We're in Beijing!

The plane ride turned out to not be as touturesome as we had feared.  The only problem was that these two hay seeds from Wyoming sat across from us and, after they dimmed the lights and had everyone pull down the blinds so everyone could sleep, the husband kept pulling up his blind to look out literally every five minutes.  Every time he did it, I woke up.  I was ready to reach over and choke his scruffy, whiskered neck!  And he was the only one on the plane doing it!  But the food was OK and the flight crew was excellent.  Airlines in the US could learn something about service and courtesy from Korean Air.

We arrived in Beijing just a few minutes late.  Once we cleared Customs and got out to the Arrival Hall at the airport, our guide hadn't gotten there yet.  We were stressing just a little bit but she was there within about 5 minutes after we got out there.  She seems very nice and she showed us to the van and we loaded up and headed to the hotel.

We got to the Jianguo Hotel around 9:30 and checked in.  On the ride in I was relieved to see that there was a Pizza Hut and a McDonalds within walking distance of the hotel.  Thank goodness.  I will definitely be trying the local cuisine but it is nice knowing I'll be able to get a taste of home if I need it.

Today, it's a half day of touring Beijing.  We're going to go to the Temple of Heaven and then we might go to the Silk Market.  It's only a half a day so we'll be able to ease into this tourist thing.  I slept like a mummy last night so, right now, I feel rested and ready.  A few minutes of primping and then off to try the breakfast buffet.  Only 3 more days and we get our little "souvenir."

On the way to Seattle...

Nerd's paradise: free wifi on the flight. I need to get out more...

We'll be in Beijing in a mere 17 hours or so. It'll fly right by... Ugh...

We have our travel dates!

We are leaving on 8/31! We will have a couple of days of touring in Beijing before flying on to Shanghai on 9/4. "Gotcha day" is set for Monday, Sept 5th. We will meet and take Kaia at either our hotel or the Civil Affairs office. We aren't yet sure if we will be able to tour the orphanage or not.

8/31 Depart Las Vegas
9/1 Arrive in Beijing
9/2 Tour Beijing
9/3 Tour Beijing
9/4 Fly to Shanghai
9/5 Gotcha Day
9/6 Paperwork
9/7 Tour Shanghai
9/8 Tour Shanghai
9/9 Pick up passport and fly to Guangzhou
9/10 Kaia's medical exam and TB test
9/11 Tour Guangzhou
9/12 TB test results and touring
9/13 Visa application and oath ceremony
9/14 Pick up Kaia's Visa
9/15 (open day)
9/16 Drive to Hong Kong airport and depart

MORE Pictures!

I'm sorry but these are too dang cute not to share all of them.  Kaia looks so happy in these.  Her world is gonna get rocked in a month or so.  I just hope Kristin and I can substitute for her little buddies she's sharing the cake with in these pictures.  I mean, we both like cake too...  A LOT.

August 4 Update

We received some new pictures after we had a cake sent to Kaia. We don't know yet if she knows about us. We also received updated measurements so I hope I get the right size clothing. No info on her foot size, so it will be a guessing game on shoes. She is now 42 inches tall and weighs 35 pounds. We are expecting our approval to travel in the next 1-4 weeks

We haven't received any updates yet, but another family was in Shanghai this week finalizing their adoption and they were kind enough to take some photos of other children they saw there. We found a picture of Kaia in there! We are expecting to travel in about 5 weeks.

We are almost there! We have some documents being dropped off today at the US Embassy in China which take about 2 weeks for processing. Then we wait 1-4 weeks for China to send us an official letter inviting us to come and pick up Kaia, with 3 weeks being the average wait time. Once we receive that we schedule our appointment with the embassy and arrange our travel. As of right now, we expect to leave in about 6 weeks or so.