Consulate Appointment

We have our CA! It is a week later than we had hoped for, but it all works out. Here is a brief glimpse at our itinerary, which I may have to tweak:

8/19 Depart
8/20 Arrive Shanghai
8/22 Arrive Wuhan
8/23 Meet Maisy!! Register and apply for notary and passport
8/24 Register and take notary
8/25 Free day to site see
8/26 Receive notary
8/27 Receive passport
8/28 Fly to Guanghzou
8/29 Free day to site see
8/30 Maisy's medical exam
8/31 Free day to site see
9/1 Interview at consulate
9/2 Take oath at consulate
9/3 Pick up Maisy's visa and take train to Hong Kong
9/4 Hopefully get to do some site seeing in Hong Kong
9/5 Fly Hong Kong to Narita on to Minneapolis/St. Paul
9/5 Arrive MSP at 1:00 pm!!

I had to correct the day we arrive back into Minneapolis/St. Paul. I get so confused by this, but we leave HK on the 5th, cross the international date line, and therefore land here on Sunday the 5th, after flying for almost 18 hours!

Whew! :)

Travel Approval!

It has been a rocky road to get here, but we finally have our travel approval to go to China! We are beyond excited. We had been in touch with our agency because of some "issues" on their side not getting our paperwork done. Told that they hoped to see our TA sometime next week. Late Friday got the call that it was here! I think we are still in shock. Ironically, they wanted to know if we wanted to travel at the end of next week! Uhm, yes, but not possible. We are looking at leaving August 12 and will fly to Shanghai. Hope to spend two nights there and then fly on to Wuhan. Either that first afternoon or next morning, they will bring Maisy to us. For those wondering, yes, she then stays with us forever. We do our province or state paperwork that week. At the end of the week we leave for Guangzhou. There we will complete our paperwork at the US Consulate. Then we fly home! OMG, we are just freaking out now. I think it is finally sinking in. We are going to have another daughter! :) Will keep things posted here until I get the new site up.

We need to paint and clean and go through clothes! So much to do, but all of it worth it!




Attaching our little video of Maisy for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4g8G4VkDhc

Article 5

Celebrate! We have the next step approved! Our Article 5 came in yesterday. We need that paper to get our Travel Approval. We hope to have that in 1-3 weeks. Please think good thoughts that we are on the 1 week side as we were very much on the far end in getting our Article 5. After our Travel Approval, we have get a date for our Consulate Appointment. Once we get our CA, we then can make our travel plans. Did you get all that? :) Let's just say things are rolling in the right direction and we just hope that for each step that can take 1-3 weeks, we get the shorter end of the length of wait. My fingers, toes, legs are crossed that we travel soon. So happy and now feeling like having a bit of a cry :)

Too pooped to party anymore!

Libby decked out in her Spiderman helmet, ready to ride

Birthday celebration, day 2
Libby and Jai "surfing" on the slip n slide

What a weekend! I sit here on Monday morning recovering from three days of sheer fun. We had Sheng and Jai's birthday party on Friday night. Sheng turned 3 and Jai 4. Their parents rented a bouncy castle with slide. You Know Who was in there playing right along with all the rest of the kids. HE then decided to slide down on his tummy and ended up with very ouchy rug burns on his knees. There were "big" boys there (4-7 in age), so you would see all the little girls bouncing, then the boys would come in, shortly later, the girls would exit. Then the boys would leave and the girls go back in to bounce. It was an interesting socialization situation right in front of us and shows you how differently boys and girls play. Saturday, we were invited back for day two of the bouncy castle. It was a lovely night and we got to finally meet a little girl who had been in the same SWI as Sheng and mere 3 weeks apart in age. To think they ended up in the same city on the other side of the world, less than 5 miles apart!

The St. Anthony Park parade was yesterday morning. I sent Eric and Libby off to have fun while I cleaned in peace. I know this sounds lame, but it was so nice to get things done without her highness shouting my name or Eric constantly asking for something. Libby needed a new helmet, so they stopped at Target on the way she picked out a Spiderman one! :) Later that day, we were at our friend Molly's second annual 4th of July party. It was a great party. Christopher, one of Libby's favorites, had been at rocket making camp, so the whole party headed to a park to watch his rockets go up. By 8:00 Libby was all done in from a weekend of parties, and asked to go home! We all slept until 9:00 this morning. Whew!

Future engagement picture or what?

They held hands almost the entire time together-aahhhh

On the Libby front, she is pretty much back to her happy self. Telling her that she was not going to pre-school lifted a weight from her little shoulders. We are trying different tactics with some of her anxieties and they seem to be working. Her separation from me continues to be a struggle, but one step at a time, right?

This evening, I meet my friend LA for drinks, just the two us. It is long overdue and I look forward to catching up and chatting in a nice restaurant with no interruptions!

Enjoy some new pictures from over the weekend. Hope you all had a fun and safe 4th.

Bouncing before Eric took the slide that ended his sliding career
Upside down with Uncle Pat