China bound!

What a week it has been....
Our travel approval (TA) came in on Friday, November 26, and today, Wednesday November 29th we received our confirmed Consulate Appointment (CA)which means we are able to make travel arrangements. To our surprise, we will be leaving December 8th!! Yup- that's next week already. Oh my....so much to do! We'll leave out of Newark on the 8th and return back to the States on December 23rd...just in time to catch Santa Claus coming down the chimney.

A bit about the blog:
We will do our best to post to the blog on a daily basis and include pictures for all of you to follow our journey. The clock to the left is set for Beijing time (13 hour difference), so you can know what time it is for us while you are reading the posts. There are two weather links- the first is for Beijing which is where we will stay for 3 days, then thankfully we will head off for Guangzhou which is the second link and a marked difference in temperature. We will be in Guangzhou for the remainder of our stay.

Once we have our itinerary and more info I'll post again...until then, I've got some packing to do- thank goodness we've done this before!!

Still waiting...

It is the night before Thanksgiving and time to reflect on how much we all have to be thankful for. Certainly the referral of our daughter Audrey has been a blessing and we are touched each night when Madeleine says a special prayer for her Petunia.

Wondering when we'll know about our travel? Well, you're not alone...so are we! We're still waiting on our Travel Approval. So far, we are experiencing a very typical waiting period, so nothing to be concerned over. Our hope is that we will hear news about our Travel Approval next week and then we'll be ready to secure a Consulate Appointment. Once the CA appointment is confirmed, we will go ahead and book flights. We will leave out of NYC on a thursday, so our best guess right now is possibly the 14th or the 21st of December.

In the meantime, we've had plenty to keep us busy. Amisdt the usual clatter of holiday prepping, shopping and craziness, believe it or not, we had more paperchasing to do. A few days ago we completed our Visa paperwork which is needed to enter and exit China- so that is off to the courier who will bring it to the Embassy and then courier it back to us- we should have those next week as well. It was a big relief to get that portion done.

We are shuffling off to Buffalo tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday and looking forward to squeezing in a visit with family before our other travel plans kick in and we transition to a family of four.

Stay tuned for a TA announcement in the next post.

Madeleine's "Petunia"

Many have asked what Madeleine's response was when we got the news about her baby sister. Well, she's been just adorable!! Madeleine has affectionately named her sister "Petunia". This photo was taken when we showed Madeleine the pictures of her new baby sister and she exclaimed "This is my Petunia??!!" Needless to say, she is as excited as we are to bring her home. My favorite response from her was when we told her we may travel at Christmas time, she thought it would be neat if Santa could give us a ride on his sleigh to China...too cute!

Introducing Madeleine's Mei Mei

We are proud to announce the referral of our daughter, Audrey Zi Xia. Audrey is 9 months old and was born in the Southeastern region in the city of MaoMing, Guangdong Province.

A few fun facts about Audrey: she can sit up by herself, roll over, crawl and much like her sister Madeleine, she loves music and is delighted by looking at herself in the mirror.

Chinese given name: Nan Zi Xia
Translation: Zi= tree, Xia= describes the beautiful colors of the sunset.

We received "the call" on Thursday, 11/2 from our beloved Ming. After a looooong wait, we are overjoyed with this incredible blessing.

Answer to your next question...when will we travel?

Well, after 20 months of waiting, we must wait again.... In order to travel into China, you must receive a "TA", or Travel Approval from the Chinese Government. Typically, TA's arrive approximately 4-5 weeks post-referral. At that point, Ming will work her magic and secure an appointment, "CA" with the American Consulate in Gaungzhou. Once the appointment is confirmed, then our travel arrangements will be made, and we hope to travel a couple weeks later.

So yes...if you do the math, this very well could put us and Santa celebrating together at the White Swan hotel! What an amazing gift.... Our stay in China will be approximately 14-16 days. We are so grateful and excited that my mother has accepted our invitation to travel with us, and of course Madeleine is over the moon excited to meet her little sister. Having a 3 1/2 yr.old and a baby on the plane for 16 hours will certainly be a test of our strength, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

Follow our journey...

We invite you to travel along with us on our journey by following our entries on this site. We will be bringing our laptop to China with us so we will use this blog to post entries about our travels to bring Audrey home.

• Please join us as we chronicle this exciting experience and feel free to share your thoughts with us by posting a comment. To post a comment: click the "comments" button, and if you are a blogger, comment and login with your ID. If you are not a blogger, simply comment and choose "other", but please be sure to tell us who you are in your comment. We look forward to sharing our experience and travels with you!