chinese food.

Last night Josh and I went to our final travel meeting at our agency. There were five families in the conference room and I think four others who were calling in from around the country. We went over all the final details and the detailed list of paperwork we have to bring with us. I've been so focused on what cute outfits I should bring for Katelyn I haven't really been getting all our paperwork together. I suppose I should focus on what will actually get us in and out of China and finalize this adoption! Whoops! I'll do that tonight.

Anyway...the meeting was really fun. We stood around talking and joking with the other families afterward. There was such a buzz of anticipation and excitement in the air. It looks like most everyone is taking a flight from their city thru Detroit to Tokyo and then onto Beijing. We all meet up in Detroit and are on the same flights from there on out. It was AWESOME to say, "See you in Detroit next week." as we all left the meeting. Next week. YES!!

Josh and I decided to go grab some dinner and then find him some new jeans for the trip. I asked him what kind of food he wanted for dinner. He said, "Let's get Chinese." He's silly...we're about to have that for 2 weeks straight. I suggested something else. :)

The baby shower is on Sunday. We have Brandon and Ashley this weekend and then Sunday night I'll use Brandon's bed to start laying everything out and begin the packing process. We are only going to be in Beijing for two nights and one full day so we decided to pack everything we'd need for Beijing in our carryon so we don't have to touch the two checked bags until we get to Nanchang (we're there for 8 nights). See, I have a system.... Maybe it will even be one that works. :)

Even the airlines....

I just called Northwest because on the itinerary that the travel agent sent we didn't have seat assignments for the leg between Tokyo and Detroit...uh yeah, I'd like us to sit together for those 12 hours! So I called and the lady on the phone was nice as can be. She was asking questions about the adoption and congratulated us and even found us seats in a row of 4 that doesn't have anyone in the 4th seat...Okay that would be great for that many hours! She hooked us up!!! So far our experience with Northwest is going well. She said at this point it wasn't a very full flight (of course it's three weeks away so anything can happen.) Have I mentioned that I'm ready to go NOW????!!!! Even Josh is getting excited....miracles do happen. ;)

The to-do list is getting shorter

What a week! I got my oil changed...got my eyes checked and got new contacts for the trip...renewed the registration for both cars and got a new drivers license...put up the border in the nursery...took tags off clothes...took toys out of packages...Today my friend Jonathan came over and painted our stairwell and upstairs hallway (I helped.)....I hung a few pictures in the nursery and painted the changing table (I bought it used and so I sanded and painted it.)....I put diapers, wipes and lotion in the bins I got for the changing table shelves (so cute). All that and worked too. I'm tired now. :)

The nursery is coming together! It's very fun. I'll post pictures when it's all finished.

Yesterday we got our in China itinterary...so now we know our flight info and what hotels we're staying at. We leave April 10th (Thursday) and arrive in Beijing on Friday the 11h...at like 9:40 pm....talk about a leap forward! We do a bunch of sight seeing on Saturday and then leave for Nanchang on Sunday morning. They'll bring Katelyn to us on Sunday afternoon April 13th. Yeah!!! Then we go to Guangzhou Monday morning, April 21st and leave to come back home April 24th.

Two weeks from tomorrow we'll have our baby. After so many years....just two more weeks. God is good.

We have plane tickets....we're going to China!!

We got an email from the travel guy at our adoption agency today and our appointment with the US consulate in Guangzhou is set for April 22nd. This is our last piece of the trip while we're in China and the rest of our travel dates are set around this appointment.

So....are all of you paying close attention....are you reading very carefully....WE PURCHASED OUR PLANE TICKETS TO CHINA!!!! We are really going.....in three weeks. April 10-24th. In a little over three weeks our baby will be with us. Oh my gosh.....that's crazy!!!!

We're flying Northwest....Lexington to Detroit...Detroit to Tokyo...Tokyo to Beijing. Up and over the north pole. Oh that's cool. I hope it will be light out and that we'll be able to see the north pole out the window.

Now things are getting exciting...

Travel Approval!!!

Our agency received word from the China Center of Adoption Affairs today saying that they have approved us to travel! Whoo hoo. So our agency has contacted the US Consulate in Guangzhou requesting our appointment for April 22nd. If we get this date then we will be ready to book our flights for April 10th-24th. Whoo hoo again!!! They said we will know for sure in 1-5 days.

