T.A.-duh!

Our Travel Approval arrived today. We are nearly certain that we'll leave on the 10th of July. We are now waiting for our Consulate Appointment. Always something huh? But once we get that we will be told our travel dates. Then I have to scurry around to get our flights booked. The next 2 weeks will be a whilrwind. I'm feeling quite feel peaceful and serene about everything right now. Ha! We'll see how long that lasts!

Finding Ad

We finally received Sunder's Finding Ad today from Brian at Research China. This was a breath of fresh air since we are still waiting for TA after 4 weeks. This picture was probably taken at around 9 months old. This will be the oldest piece of information we will ever have of her, so it is so important to us. It is weird how deep our feelings are for the little girl in these pictures, and yet we know absolutely nothing of what she is really like or what kind of personality she has. It's a strange feeling.

Fingers are still crossed to receive TA this week. Otherwise, our departure will be pushed back a week to July 17th. Of course we are still thrilled to be traveling in July, as we initially though it would be autumn. So we really can't complain. (but I'm going to anyway)

Finishing the Marathon (hopefully)

This adoption has been like running a marathon. I know we are close to the end, but we can't quite see the finish line. I am weary. Waiting for travel approval has been so difficult. So close and yet so far. I predict TA will come next week and that we'll be heading to China around July 10th. But in the meantime, I continue trucking along.

Luckily, we escaped to the mountains for 4 days, just the 2 of us. It was heaven.

Our house is nearly reassembled after the carpet install. Sunder's room is almost done. It just needs curtains, and the crib is coming next week. We were so excited to get an update on her last week, but so disappointed when all it contained was new measurements, no pictures. When we finally meet this little one, she will be 10 months older than the only photos we have of her. I know it sounds petty, but at this point you grasp on to any little thing you can.

I am trying to stay busy and keep the idle brain occupied. Luckily, I have two work projects to complete before we go to China, so that will keep me productive.
Pics are from Our Escape to the Mountains

Shift in Mentality

We've had our referral for a month now. It's been funny to see the mental stages we have gone through. The first 2 weeks was total La-La Land. Every 5 seconds I would think, " We have our referral!!!" I could not thing about anything else. In week 3 my brain started to settle. The general thought was, " Ok, this is really happening now." In week 4 it was was, "Yikes! I have 20 bizillion things to get done in the next few weeks."

Yesterday we had new carpet installed in our house. My office is moving to the basement storage room! My former office will now be the baby's room. As for storage, well, we no longer have any. Not sure how that will work out yet :) I am no longer euphoric about our referral. The house is almost ready and she just turned 23 months over the weekend. I am really ready to just go get her at this point. Hoping for travel approval in the next 2 weeks.

To China with Love

Last week we sent a care package to Qiao Yang. She should receive it next week sometime. Riley and I had a blast picking out the items. My favorite is the telephone. Her paperwork said her favorite toy is a telephone. On this one, you can record a little message. So if she pushes the right button, she will hear Riley and me saying , "Nihao, Yang Yang." Hopefully it doesn't frighten her too much:)

In other news, I heard from Brian Stuy at Research China. He was able to locate Qiao Yang's finding ad. The finding ad is a photo of the baby published in the China-local newspaper. It is the attempt to locate the birthparents. Most importantly, the photo is several months earlier that the referral photos we currently have. This ad is likely the earliest documentation we will ever have of our daughter. I cannot wait for it to arrive. When we were in China last time, they gave us a copy of the finding ad, but it was just a description. There was no photo. So I know this will be very precious to us.

More Paperwork More Waiting

Wanted to give y'all a quick update on where we're at. We finished the next wave of paperwork so now we're back to waiting. We are now waiting for our visas to come in and our Travel Approval (TA). There is a group who got their Letter of Acceptance 10 days before us. Some people are speculating that China will combine our group with their group. If that happens, we could be going to China in late June. Gasp! Otherwise, I think it will be mid-July.

This weekend we are clearing out portions of our house as we are getting new carpet on Monday. Also, there is the small challenge that we didn't expect to travel until late fall, so we don't even have the baby's room started yet and... we certainly don't have all the money pulled together yet. Hmmmm, should be an interesting couple of weeks.