Thursday, May 30, 2013
Meet and Greet
To all who have followed us in this journey we are happy to finally present our children to you! On Saturday June 29th we will have a casual meet and greet at Beckley Creek Park to introduce Ayla and Isaac to our family and friends. We are so grateful for your support over the years and wish to share this time with you over cake and refreshments on (hopefully) a beautiful day at the park! Open house style, drop in for a minute or stay for a while!
We will be in the PWC Pavilion from 11am - 2 pm. There is a great park with a splash pad, walking track and Floyds Fork Creek. This park is really nice.
DIRECTIONS TO PWC PAVILION:
SCENIC ROUTE THROUGH THE PARK
• Take I-64 East to exit 19B to merge onto I-265N/Gene Snyder Fwy
• Take exit 27 for US-60/Shelbyville Rd toward Middletown/Eastwood
• Turn right off the exit onto US-60 E/Shelbyville Rd
• Drive approximately 1.5 miles and enter the park on the right across from Valhalla Golf Course
• Follow Beckley Creek Parkway approximately 1.5 miles past William F. Miles Lakes, around the Egg Lawn to Creekside Center
• Follow signs to Creekside Center
ALTERNATE ROUTE
• Take I-64 East to exit 19B to merge onto I-265N/Gene Snyder Fwy
• Take exit 27 for US-60/Shelbyville Rd toward Middletown/Eastwood
• Go right off the exit onto US-60 E/Shelbyville Rd
• Take a right onto S. Beckley Station Rd
• Travel about1 mile to park entrance on left
• Follow signs to Creekside Center
Hope to see you there!!
We leave tomorrow!
We leave tomorrow. We.Leave.Tomorrow. OMG!
We hope to blog on the regular basis but that will depend on the internet access. We will meet the kids Monday (which will be while you are sleeping Sunday night)!
Everyone and anyone is welcome to meet us at the airport on June 19. I can't promise we won't be a hot mess...or cranky....or very sleepy :) I am sure we will be running on adrenaline and will happy to be home.
Flight home is
Detroit to Louisville
Delta 6135
Arrives 11:06 pm
June 19
Here is a little break down of the next few days - fly out tomorrow bright and early, few hour lay over in Detroit and head to Beijing. Due to the time change we will arrive in Beijing at 2:40 pm Saturday. Sleep a little then get back up and fly to Henan Sunday. Meet the kids Monday!!
Off to pack!
We hope to blog on the regular basis but that will depend on the internet access. We will meet the kids Monday (which will be while you are sleeping Sunday night)!
Everyone and anyone is welcome to meet us at the airport on June 19. I can't promise we won't be a hot mess...or cranky....or very sleepy :) I am sure we will be running on adrenaline and will happy to be home.
Flight home is
Detroit to Louisville
Delta 6135
Arrives 11:06 pm
June 19
Here is a little break down of the next few days - fly out tomorrow bright and early, few hour lay over in Detroit and head to Beijing. Due to the time change we will arrive in Beijing at 2:40 pm Saturday. Sleep a little then get back up and fly to Henan Sunday. Meet the kids Monday!!
Off to pack!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
What happens next?
We received our travel approval yesterday (but feels like a week ago) and have been busy making plans. Today we received our US Consulate appointment. This appointment is at the US Embassy in Guangzhou and will include medicals, interviews and then the children will be issued visas to enter the US.
What else will we be doing? We will leave on a Friday, arrive in Beijing on Saturday, fly to Zhengzhou Henan on Sunday and Family Day will be Monday! Following family day we will complete official adoption paperwork, visit Anyang and Xuchang, gather passports and some other meetings. We will then travel to Guangzhou for the second portion of our trip that will be centered around the US Embassy appointment. After that....we are headed HOME!
The trip will be approximately 21 days in length. We originally thought our trip would be be 18 days but there is a holiday in the middle that will increase the length by a few days. That is a "delay" we can totally handle!
We are so excited, overwhelmed and still in a little shock that this is actually going to happen! All these years we have been preparing for nothing. Gathering documents, paying money, investing EVERYTHING into adoptions that didn't end in actual adoptions. This is new territory for us and we will be leaving for China is such a short amount of time.
