In China Update, Dry Run, and Oh Yeah, The Song

Well, in case you haven't noticed our timeline on the side, we did receive our TA on Nov. 8.  After a whirlwind couple of days of communicating with WACAP and Sue Sorrels, who is a travel agent who specializes in setting up this type of travel for adoptive families, we set up a rough plan for while in China and purchased our tickets to China.  We will be leaving Hartford at 7:06 am on Wednesday, Nov. 28 and arriving in Beijing at 3:40 pm on Thursday courtesy of losing 12 hours due to the time change.  Both coming and going we will be laying over in Chicago, which really becomes a blessing on the way home on December 13 because we have a 5 hour layover, and even with needing 2 hours or so to clear customs with Juliana we will be able to meet with our Chicago area family members for an hour or two before the final leg of our journey back home.

We are in the process of communicating with 3 families we have come in contact with over the past few weeks and will be trying to meet up with them both in Beijing and Guangzhou.  WACAP has us travelling with two other families who have consulate appointments on Dec. 11 with us, but those communications have been not as fruitful as the relationships Steve has established via the Rumor Queen website where many of us adoptive families hang out on line to share information and cheer each other on.  That website has been invaluable for learning about the entire process, both on the US side and the China side.

We did our first packing dry run the middle of last week, and it exposed some shortcomings in our plans.  The first bag we weighed came in at 51.5 pounds, 1.5 over for our United flight to China and 7.5 pounds over for our domestic China flight ( a 44 pound maximum in China.)  So a little bit has been purged, Steve's carry on is gaining a few items, and some serious rearranging has begun.  Everyone who has done this says pack light ----- easier said then done.

Now we have to start gathering up all of the papers we will need to take with, take care of wiring the orphanage donation and adoption processing fees to China (to lighten the load of cash we would need to take otherwise), and before we forget, get ready for Thanksgiving too.

Thanks to the willingness of some of the members of the Our Savior Lutheran Church Worship Team to give up an evening of their time, the recording of Juliana's song had made significant progress.  Steve is looking to do one more vocal tracking session and then all recording will be done.  The bulk of the mixing is all set, so hopefully after the final recording session is completed it will be only a matter of a day or so before Steve unleashes his latest creation on an unsuspecting world.  We are very happy to have a theme song for our trip and for our new daughter, and I really like how this recording is turning out.  It is a true blessing to have friends who can share their time and talents to bring a project like this together.  To Kev~O, Mr. Fred, and Mr. Pete many thanks.  You guys made this song far better than I had imagined it would sound.

Until next time, it's T minus 10 days and counting down faster and faster.                                                                                                                                      Posted by Steve