4 Days and a Wakeup

And I'm off to China. These past two weeks have flown by. I know I'm working and trying to get everything done before I leave, but it still seems like time is going by quickly. Funny now that we're this close to Keeghan being home the wait is much more tolerable : ) I'm packed. The house is mostly clean. I still need to stock up on groceries for Doug and the kids while I'm gone, but that's on my list for Monday. I did finally get my passport back yesterday with my visa in it so I'll be allowed into China which is a good thing! I was getting a bit worried when I was trying to track it and the number was coming up not found. It came yesterday while I was at work, though so I'm good. I'm certainly getting anxious about the whole trip and all that could go wrong, but I'm hoping it all goes ok and Keeghan and I make it home safe. Here's hoping I get some sleep before I go and it doesn't snow on Thursday!

Thankful

I am so thankful for all that I have. Yes, there are days we all wish we had more, but the "things" don't matter. What matters is my family and friends. I'm a very lucky Mom to have a husband who loves me enough to send me to China to bring home a daughter and a son who still hugs me goodbye in the morning even though he's 13, and a daughter who is so much the 11 year old version of me it's scary, and a 9 year old daughter who makes me smile everyday and soon a 16 month old daughter who will bring us much joy. I'm thankful for the wonderful friends that will be here to get me through the next few months which will be tough. Happy Thanksgiving!

Packing

It's a HUGE challange to me right now. I get ONE, yes one, checked bag and it has to weigh 44lbs or less. So, in that bag, I need to have my stuff AND Keeghan's stuff. Two weeks worth of stuff. I am a bit worried about not only fitting what I need in the bags I have (one checked, one carryon, and my "personal" carryon). I had started laying out Keeghan's stuff a few weeks ago when we got our LOA but once I got the call Wednesday that I would probably be traveling in two weeks I really felt like I needed to get it together. I dug suitcases out of the attic and started trying to see how it would all fit. Yeah, Keeghan's stuff fit great...but I was going to be wearing the same clothes for two weeks. Not such a good plan. So today I decided I'd see what I could do and am very proud of myself for getting what I wanted to bring into the suitcase AND keeping it under 44lbs. Go me!

Since Wednesday when we found out potential travel dates we've been thinking about what that means for kids activities and such. Obviously we have some amazing people in our lives (yeah, you can read that as Val and Craig...because they are amazing) who will help out but that doesn't necessarily make it easier to know that I'll be missing some stuff while I'm gone. The kids are all playing basketball and they all, of course, have games the night I come back from China. Kennedy's game is on the early side so she'll get to play for a bit, but Devon and Carson's games are both at 7:30 so we went the high road and told them they could choose whether they wanted to go to basketball or come to the airport. They both, thank goodness, choose coming to the airport to meet their sister.

Flights Booked!

So I got a call at work this morning that our consulate appointment is scheduled for 12/15 and our fights are booked! I leave on 12/4 at 8:25am and fly through Detroit and Toyko to Beijing landing there at 9:40pm on 12/5. I'll spend two days in Beijing and then fly to Changsha on Sunday (but I don't have in country travel details yet). I'll be in Changsha Sunday through Friday or so and I will have Keeghan in my arms either the 7th or 8th! From there we'll fly to Guangzhou to finish the paperwork on the American side of things and then we leave to fly home on 12/17. Again, through Toyko and Detroit arriving home at 7:10pm that night. Now, I'm really freaking out!!!

Travel Approval!!!

Wohoooo!!! We got our TA today and it looks like I leave for China two weeks from tomorrow...12/4. That would put Keeghan in my arms on 12/7 or 12/8 and get me home on the 18th a week before Christmas. I'm SOOO excited that our little girl should be here with us for Christmas. What a day!