We are so excited and hope to blog while we are gone. More details to come!
What else will we be doing? We will leave on a Friday, arrive in Beijing on Saturday, fly to Zhengzhou Henan on Sunday and Family Day will be Monday! Following family day we will complete official adoption paperwork, visit Anyang and Xuchang, gather passports and some other meetings. We will then travel to Guangzhou for the second portion of our trip that will be centered around the US Embassy appointment. After that....we are headed HOME!
The trip will be approximately 21 days in length. We originally thought our trip would be be 18 days but there is a holiday in the middle that will increase the length by a few days. That is a "delay" we can totally handle!
We are so excited, overwhelmed and still in a little shock that this is actually going to happen! All these years we have been preparing for nothing. Gathering documents, paying money, investing EVERYTHING into adoptions that didn't end in actual adoptions. This is new territory for us and we will be leaving for China is such a short amount of time.
We are so excited and hope to blog while we are gone. More details to come!
Monday, May 20, 2013
New photo
The newest photo we have of our sweet Ayla. Tomorrow will be day 15 of our TA wait. We have to be getting closer but there is no way to predict our travel date at this time. Some TAs come fast, some come slow. Maybe tomorrow. It would have been great to have one "fast" thing in this process....or even "average".
We think that this is Ayla's passport photo.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Yeah Really
Where are we now?
Once we received our I800 approval all of our documents were delivered to the US Embassy in Guangzhou. This included the visa applications for A and I to enter the US. This step "is the only standard wait" of the process. Everyone waits 14 days from drop-off of documents to pick-up of article 5 (A5). That means the US Embassy has said your child meets the criteria for an orphan, you meet the requirements, you have filled out the right forms and paid your fee. Our A5 pick-up came....and went. There was some additional information required for one of the littles to meet the visa orphan criteria. This pushed our pick up from May 2 to May 7. Only days wait but still.
After we were issued A5 we them moved into waiting for TRAVEL APPROVAL! That is the final step. People wait, generally, 12-20 days. We are at day 9. Do you see where those 5 days make a difference?? I sure do. SOOO we are waiting for TA and our appointment with the US Embassy in Guangzhou....and the embassy is closed. For a holiday you ask? No. Was this a planned closure? No. The embassy received a suspicious white powder on Monday so the embassy has been closed ever since. That means the families there are just hanging out. The embassy needs to reschedule them, there are families piling up and no appointments are being made for families who are needing them. At this time we don't know if/how this will impact our travel. We don't know if will create a long lasting back log, if the embassy will schedule appointments when they re-open or even when they will re-open.
With all that being said we REALLY need to receive our travel approval by next Tuesday/Wednesday to allow us to travel May 29. Keep that in your thoughts and prayers.
Once we received our I800 approval all of our documents were delivered to the US Embassy in Guangzhou. This included the visa applications for A and I to enter the US. This step "is the only standard wait" of the process. Everyone waits 14 days from drop-off of documents to pick-up of article 5 (A5). That means the US Embassy has said your child meets the criteria for an orphan, you meet the requirements, you have filled out the right forms and paid your fee. Our A5 pick-up came....and went. There was some additional information required for one of the littles to meet the visa orphan criteria. This pushed our pick up from May 2 to May 7. Only days wait but still.
After we were issued A5 we them moved into waiting for TRAVEL APPROVAL! That is the final step. People wait, generally, 12-20 days. We are at day 9. Do you see where those 5 days make a difference?? I sure do. SOOO we are waiting for TA and our appointment with the US Embassy in Guangzhou....and the embassy is closed. For a holiday you ask? No. Was this a planned closure? No. The embassy received a suspicious white powder on Monday so the embassy has been closed ever since. That means the families there are just hanging out. The embassy needs to reschedule them, there are families piling up and no appointments are being made for families who are needing them. At this time we don't know if/how this will impact our travel. We don't know if will create a long lasting back log, if the embassy will schedule appointments when they re-open or even when they will re-open.
With all that being said we REALLY need to receive our travel approval by next Tuesday/Wednesday to allow us to travel May 29. Keep that in your thoughts and prayers.
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