WE HAVE A CONSULATE APPOINTMENT!

Our consulate appointment is June 26th. Our entire travel plans revolves around this date. It looks like we will be leaving on June 12th and meeting up with our group in Hong Kong on Friday June 13th and will be touring Hong Kong on June 14th. We will then fly to Changsha, Hunan on the June 15th and I think this will be the day we get to meet our sweet little girl! How, surreal to have our "gotcha" day on Father's day!. We will stay in Changsha for a few days and then onto Guangzhou to finish up paper work and our consulate appointment on June 26th. Not sure yet if we will be flying home June 27 or June 28th. Hopefully, we will have confirmed travel dates by the end of this week. We are just so excited and at the same time so nervous! We have waited a long time to be parents!!

We Have Travel Approval!

Good News! We have travel approval from China. I was really thinking this wouldn't come until next week so what a pleasant surprise today! Our agency now requested an appointment from the American Consulate in China and than we can get our "exact" travel dates. Our agency is hoping we will be able to leave the 2nd week in June. Now comes the time to get our "to do" list done. Finished taking down the wallpaper in the nursery today (man, I hate wallpaper!). We will be painting tomorrow and then working on getting the carpet cleaned and putting the crib together. Can't believe we are finally to this point!

Terri

Still waiting for Travel Approval

So, we are limbo once again. We are waiting for travel approval from China. Once we receive travel approval than our agency can request an appointment with the American Consulate in China. After that we can make firm travel arrangements. Our agency is still telling us our travel is "5 to 7 weeks" after match date. We are thinking probably around the 3rd week of June but who knows for sure definitely not us! We are in the process of trying to get all of needed paperwork done and we currently waiting on visa's. Every day is full of little "things" that need to be done and with working full time it can be a bit challenging. I can't imagine if we also had other children to take care of at the same time. We will keep you all updated once we know more information!

China Earthquake

So I am sure you all heard about the earthquake in China. We were reassured today by our agency that our daughter is fine. If you click on our map that we have on this site you can see exactly where it was compared to where she is. It was in the Chengu, Sichuan. I just can't wait to go bring her home to the safety of my arms. Family members have stressed concerned over us going to China when China has been in the news so much lately. I would go to the ends of the earth to bring our daughter home!! Just pray for all of people over there. This is just so devastating.

Hugs,

Terri

The Hunan Province

We have been doing some research about the area our daughter is from. This is what we found:

The Huaihua Social Welfare Institute (Jeanette's orphanage) is located in a small town called Huaihua in the Hunan Province of China. Huaihua is located approximately equal distance between Guiyang and the capitol city of Changsha. From what we are told, the bus ride from the capitol city of Changsha to Huaihua is about 12 hours and that her orphanage does not allow for visitors (although this is not verified).
Where are we going:
China is approximately the size of the United States. Hunan Province is located in the South and East part of mainland China. Hunan is surrounded by mountains on the East, West and South and by the Yangtze River on the North. Hunan Province is know as one of the most beautiful provinces because of it's mixture of mountains and water.
Hunan is a large producer of agriculture, producing tea, rice and even oranges because of it's humid, subtropical climate. The best time to travel to Hunan is the fall. In the fall, the temperatures are cooler and there is less rainfall, the average high temperature is expected to be around 60-65 degrees. The summer months of July and August are the most unbearable months with very hot & humid temperatures. There is also a monsoon time of year which begins around April and continues for the months of May and June. The northern part of Hunan usually will have more fluctuation in their weather than the southern area.
The City of Changsha, located in the middle to eastern side of the Hunan Province, is a very old and historic city as well as the Capital of Hunan. Changsha has an urban population of over 1.6 million and a total population of nearly 6 million.

I may have some issues with the food as I heard the Hunan cuisine is suppose to have it's own very special flavor. In Hunan, nearly every meal is suppose to have a little "kick" to it, as the Hunan people enjoy their peppery foods and spices. Personal note to self: Bring Luna bars!!

We are coming to get you soon!

Been really busy the last few days. We did get our "referral package" from our agency and signed our acceptance letter. We did get 2 more pictures but need to get them scanned and put into the computer so we can get them on our site. We both just spend alot of time staring at our daughter's picture. We cannot believe how lucky we are! I am going nuts just wanting to go get her and hold her and tell her how much we love her. People are right, the love is immediate and intense! Our agency sent a progress report to us about what time she wakes up, how often she eats, etc. They say she is "fond of quietness". Her birthday is September 24th but the orphanage didn't "find her" until 9/28/07. Where was she for 3 days? Hopefully, with her birth mother who was just so heart broken over having to give her up. We hold such sadness and understanding for her birth mother. We promise to love Huai Qing Lan with all our heart.

Jeanette "Jenni" Lin

Here she is!! So beautiful!!! Hoping to get more pictures later! Love those little lips!

Introducing : Huai, Qing Lan
Date of birth: September 24, 2007
Currently living at Huaihua City Social Welfare Institute in Hunan Province

We are naming her after a friend of ours that passed away from cancer. Jeanette's birthday was also in September and our friend Jeanette was just as beautiful as our baby.

Our Baby Shower

We had our baby shower yesterday. All I can say is oh, my!! I can't believe how many people showed up! Wow! Rich and I were just overwhelmed by all of nice things we received not to mention just the love. It has been a long 3 years and having all of our family and friends that have been our support there was awesome. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you! We will be getting our "call" on Monday mid-morning. We will try and call immediate family as soon as possible but posting on our blog will be the best as we can get all the details out to everyone alot faster.

Love to you all,

Terri and Rich

One more weekend!!

We were really hoping for our "call" today but it isn't looking like it will happen until Monday or Tuesday next week. I talked to our agency yesterday and they said that they hadn't received the referral package and if they receive it on Friday (today) they still wait and call on Monday or possibly even Tuesday. CCAA (China)is closed today and our agency always likes to call them after they get the packages just to verify that nothing has changed since they mailed it out. So our agency's words were "if the package comes on Friday you will be called on Monday and if the package arrives on Monday you will be called on Tuesday. You would think after waiting for 3 years one more weekend wouldn't be a big deal but boy, it is a misery!! We will have to just keep ourselves very busy this weekend!