Gettin Closer to Leaving !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jenn is done with work before we leave, and I have one full day on Friday, and half a day on Saturday at Church Work Day. I have been turning down business left and right   :-(...  But We are going to get Joshua and Bring Him Home.

Here we come Joshua!!!!

We, (well Jenn) is getting everything lined out for packing, I am doing projects around the house. Mowed the lawn tonight, need to spray tomorrow, mix up some round up and kill some weeds,  and, and, and...... Lots to do before Tuesday morning.

Here is our Itinerary:

5/4  - Leave U.S. for Beijing.
5/5  - Arrive in Beijing, Check In at Holiday Inn Downtown.
5/6  - Go to New Hope Foundation, where Joshua spent more than 2 years.
5/7  - Tour Beijing. Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Hutong Tour, and optional acrobatics show
5/8  - Tour Beijing. Great Wall and Ming Tombs
5/9  - Depart Beijing for Zhengzhou, Henan, Check in at  the Crown Plaza Hotel.
5/10 -Take a bus to the registration office to get Joshua.' GOTCHA DAY !!!! '
         This afternoon, all families will sign the Guardianship Agreement.
         Take Registration Certificate photos at local photo shop.
         Return to the hotel. Meet with Yisha or Rita to prepare registration paperwork.
5/11 -Rest or optional group shopping trip to the Lotus Center (same as Wal-mart) in the afternoon.
5/12 -Travel to Jiaozuo in the morning to complete notary paperwork.
5/13 -Free time or rest. Optional tours maybe available please ask Yisha or Rita for details
        -Receive your notary documents in the afternoon.
5/14 -Receive your passports in the morning.
        -Leave Zhengzhou for Guangzhou. Welcomed by CCAI representative. TBA
        -Check In at the Victory Hotel.
5/15 -Have your child’s visa physical and Hague-required immunizations and visa photo taken.
5/16 -Sunday. Free time. Rest, tour, shop. Pay as you go.
5/17 -If applicable, meet with your CCAI representative to have the Tuberculosis test checked.
5/18 -Free time. Rest, tour, shop. Pay as you go.
5/19 -Today is your Consulate appointment.
5/20 -Go to the U.S. Consulate to take the oath in the afternoon.
5/21 -A CCAI representative will go to the U.S. Consulate to receive your child’s visa packet.
5/22 -Check out of your hotel room and be ready to go. Leave Guangzhou for Beijing on Air China.
        -Leave Beijing for the U.S. --WELCOME HOME!

WOWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

Lot's to really take in. This is really first time reading the actual, In China Itinerary, after cutting and pasting to blog, and editing out all the misc details for us.

We will be headed out Soon Joshua!!!!  It will be here before we know IT.

Eric, Jenn & Emma.

We have our Travel Itinerary to and From Beijing!!!!

We booked our Travel Plans to and from China today. We will fly out of Boise to SanFransico morning of May 4th. We will have a 6hr+ lay over in SanFransico, and then fly non-stop to Beijing arriving around 6:00 PM Beijing time on May 5th.   It is hard to wrap our brains around the time frames of international travel. How could we leave one place around 3 in the afternoon, fly for 12 hours, and arrive at your destination the next day around 6 in the evening...........

We are arriving a day earlier than most of our Travel Group #1577 (that we now of), so we can visit New Hope Foundation in Beijing, where Joshua has been.

Ready or not Joshua.....here we come!!!!!!

Pray for Poor Joshua (:-(

We noticed today that Joshua, aka 'Matthew' was no longer on New Hope Foundations website.......  We are hoping he is still there and has not been sent back to his home orphange already.  We are praying he gets to stay there as long as possible, because we don't want him being passed around too much before we get him.

On another note we received our CA Consulate Appointment today, confirming all of our Travel dates of May 4th-22nd.  So now we are trying to get the best possible International Travel Rates and Itinerary without any or too many layovers, to get us home FAST, FAST, FAST!!!!

WE KNOW WHEN WE ARE GOING TO TRAVEL!!!!!!

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TO BE CONTINUED...........................

WE KNOW WHEN WE ARE GOING TO TRAVEL!!!!!! part 2

We got the call from our Agency today with our Travel Approval. We asked to travel in  May because of my busy spring schedule and getting sprinklers up and going/repaired and a few installations before we leave.

So our dates are MAY 04 to MAY 22.

We are planning to go a day early and visit New Hope Foundation outside of Beijing, where Joshua has been the last 2 years. Unfortunately, the Chinese Adoption Affairs will require him to go back to his home province before we travel. So he will not be there when we visit. But we really won't to go and see where he has been the last 2 years and maybe meet some of his caregiviers.

Well, we have four weeks to get everything ready, yard sale, work, setting up Joshua's room, work, packing, work, get new money from bank, work...........................no problems!!! ;-}

We will probably be posting to a new website when we are over there which we will post later, so eveyone can follow along as well.  Only requisite to follow along is you have to post something for us to read as well. :-)

Still Waiting...................................

We are Officially waiting for our Travel Approval. We found out last Monday that the "Article 5" and all of our other Immigration paperwork was sent to Beijing from the consulate in Guangzhou. Which just means all of the Immigration paperwork is finally done.

It is taking anywhere from 2-4 weeks to get the Travel Approval from the CCAA in Beijing (closer to 4 weeks, from what we have been seeing). Soon after the Travel Approval is issued, the fun begins!!!!

That's all we know for now. Thanks for checking in!!!

New Update & Picture of Joshua.............

       Quite a few pictures that we have received of Joshua have been taken in this ball pit. We are beginning to think he spends all of his time there.....

       We also got some updated growth measurements for him too. He is now 35.43" tall (only 3 inches shorter then Emma) and he weighs almost 31 pounds .

        It was fun to get this update and see a new picture of him and how he has changed just a little bit. We are still waiting on immigration paperwork to move us forward in our wait, but still unsure of exactly when.

Eric, Jenn, and Emma.......and soon Joshua.