Hurray! We are doing the Blau Family Happy Dance today because FINALLY we have travel approval from China, so now we can finally make real plans to travel to China and pick up our little Minsy. Who would have thought that such a big deal would work itself out in such a mundane way? I was sitting by my computer, like I have been almost constantly since I expected this TA, waiting to get some sort of email communication from our adoption agency, letting me know that our TA had arrived. But I think that Marilyn realized that receiving the TA was a really big deal, so she wanted to call me personally to let me know the news. I was really restrained when she called. I don't think she could tell just how neurotic I have been for the past three weeks. I just said, "Sweet!" and then went on to figure out exactly what we have to do next.
I contacted our China liaison to work on getting our consulate appointment so that we can make definite travel plans. Travel to China for our family is a bit more complicated than it would be if it were just Herman and me going, because we have to get three hotel rooms wherever we go. We have to find eight or nine places on planes, trains, and automobiles. So it is a bit more complicated for our agency to arrange things. It can be done. It is just a bit more of a hassle -- but way worth it for us to be able to take the whole family and share in this experience together. I wouldn't trade this for anything.
I expected to hear back from our China liaison (I'd better just refer to her as Sabrina from now on because I'm getting sick of typing the word 'liaison' a hundred times a post) in the middle of the night. I planned on staying up all night until I heard from her. She's working in China, so all of her communication with me takes place in the middle of the night. Well, I made it until 1 am without hearing anything. At that point I decided to head to bed and trust that my Spidey sense would know if I got an email in the middle of the night and I would automatically wake up. I woke up this morning with a killer headache, but no email. So I guess Sabrina was not able to set any appointment up for us today. I'll wait again for tonight which is actually Friday daytime in China. That will be the last chance for her to set up an appointment before the big Chinese holiday week, so I'm fully expecting to have a date by this time tomorrow morning. Then we can get this show on the road finally.
Last night Herman and I did another session playing on all of the travel sites online, seeing how we could get the best price for flights. When you are traveling with nine people, even getting tickets for as little as $100 cheaper makes a huge difference, so we've become experts in how to find the best rates for this China trip. It seems like it will be cheapest for us to fly round trip to and from Chicago and into and out of Beijing. Chicago is a bit further from us than St. Louis, but like I say, to save a bunch on tickets will make the extra five hour drive worth it. It will make it complicated to have to leave from Beijing to get back to the US because we will be ending our trip in Hong Kong, so we'll have to either take a train or a plane back to Beijing. The train sounds kind of cool, but it isn't one of the high speed trains, so it will take 24 hours. The idea of taking a 24 hour train ride right before getting on an 18 hour plane ride with a brand new adopted little girl doesn't really make me giddy. And then we have the whole issue of trying to find nine available plane tickets on one flight. You would think that this would be easy, but not so much. So far I haven't found anything, but we're letting our travel agent worry about this. Worse case, we'll have to divide and conquer. I don't mind this so much on the trip to China, but the thought of being on a plane with a little girl who might be having major meltdowns because she is terrified and cannot communicate with these strange people who are traveling with her worries me a bit. I think it would be best that all of us are together to handle that situation. Of course, I'm hoping for the best there, and hoping that Minsy will have an easy adjustment to our family.
So, today I'm going to try to get the house super clean. It's not going to happen, but a girl can dream, can't she? I'll wait by my front window for the FedEx guy to show up. I'll run out and freak him out by asking if he minds if I take a picture of his runway walk as he brings me our original copy of our travel approval. I've got to have the picture though -- It's for posterity! Then after I encase the whole thing in some sort of titanium alloy so that it doesn't get folded, dirty, or torn I'll head off for a nap so that I can be ready to pull an all-nighter waiting for our consulate date.
For now, I'm headed to my living room for a well deserved happy dance. It's been over a year of bureaucratic hoops, paperwork galore, and waiting, waiting, waiting. It's time to celebrate. We deserve it!
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