In My Possession

Guess what we got?!?!

It was delivered at 11:23 this morning, Friday, July 27....

That's right! TA baby! Travel Approval. In. My. Hands!! Seventeen days until we leave. Twenty-three until we are holding our little boy. We're almost on our way!

General Itinerary

I cannot promise this post will be coherent. Skip this next section for the short version {Last night I was pretty worked up and couldn't get to sleep right away (as evidenced by my late night blog). I finally went to bed around 1:00 and still sleep was elusive. The last time I glanced at the clock? 1:45. *SIGH* Shortly thereafter, though, something woke me up. It was the absence of sound. Now, anybody who knows me knows that I simply canNOT sleep without white noise. Well, the fan stopped -- probably due in large part to the fact that the electricity was off -- so I was awake. So was Troy. On an amusing side note, Troy thought he'd gone blind. :D He said he freaked out because the stopping of the fan woke him as well, but when he opened his eyes and saw NOTHING, his first reaction was, Oh no! I lost my sight because I didn't take my contacts out before I went to bed. Oh Troy! We roamed around the house with flashlights, noting that our block was without electricty (still don't know why), called the power company to notify them, and finally went back to bed after locating my white noise machine. Once again, sleep evaded me. Finally at 5:15 (almost precisely the time Excel indicated power would be restored -- interesting) the power did come back on. Sleep at last - until 9:00. That's the long version of why this might not make sense.} I didn't get much sleep last night!

Here is our itinerary:

LV: FSD Tues, Aug. 14 @ 10:14 A.M.
AR: ORD Tues, Aug. 14 @ 11:50 A.M.
LV: ORD Tues, Aug. 14 @ 1:37 P.M.
AR: HKG Wed, Aug. 15 @ 5:55 P.M.

We will be in Hong Kong for two days to acclimate to the 13 hour time change as well as the take in the culture. We will leave on August 18 and head to Changchun, Jilin, where Ethan is! On August 20, we will get him!! After adopting Ethan, getting his Chinese passport and completing some other paperwork, we will go to Guangzhou to get his visa to go to America. We go Guangzhou on August 24. Our consulate appointment is August 28 and on August 29 we will get the visa. That night we will return to Hong Kong. We will leave Hong Kong and return, as a family of FOUR on August 30.

LV: HKG Thur, Aug. 30 @ 11:10 A.M.
AR: ORD Thur, Aug. 30 @ 12:35 P.M. -- ETHAN = U.S. CITIZEN!
LV: ORD Thur, Aug. 30 @ 5:20 P.M.
AR: FSD Thur, Aug. 30 @ 6:52 P.M. -- HOME!!!!!!!!!

More details to follow, but we are one step closer to going over to get our baby! <3

FINALLY!!

After eleven very long months, we got the good word today. We are headed to China! Today has been pretty intense. I was supposed to sit in on interviews, but that was delayed. Troy asked me after he took Aiden to daycare, "Are you going in to school?" I replied, "You know as soon as I do, we'll get the call that we got our consulate appointment, and I will have to start the intense work of QUICKLY finding airfare, trying to get the appropriate lodging, and locating the right in-country transportation -- among other things!" Somewhere around lunch time, I started to think I had underestimated the amount of time from TA to CA, and thought I should get my butt in gear and head in to school to work on lesson plans. No sooner had I made that decision (and posted a question on facebook to my Dossier to China Winter group questioning when I could reasonably start to freak out about not hearing any news regarding our travel dates) I got an email from our travel guru at our agency. It read,
"Dear China Family: We are happy to announce the confirmed travel dates for your adoption trip."
I screamed at the top of my lungs, probably something incoherent, to Troy. I'm pretty sure, however, that he knew immediately what I was bellowing about. The gist of the email was, there are four families going to the same province as we are (luckily our Omaha support-couple will be going at the same time) on the same dates. We will leave August 14 and will be returning August 30. I can't believe it. I'm still a little stunned. After that email, the day kind of became a blur. I contacted a travel agent about airfare (Oy! Turns out airfare to Asia on 3 week's notice is NOT cheap), emailed our in-country travel agency about our dates, sent text messages to pretty much everybody I know who owns a cell phone and posted on facebook for those to whom I did not text, looked into redeeming our pathetic one free night with Marriott, discussed with "E" the likelihood of staying at an alternative hotel in our province....well....you get the idea! And, somehwere in there, I got a hold of Jeffy G and informed him that, since he was with us to celebrate our first CA, he had to join us for this one. And join us he did. Naturally, we went to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate our imminent travel to China. :/ Then, it was back home to work on travel plans again, make supper for my boys, and see Troy off for some big boy time, and go for a walk with Aiden. Then, as a nice capper to an incredible day, I got to go see my Aunts Ethel, Sheila, and Polly and Uncles Bill, Walt, John, and Ron.
Now, here I sit, updating my blog instead of getting some much needed sleep. Turns out I may still be a little hyped up. I'm ready to go get Ethan today!! But, if you can believe it, we WILL be leaving in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS!!! As Aiden would say: Howy Tow! Tomorrow I will post our tentative itinerary and other (ir)relevant information. In the meantime, I am off to bed as there is still SO much to do -- sign up for webinars and conference calls, book hotels, contact in-country travel agents to confirm hotels and people for flights, work on airport transfers, get credit card information to another set of travel agents, exchange money, make doc appts prior to leaving, arrange insurance..... If this was audio, my voice would be fading out as dramatic music rose in the back ground, but it's not, so I'll say, that's all for now. More later!!! Oh yeah. And. YAY!!!!

