4/14/08 A Welcome Surprise!

As it turns out, we are traveling a week earlier than previously thought. Our Consulate Appointment was confirmed for the 21st of May, which means that we have to be in the Liaoning Province, where Ling lives, the week before. Our "Gotcha Day", the day we finally meet Ling, is to be either on May 11th (Mother's Day) or Monday, May 12th. She will be with us from that day forward, forever. The following days will be spent filling out paperwork and completing interviews, along with more waiting, shopping and sight seeing.

For those of you that know me (as a highly productive and goal directed person) you would be surprised at how non-productive I have been the last few days since we have heard our travel news. I am absolutely numb (with joy) and overwhelmed with all the emotion. We had to make decisions about our airline tickets, the number of rooms we wanted in China, and how Marty & Cindy (my brother and sister-in-law) will join us in Province. It is a complex process with so many things to think about. Eric has actually done all of the travel arrangements and I am still the one that's exhausted. I have been managing to put dinner on the table and keep the house in some semblance of order.

I received an unexpected call from our agency today with new measurements for Ling. She is 37.8 inches tall and weighs 33 lbs. Her foot length is 5.71", but I have no idea what shoe size that translates to. I will wait to see her to buy her new clothes and shoes. There is a big Wal-Mart in Shenyang where we will go for supplies and such (sorry folks out there who are Anti-WM-you know who you are :)) but that's pretty much the main place to go. Mary Alice insisted that I allow Ling to pick out her own toothbrush at WM. She said that if she were coming from China, that's what she would want.

I have been spending a great deal of time reading other people's blogs who have recently been to China like Somewhere In the Sun or are even in China right now, like A Lady Blog, who just received her daughter today. These people are amazing and reading about them is both inspiring and awesome. I have learned so much from them, although keeping it organized and retrievable for later is very difficult. I know that sounds odd, given that I run a professional organizing business, but for some reason all of this info is so random and in little pieces, it just doesn't fit together. For example, one blogger suggested to bring your own chopsticks (for cleanliness), another said they all needed to have bathing caps for the pool, and another said we need to use a certain website address to view other blogs while in China. All of this is wonderful, useful info, but certainly overwhelming to process. I am just writing list after list and hoping it all comes together.

Thank goodness the kids are on Spring Vacation this week, as I don't have to worry about anything related to school work!!!

Did I mention that we are leaving for China in 24 days????

3/3 We have our Letter Seeking Confirmation!

Dear Megan Ling,

Today we got a call from our agency telling us that we received our Official Referral to adopt you. Great Wall is going to send us papers to sign tomorrow and as soon as we send them back to Great Wall, the Chinese government is going to set up our appointment at the Chinese Consulate so we can get your Visa to bring you home. As soon as they know the date of our appointment they will give us Travel Approval (TA) and then we can arrange our tickets to come to you!

We are so excited to be another step closer to you!

Today, Mary Alice and I worked very hard on a photo album for you with pictures of our family, our home, your room, and many pictures of our cats! (Mary Alice thought that was very important!) Our friends, the Elwoods will give it to your Nannies when they come to China to pick up your friend Ying, next week. Your nannies will read it to you and talk to you about the photos. They will be able to read the chinese captions that we included!

Matthew and Daddy say Hello (Ni Hao) and Kisses (Wen Yi Wen).

Love, Mama

2/7 Prior Approval

Today I received word from Great Wall China Adoption (our agency) that our Prior Approval was completed by the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) on January 30, 2008. That means that they acknowledge receipt of our Letter of Intent (LOI) of January 24, 2008, to adopt Megan Ling, and will begin a final reveiw of our documents to move ahead with the adoption. We have already been through review once, but because we switched to the "waiting child" program from the infant list we have to be reviewed again. It will hopefully go quickly. The next thing we are waiting for is our Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) following review, which is the formal letter from the government approving and confirming our desire to adopt Megan Ling. That will be a joyful day, as it will be the marker that moves us from the referral stage to the travel phase. As Stephanie from Great Wall said today, the LSC is the Golden Ticket!