I have been a little behind in updating my blog. Things have been happening fast, finally, and we are in the home stretch. Our TA (travel approval) came on June 5th, only 13 days after our Article 5 pickup. I am thankful that it came so quickly considering some of our more recent slowdowns. I thought after receiving TA I would be relieved and finally be able to relax, but I was wrong because getting TA just meant another painful wait though thankfully not as long. And it meant a whole new kind of stress. As soon as our agency had our TA in their hands they called us and asked us when do we want to go. Some people choose to go the following week and some wait because they have other commitments. In a way, things worked out perfectly for us because now we could go right after Devin finishes his class without having to be the ones to delay our travel. We had to give our agency 5 consulate appointment (CA) dates and they would try to get us scheduled for one of those. So began a grueling, stressful, agonizing, nail biting 30 hours. The agency finally called me at 11:40 p.m. on June 6th, right after I started to drift off to sleep (I haven’t been sleeping well) and informed me that we were given our second choice of July 5th for our CA. Good and Bad. Good because we don’t have to wait another week, but bad because it means we have to stay in China for an extra 2 days. I don’t care, I just want to go get our daughter and come home.
After confirming our CA we were allowed to book our travel, both our international flights as well as our hotels and in country flights. Did I mention this was stressful? I used Todd who is well known in the adoption circles to get good rates and the best flight plans…BUT we only were given two choices…and they were both OUTRAGIOUS. Now this is not Todd’s fault, not at all. This is because summer is a very busy time to fly to China and the rates are doubled. Seats were nearly impossible to find, but we did finally get flights out on Korean Air for June 20th. I have heard great things about the airline and if it is half as good as I have heard then we should be golden. Our agency partners with a travel agent in China and she worked her magic and got us our flights in China and our hotels for 16 nights. We will be traveling to Beijing, Xining and Guangzhou. Of course, as is typical with our luck, the weekend we are arriving is a public holiday, Dragon Boat Festival, so hotels are nearly booked and more expensive than other dates. It just doesn’t matter anymore…I just want to go.
But now, well now I am panicking. I don’t have enough time. How can I possibly get everything done that I want and need to get done? I have work to tie up, clean my house, pack, pack, pack. And along the way, I keep realizing I am missing things and having to buy them…cell phone rental, VPN, swim caps, converter, medicines, suitcases, car seat. I have only a few more things to get, which is a good thing because we only have 9 more days before we leave. NINE. Here comes the panic again.
I would like to say thank you to the Facebook group I belong to, DTC Winter, because without them I probably would not be as ready and organized as I am right now. But then again, without them, I would probably spend less time reading all the great posts and might actually clean my house. I am not overly active on the group, but they are a great group of people and I am really looking forward to traveling with some of them.
I will be back before we leave….
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