Our air travel to China was uneventful and actually quite pleasant - never underestimate the importance of the business class upgrade - it really helps. Anyway, we arrived in Beijing, went straight to the hotel and straight to sleep. The next day we met the other families and went on our sightseeing trip in Beijing. Although the photo is historical and from Tian An Men Square, we can't say enough about how modern and completely developed the rest of Beijing is. They really went all out for the Olymipics. We also enjoyed the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. It was a long day and surprisingly a little cold.
Today, we got up at 4:15am to travel down to Nanchang. This trip was also uneventful, and we're now in our hotel only 90 minutes away from finally meeting Natalie. Nanchang is not quite as developed as Beijing, but we're in a great hotel, that has pretty much everything we could need to take care of Natalie. It's also surprisingly cold and rainy here.
More to follow once we get our little girl.
While Sandhya was in New Jersey, she was able to have dinner with her Aunt, her Cousins and Natalie's Cousins. Natalie's Cousins Rebecca and Hannah were very kind to Natalie. They gave her 3 outfits and a coat. One of the outfits says Daddy's Lil' Daisy.
Today, we received our detailed itinerary from Great Wall.
2/27 Land in Beijing at 9:20pm
2/28 Beijing Tour (Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tain An Men Square)
3/1 Fly to Nanchang - Meet Natalie at 3:30pm
3/2 Paperwork (really, that's what it says)
3/3 Shopping for Natalie
3/4 Sightseeing XiangHu Park
3/5 Sightseeing eng Wang Ge
3/6 We get Natalie's Passport
3/7 Fly to Guangzhou
3/8 Sightseeing Chen Family Temple
3/9 Medical Exam and Visa Photos
3/10 Paperwork goes to the US Consulate
3/11 Consulate Appointment (interviews and visa)
3/12 Fly from Guangzhou to Dallas (land in Dallas at 7:45pm)
Since Sandhya is going to be in New Jersey from Sunday to Wednesday, we had to finish our packing tonight. After many checklists and shopping trips, as well as a little time packing, we're ready to go at last. We also went out to dinner with Steve and Liz, who will also be traveling to China in our referral group.
Today, Sandhya's coworkers at GAF threw her a Baby Shower. One of the highlights was when everyone watched the National Geographic documentary "China's Lost Girls". There was also a baby scramble that Sandhya naturally won - after all, she's been concentrating on all things baby related since we got our referral 2 months ago. Everyone at GAF was incredibly generous to us. Thanks for all the warm wishes and support.
Thanks to our Social Worker, Beverley Lewin, we have been connected with Liz and Steve who will be traveling with the same referral group to China. Thier daughter, Hope is also in the same orphanage as Natalie. What's even more interesting is that Hope and Natalie are only about a week apart in age. It's nice that Natalie already has someone to be friends with. We're planning to meet with Steve and Liz on Saturday night.
Today was a very important and long anticipated day for us. We finally received our Consulate Appointment and were able to book our international and intra-China travel. Because our referral group is scheduled to leave February 26th and return March 12th, it was starting to feel like we might run out of time and have to travel with a later group, which would have been very disappointing. Fortunately, everything came together just in time.
We were also very fortunate in booking our international flights. Much to our surprise, we were able to use our miles and travel business class the entire way - and, we were booking within 9 days of departure. Our travel will be on American and Japan Airlines. On our return flights, we'll have a basinette in business class, complete with special baby meals and supplies. Whew, what a relief to have this all sorted out.
We're now extremely excited to be traveling. Beijing here we come!!
Yestersday, we spent several hours baby proofing our house. We never realized we had so many electrical outlets that needed covers. Also, we made several trips to our local Home Depot for other baby proofing supplies such as baby gates, safety latches and chains for the fire places. For those of you who will be visiting us shortly, please note that our pool is fenced off.
This year's Valentine's Day was special. We had Natalie on our minds and dedicated a few hours to orgainzing all the adoption paperwork that we have to take with us to China. How we came about the paperwork is a story in itself - there is a main list and a sub-list that detail all the forms that we had to link to and print from the internet. They include - I-604, DS-230, I-600, I-864, DS-2053, DS-3024, DS-3025, DS-3026 and of course all of our legacy paperwork. We also had to make sure that we had enough copies of our passports, travel visas, passport photos, etc. All said and done, we can cross off the paperwork packing as complete. In the end we reduced 4 piles of loose paper down to one relatively skinny organized folder.
While surfing the net today, we came across a picure of the orphanage where Natalie is currently at. As you see, we are so relieved to know that she is at what appears to be a modern facility. For more pictures of Natalie's orphanage and her home town, please visit: http://tanowitz.typepad.com/photos/fuzhou/0824530r50177.html
Yesterday was a very exciting day for us. We finally received our updated I-171H. This was our 3rd time going through the process. However, this time, we had our referral and our travel authorization, but we needed to have our I-171H updated in order to get our Consulate Appointment. Great Wall has requested our appointment, and we should know sometime next week when we'll finally be going to China. Then again, if we remain with our referral group, we'll be leaving in less than 2 weeks.
After 2 whole weeks of waiting, we have finally received our travel Visas to China. The next step is to receive the I-171H from the US Immigration and get an appointment scheduled at the US Consulate in China.
