Plan B

I'm having issues posting to blogspot so I'm switching over to a new blogging site. You can find us at www.babyjellybeans.com/web/do/site?ID=28141

We're in Beijing

What a long night....but we are finally in China. We landed in Beijing at 4:00 am - almost an hour and a half early. So far we have five families here but more are expected later today and tomorrow.

We pretty much have a free day today to explore. We are meeting our group downstairs in just a few minutes. Tomorrow we go to Tianmen Square, Forbidden City, tour the Silk factory and check out some local restaurants. Our guide wants to make sure we have a true sense of China. How awesome is that?

I'll post more later.

Take care!

It's Travel Day !!!

For the past couple of weeks I've been working and stressing over packing. I've made about four trips to Babies-R-Us and Target over the past couple of days alone. Now, I am very glad to say that the bags are officially packed and zipped and ready. I've triple checked my list and I'm hoping and praying I didn't forget to add anything to it. Of course, at this point both bags weigh right at 40 pounds. The limit is 44 so if we had to make another stop by Target on the way out, we still have about four pounds per bag to spare :-)

Our flight doesn't leave until 9:15 tonight. We fly into LA where we have a two hour layover. From there it's a 12 hour and 40 minute straight shot to Beijing. We are scheduled to arrive at 5:20 am Thursday morning. We'll be in Beijing until Sunday. While we are there we'll get to do a few tours which we are looking forward to. Sunday we fly to Chongqing. In my last post I said we would be getting Ella Sunday but the final itinerary has us picking her up Monday afternoon.

For now, I'm waiting on Rob to get home and trying my best not to take a nap. I took the day off to finish up the packing and getting the house ready for my sis-in-law who is house / dog / cat / fish sitting for us. It all started about 5:00 am and considering the fact neither one of us got a good nights sleep I'm having a hard time keeping the eyes open. Just one more hour before we leave. Guess I should find something else to keep me busy.

A great big THANK YOU

I have to give a great big THANK YOU to my girls at Pacesetter. They threw the shower of all showers for us last week and I can't even begin to imagine how much hard work went it to it all. Thanks guys....love you all and will miss you while we are gone.


I also want to thank all of my PSSI family. Thanks for the gifts, support and never ending advice you have all given me.

Shower Pics

Travel Plans

This will be short, sweet and to the point because I'm mentally tired and need to get to bed.

We found out this morning that our consulate appointment has been confirmed so we were able to officially make our travel arrangements to head to China. We fly out Tuesday, July 28th to Beijing. We get there early on the 29th. The next couple of days will be spent getting acclimated to the time difference and doing some sight seeing. Then we'll fly to Chongqing City Sunday August 2nd which happens to be the day we finally meet Ella. The rest of the trip will be spent finalizing the adoption and bonding with our little girl. Our flight home lands around 6:20 am on August 13th.


Interesting little tidbit...I listed August 2nd as Ella's arrival date on one of our registries.

Man...the past couple of weeks have flown by

Where in the world have the past couple of weeks gone? I've been so busy that it's making things fly by (thank goodness). Since my last post, we have received more background information about Ella along with her latest measurements. She is now 27 " tall, 17 pounds. This puts her in the 25 - 50 percentile in height and 10 - 25 percentile in weight. So, she's a tiny little thing. I would have never guessed it considering her pictures. BTW... one cool little tidbit... her latest measurements were recorded on my birthday.

We've spent lots of time with family and friends over the past couple of weeks. My entire family was together for the Fourth of July weekend. Rob's cousin and her girls (who I adore) are visiting and we've been able to spend some time with them. We've also had friends in from Dublin who have a seven month old. What a lot of fun and a eye opener. Have to say that little girl can steal any one's heart with her little smile.

I have to give a great big THANK YOU to Susan, Dianne and Emily for throwing a baby shower for us last Sunday. Being the center of attention has never been something that I enjoy, but it was so much fun opening all the great gifts from so many people that are just about as excited as we are to bring Ella home.

The only paperwork required over the past week or so dealt with applying for visas. It was a little nerve wracking but we received them within a week. I'm sure Rob is ready for the stress of it all to be done. I've apparently been talking in my sleep lately. Last night it was something to the effect of "but I thought I sent those documents". I actually woke up Wednesday morning and decided I needed to take the day off to ease some of my stress. I spent the day shopping for the trip and buying clothes for Ella. I slept a little better Wednesday night :-)

Now for the latest and greatest news so far....We received our travel approval from China. The last major hurdle has been conquered!! Our agency has requested a consulate appointment for us and hopes to have us traveling to China the last week of July. So, in about a week and a half we should be on our way!! I'll post more as soon as things are finalized.

I wonder what I'll dream about tonight????

Just trying to get ready

Goodness Gracious it's been a crazy couple of weeks.

A couple of days after we received our referral we received the next travel packet from our agency. Included in it was a list of documents that needed to be signed, notarized and sent back to them ASAP. It also included a list of other things that needed to be done like contact the NVC (National Visa Center) to make sure USCIS sent our case to them. So...I called NVC and found out they did not have a record of our case. Wow...not exactly what I expected to hear. Needless to say, CCAI (our agency) received a call. I was told that sometimes it's better to email NVC so I did and for good measure I attached a copy of the I-797 (our governments formal approval for us to adopt which explicitly stated that the documents were sent to the NVC). The good thing is it didn't take long for them to respond. The bad thing is they still said they didn't have a record of our case.

The next step...a phone call to USCIS. Apparently the rep on the other end of the line was trained to read word for word the documentation in front of her in a very monotone voice (gotta love government). In that very monotone reading I was told that I would need to email the local office of the USCIS. Fortunately, she was able to get the address for me.

So...I email the local office attaching the I-797 (again for good measure). In this email I explained how anxious we were to make sure all the paperwork was in order before we leave. I also asked that they send the appropriate paperwork to the NVC. Believe it or not, I received a response within a couple of hours. A very pleasant surprise. The response was "We did mail the I-600A packet to the NVC on March 5, 2009. It was never returned to our office as undeliverable. Have you contacted the consulate?"

You know, I usually consider myself a fairly patient person but this just about sent me over the edge. Have I contacted the consulate? Are you kidding? Come on!! How about just resubmitting the paperwork. How hard could that possibly be?

OK...deep breathes. Being ugly in a reply isn't going to get us anywhere. Instead I politely replied and said I wouldn't know how to get in touch with the consulate or who I would talk to. I then asked if he had any suggestions. That was about 3:30 this afternoon. I didn't receive a reply and considering the holiday probably won't hear anything until next week.

On a lighter note, for months we've been holding off on buying anything for Ella because we just didn't know how old she would be or how big. And considering the baby showers that are being planned by both family and friends I had to take the time and register. I'm really surprised at how overwhelmed I was. Thank goodness for my friend Cindy. She isn't too far removed from having to deal with a baby and the things that make life easier. She, along with my niece, Ali, made the whole process a little easier. I really don't like being the center of attention, but I'm really looking forward to the showers. It does my heart good to share this experience with the people who have been waiting with us.