Intra-China Travel Itinerary

We should be getting our complete travel itinerary any day now.  From news that we got yesterday it looks like we might be getting Celia on August 9th at 4:00PM at our hotel. We will let you know as soon as we find out.

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Our Travel Itinerary

We just received confirmation of our travel arrangements.

8/6 - Depart US

8/7 - Arrive in Beijing

8/8 - We will take a tour of Beijing

8/9 - We will fly to Jiangxi Province (where Celia lives)

8/10 - GOTCHA DAY!!!!! (Best day of the whole trip)

8/15 - We will fly to Guangzhou

8/19 - American Consulate appointment

8/20 - We will go to American Consulate to pick up her passport and visa and take oath in the afternoon.

8/21 - Depart from Shanghai back to the US

We have already bought our tickets so this is set in stone. We are ELATED!!!!

We will have more details in the days to follow!

TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!

We just received our TA from GWCA! Nancy, our travel advisor just called and told us that she has to make our consulate appointment and that our tentative date of travel is August 7th, 2009. If this date sticks then we will be in Beijing August 7th, travel to Celia's province and get her on August the 9th or 10th, travel to Guangzhou August 15th, go to our Consulate appointment on August 18th and travel back to the US on August 19th. WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

Visa Applications

Last week we received our visa application forms to fill out on Tuesday and were told that we had to have them back to GWCA by Monday, the 13th. On Wednesday I e-mailed back and forth to our travel advisor to make sure that we were filling out the forms correctly and then on Thursday my dad took them and filled them out on the computer because they had to be typed. Just getting them typed was a crazy story in itself. After he got them typed he brought them to me in Hendersonville at work and then I took my lunch break, which ended up being about 3 hours, and took them to Greg at his work in Gallatin to sign. I then headed back to Goodlettsville to the FEDEX store and had them sent overnight. After that I got on the bypass, which has traffic backed up from one exit to the next and my gas light comes on. I pray the entire time on the bypass explaining to God that I know it was my fault that I didn't get gas but could He please let me make it to the gas station. I MADE IT!!! So I am pumping my gas and praising God at the same time. I then head back to work and finish my day. Friday, I was tracking our FEDEX package and it got to GWCA at 8:19 AM. I then e-mailed GWCA and made sure that they received the package, which they did. Greg told me later that I could write a whole book just on my experiences on Thursday. Next step: TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS!!!! YIPEEEEE!!!!!!

New Picture

We just received a new picture of Celia today from the lady in China that sent her our care package. We think that the picture was taken at the end of June. Ann also sent us her new measurements and told us that she has 2 teeth on the top and none on the bottom. We are now working with our travel advisor to get some things in order to get us prepared for travel. The travel advisor has informed us that she expects us to travel in August around the 14th. We are so excited and we have fallen in love with yet another picture. ISN'T SHE THE CUTEST!!!!