Paperwork

I thought the original paperchase was bad! Holy cow getting the paperwork we need to travel with together is insane. I've moved from a simple two pocket folder (red of course) to a binder that not only has dividers and folders of it's own, but also about 50 post-it page markers so far. I'm hoping that if I keep it all organized and can flip to what I need quickly, it will make the paperwork that must be completed in China a bit easier. And if it happens that we decide Doug will travel instead of me it will certainly make things easier for him because I'm the on that's put the paperwork together. Now if I just could have managed the visa applications without the 27 screw ups...

LOA

Wohoo!!! We finally got our LOA!! For those of you who don't live in the adoption world as we currently do...an LOA is Letter of Approval. In the world of special needs adoptions from China it's the equivalent of a true referral. It says that the CCAA has matched us with our daughter and all our paperwork is in order. It took 91 days from the date we sent our LOI (letter of intent)...it was a long 91 days. In those 91 days, Keeghan went from being a one year old to being a 15 month old, we've gone from summer to near winter, we've had labor day, Doug's birthday, gone to the fair, almost finished and entire season of soccer and started basketball practice. Anyway...here's the story. I was at work yesterday morning. I'd been scheduled for a short shift (8-12) and we were having some of the kids friends over for a Halloween party so I needed to get some stuff done at home and was hoping for a nap. So, it was 11:30 and the phone rang, one of the "direct lines". I answer the phone alot since I work at the service desk so I grabbed it and gave our typical phone answering line "Thank you for calling Toys R Us this is Tami what can I help you find?". The person on the other end said, "Tami Dowling?". I was like ah, yeah, and had no clue who it was. Well, it was Meg, the in house social worker at our agency. She told me she had good news and that our LOA had come. At this point, the other person who'd been at the service area with me was walking past, as she had just said she was going to take a quick break before I left, and saw me jumping up and down so she stopped. I finished talking to Meg though I still don't know exactly what she said and hung up...only to start crying and jumping up and down more. Sarah finally got out of me that we had our approval and gave me a big hug. In the mean time I needed to call Doug to tell him and be sure he was ok with Meg signing the letter accepting the referral for us. Sarah decided her break could wait so I could call. Doug was not quite as excited as I was, though he knew what it meant to me so that was good. Then I had to do a return...silly work! Then one of the managers came over and I told him our good news and called Meg back to tell her to sign and send the letter. Then I did a bit more work that I'd promised I do before I left before going to hunt down Ro to let her know we got our letter. I found her in a pre-school aisle with a guest. Again, I started jumping and crying and told her I'd just gotten the best birthday present EVER. She started crying too and the poor man she was helping looked at us as if we belonged in a psych ward. Finally he caught on a bit to what was happening and asked "going where?". Ro told him to China to get my daughter and he pulled out his wallet to show me a picture of his beautiful 4 year old Chinese daughter :) I asked where she was from and he said Changsha which is the capital city of Hunan! It's such a small world. Then Janet heard the commotion and came to see what was going on and was just as excited. It was so nice to be with a crew of people who were so thrilled for me. Of course it would have been AWESOME to have been home with Doug and the kids, but this was probably close. It's a good thing Meg called so close to when I was supposed to leave because I was USELESS after that. I punched out and headed out of work. I had a few errands to do and managed to accomplish them without forgetting too much stuff. I sent a text message to a bunch of people about getting our letter which resulted in a flurry of congratulations. I had to bring Carson the goodie bags she'd forgotten to bring to school that morning so I went up to her classroom to tell her we'd gotten our LOA. Her eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning and she'd gotten what she wanted most. I thought, a bit, about going and getting all the kids from school but decided I could wait for them to get home. Devon and Kennedy get home about 3 so as soon as they walked through the door I told them about the letter. Devon gave me a hug and Kennedy was pretty excited too. Then it was a struggle to get myself together for the Halloween festivities. I tried to take a nap, but I was so over the top excited I couldn't. Halloween is a pretty well celebrated holiday in our house and my birthday is Sunday so really that phone call couldn't have come at a better time. Now, keep your fingers crossed that we can pull the money together and have Keeghan home for Christmas.