Seven Months

A random bit of information: today marks seven months since we saw Ethan's face for the first time. Seven months ago we got his referral. At times (maybe my less-than-lucid moments), I look back and actually think, "Wow! That much time has already passed?" Of course, more frequently it feels like time has slogged by: the pain and fear of wondering if we'd get our dossier logged in time to lock Ethan's referral; the excrutiating 105 day LOA wait; the eternal paperwork, organzing, and preparation -- seven months in the making. Now, God willing, we are down to less than a month before we see those kissable, adorable cheeks. Prayerfully it will be about three weeks when I can look into those gorgeous brown eyes in person. Hopefully, on the one year anniversary of starting this process, I will be holding my beautiful little boy in my arms. The timing seems harmonious, and I pray it works. I'm ready for this wait to be over! Fortunately, we have our TA and are almost there.

Above are our pictures from our Friday TA "celebration." I know the quality is poor and I look awful (keep in mind I'd been outside playing on a waterslide for about 5 hours that day on a scorchingly hot day -- oh, and I'm OLD), but that was the extent of our festivities. After my screaming and jumping up and down subsided, Dad and I had an N/A. I guess we'll doing something more profound once we receive our CA dates, right...??? ;)

Two of the Most Beautiful Letters...

TA!!!

Yesterday morning (Friday, July 20) I woke up feeling tense, excited, nervous.... The first thing I thought of was, "We got our Article 5 last week. I know it would be fast to get our travel approval, but I just KNOW today is the day." I was out of sorts all day and felt a litte, well, off. We got Aiden to daycare, albiet late, and I eventually went over to Jenny F's to celebrate her birthday. She had gotten a 19 foot waterslide for the weekend, and who am I to turn my nose up at "children's games?" It was fun, but I kept checking my phone. My confidence at getting our approval was starting to wane. I may have texted a fellow Changchun adoptive parent a couple of times. It may have gone a little something like this.

Me: "Ach."
E: "Ummmm. What?"
Me: "No TA? It's noon. I was waiting for a call from you." "AND no update? Really? Ach!"

I was advised to partake of some liquid patience / calm. It worked. To an extent. However, as most people know, the more you try to put something OUT of your mind, the closer to the forefront it moves. Aiden came to play with the other kids (and me) around 3:30 when my mom and dad, down a night early so we could attend the Blue Angels Saturday, and Troy brought him over. It helped to distract me, but my mind kept returning to the prospect of a VERY long weekend with no TA. Around 4:00 I got a text from my fellow email / telephone stalker and mom-in-waiting.

E: "You know....I did not get my loa call until 5 pm. Just sayin"
Me: ":) How well I remember! Fingers crossed!" "PS our first TA for Aiden was around 5 actually."
E: "Well just keep busy on that slide and perhaps we will get the Call...A watched pot never boils!!"
Me: "I HAD forgotten it but thanks for brining it up :P"
E: "Happy to help!" (One does have to wonder why I want to travel with this sadist...)

