Saturday, December 20, 2008

Leila smiles!!!

Finally, after 5 days of no smiles but definite progress, we are so happy to see that Leila is smiley inside and out. This picture is during lunch on a full tummy... she finally responds to mommy being silly, trying to eat her!
Finally, Saturday she started to smile. What a joy!

Friday, December 19, 2008

More photos from our days in China...

These pictures are of our first days in China. We are visiting the Chen Family Temple here in Guangzhou and the others are of us getting used to being in such a small space in our hotel room.









Monday, December 15, 2008

Photos from China!!!

We met Leila at the Guangdong Province Adoption Registration office. The orphanage director and one of the nannies came to meet us, gave us our daughter, and the rest is history.














Here are some photos of our travels to China and getting baby Leila. We are blessed!!!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Travel Itinerary!

Here is our travel itinerary while in China ~

12-14  Arrive in Guangzhou at 10:40 pm, meet guide at airport, check into White Swan Hotel
12-15  Meet our baby in the afternoon at the Registration Office (our official Gotcha Day!)
12-16  Proceed with adoption registration and notary
12-17  Apply for baby's passport, touring the Walking Street
12-18  Visit Liu Rong Temple and Liu Hua Hu Lake Park
12-19  Visit the zoo
12-20  Visit Bai Yun Shan Park
12-21  Resting....
12-22  Receive baby's passport and other paperwork, physical exam and taking pictures for Visa application
12-23  Apply for visa at 10:30 am
12-24  Pick up Visa in the afternoon
12-25  Leave Guangzhou at 9:30 am and come home!  Merry Christmas!!!!


Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Travel Permission Letter and flight itinerary!



In the last 2 days, we received:
  • Notice of Travelling to China for Adoption
  • our Visa appt. date in Guangzhou for baby Leila, AND 
  • we were able book our flight!  We still can't believe it.....
So, we are set to leave on 12/13, get to Guangzhou late at night on 12/14, get our baby on 12/15, and come home on Christmas day.  Hopefully it will all go smoothly and there won't be any delays along the way.
 
I do wonder how much we will be able to post to this blog while in China......  I guess we will see soon enough!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

I800 Approval

Today I received great news that our I800 has been approved! Now.... all we need is our permission to travel letter from China and we can make the appointment for our daughter's visa at the US Consulate in Guangzhou.  Our coordinator spoke to the CCAA a couple of days ago and they said that our travel permission is being completed and should go out by the end of this week.  
The anticipation is killing us.... next week we hope to finalize everything and purchase our airline tickets!