Great news. We're almost there. Katelyn is nine months old today. I just want to thank my friends with young children. They have humored my zillion questions...How old is your child?, How much does she weigh? How tall is she? What size is she wearing? Does she have teeth? How many? What is she eating? etc...etc... I'm a lunatic! It's very strange to be jumping in in the middle. I don't know what to pack. I just go into the baby's room, look around, get overwhelmed and walk back out. I've got to stop doing that. My brother's coming over on Thursday evening to help me with some handyman stuff around the house. Once that's done I will start washing the clothes we have for Katelyn and sort them out by size. Anyone who knows me and my mother knows that this kid already has a closet full of clothes...In our defense, we've had 2 1/2 years to shop. That's a lot of end of season clearance sales.

Have I mentioned that we're GOING TO CHINA!!! Josh said today that he's relieved that the NCAA championship game will happen right before we leave. I said REALLY this matters...we're going to get our child. And still he said he's glad that he gets to see the end of the college basketball season AND go to China. Do you all see what I'm working with here??? Josh said all we need to do is pack some clothes for him and I and some for the baby. Yeah, I'm going to let him go ahead and do that and see what his suitcase is lacking when we get to China. :)

Oh the to-do list...

My question is, WHAT THE HECK HAVE I BEEN DOING THE LAST TWO YEARS???? Somehow we've had all this time to wait and wait and now we leave in four weeks and I can't imagine how I'll get everything done before then. But I've made my list and the goal is to mark at least one thing off of it everyday. Today I got Katelyn's care package finished up. We're sending her a little photo album with pictures of our family, a disposable camera for the nannys to take pictures of her (we hope we'll get it back when they bring Katelyn to us), a blanket, a couple of long sleeve shirts, a little toy and some chocolates for the nannys. I hope the package gets to her!!!

So tomorrow I think I'll work on the packing list so that I can start gathering the stuff we need to bring with us. I've already started the gathering, but I need to see what we still need.

Amazingly enough the house is almost all painted now! Whoo hoo.... I just have the stairwell and the upstairs hallway to do. Our friend is a painter, so we're going to have him come with ladders to do the stairwell in a couple of weeks. So my painting days are numbered....thank God! By the time I'm finished it will be time to start on the first room again. :)

Okay...why am I blogging, I've got stuff to do!

We got our visas

Oh, I forgot, we got our passports back with the visas in them. We're just waiting for our travel approval from China and then we'll start buying our tickets. Yeah!!!! It's getting official. China's really going to let us crazy people into their country.

Looks like April!

Well, Katelyn turned 8 months old on Sunday and we are ready to bring her home. We had a two and a half hour travel meeting last night with our agency. We got to meet three of the other families that are traveling with us and the other seven families called in from around the country via teleconference. We basically went over everything from filling out our visa applications to itinerary, to money...and everything in between.

So our tentative schedule is:

• Depart Lexington - April 10th
• Arrive in Beijing - April 11th (12 hours ahead and 20 hours of traveling later)
• Sightseeing in Beijing April 12th and 13th
• Depart Beijing for Nanchang, Jiangxi - April 13th (late afternoon/early evening)
• Stay in Jiangxi -April 13-20
• Receive Katelyn - April 13 when we get to Nanchang or the next morning on April 14th
• Adoption finalized (on China's end) the day after we receive Katelyn
• Depart for Guangzhou - April 20th
• US Consulate Appointment - April 22nd
• Oath Ceremony (where we promise to take care of Katelyn) - April 23rd
• Depart for the USA - April 24th (arrive the same day because we gain 12 hours!)-Katelyn is a US citizen as soon as we land in the US!

We will not have all of these dates officially until a couple of weeks before we travel, but these look fairly solid, give or take a day. Josh will be off work from April 9-May 1, so we'll have a week together once we get home to get over the jet lag and begin to transition on this end.

I feel like there's a whole lot to do in the next seven weeks! I'm making lots of lists right now. We worked on the nursery this weekend and it's looking very cute. The furniture is assembled and now I'm decorating. I'll post pictures when I get done!