At 6:00 I brought Aiden home to have pizza and spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. Obviously we weren't getting our TA; I did my best to forget about it. We ate and settled in to watch TV, or at least Troy & I did. Mom, Dad and Aiden were playing. My phone dinged once and I ignored it. It dinged again. I again failed to respond. Troy was rubbing my neck, and I was loathe to interrupt that. On the third notification, Troy made some smart remark about my "popularity," so I finally got up to see who it was. One of the notifications had been a text.

It was from E: "....Check your email. I did not get a call!"

So, check my email I did. Apparently, one of those notifications had been an email. From Holt. This is what I found.

Subj: Travel Approvals Have Arrived
Fri 7/20 6:23 PM
Dear China Families:

We are happy to let you know that your travel approval has arrived. Travel approvals do not come with travel dates but we are working with our staff in China to arrange your schedule as soon as possible.

So, to make a short story long, we have been approved to travel to China to get Ethan and bring him home. We can't know until we get our Consulate Appointment -- the LAST step in this arduous process -- when that will be, but we are praying to leave in the August 15 travel group. Inconvenient in regards to school and finances? Yes. Do I care at this point? NO! It's time to go get our son!

A side note. If we make the Aug. 15 group and get Ethan on the 19th, it will be one year to the day since we started this journey. :) We filled out our application to Holt on August 19, 2011. Seems to me that would be Apropos!

Officially Awaiting TA

Yesterday we got the following email:

Dear Sturgeon Family:

Congratulations on receiving your Article 5! You may already have received notification directly from the U.S. Consulate that the Article 5 was ready but our China staff confirmed today that they sent it to Beijing so the CCCWA can process your travel approval.

Your travel approval, sent by the CCCWA in duplicate to our Eugene office via express international mail, should arrive within three weeks and we will notify you immediately when it does.

Even though the average time to arrival in China from getting the Article 5 averages six weeks, now is the time to start travel planning. We strongly encourage you to contact Lotus Travel now so they can start a record for your family to make arranging your trip easier when your travel approval arrives.

In a nutshell, our Consulate has said everything is in order for this adoption and now we are waiting for China to say we can go get Ethan. It. Is. HAPPENING! The timeframes given above -- 3 weeks to TA and 6 weeks to actual travel -- are actually on the very conservative side! Now, that's not to say we won't wait the maximum for both, but many TAs are coming in 7 - 10 days, and that gives us very real hope to be traveling in the mid-August group. Before I had stated that that would be a very inoportune time to go (start of school, missing in-service money, higher airfare costs, etc), but then I got to thinking. Inoportune time? To go get my son who is waiting in China? Who we have been waiting to go get since we first saw his face December 22, 2011 -- and before? Like when we started this whole crazy process back in August, 2011! I got to thinking, who am I to second guess His timing anyway?! If we get to go August 15, I will be ELATED!!!! Freaking out, but elated! **Have I mentioned I don't have my lesson plans started for my substitute yet.....**

Ethan, my beautiful little boy, we are almost on our way!

Waiting on our A5

As of June 27 / 28, we started waiting for our Article 5 pick up. What does this mean? Well, it means once that is done, we only have, essentially, 1+ step to go! I say 1+ because after A5 pick up, we are waiting on the PRC to give us our travel approval (TA) and (kind of) along with that comes the consulate appointment (CA). I am hopeful that our Article 5 will come on Thursday, July 12, but suspect that because of the 4th of July holiday, it will come Friday, July 13. Then, if the trend continues, we could possibly get our TA inside of 2 weeks!! :-O That would mean we'd be approved by the 27th of July. If it comes that early, we can assume we would be headed to China by the middle of August! Ho. Ly. COW! Want to know the irony of this whole process? It feels like everything. D R A G S.....A L O N G. Then, all of a sudden? It's here. Well. It's very nearly here!!! To make it even more real, we got our visas in the mail the other day.

Ethan, honey, we are getting so close!! Hold on little man, we're coming to get you! <3