Progression of a Day (Told with the Help of Peanuts and Arrested Development)

I thought that receiving our travel approval two days ago would put an end to all of my anxiety about our future trip to China to adopt our sweet Minsy girl.  Oh how wrong I was!  It was only the beginning of even more anxiety.  I have seen countless numbers of adoption blogs where everyone posts how long each step in the process takes, and no one, NO ONE, has ever had to wait more than a day for their consulate appointment after getting travel approval.  The consulate appointment is the final bureaucratic hurdle that we have to jump to get Minsy back in the United States.  Once there is proof of a travel approval, our liaison, Sabrina, has the ability to go and set up a consulate appointment so that we can get Minsy's visa and get her home.  There are a limited number of appointment slots, but it isn't too difficult to get something set up in the day after a travel approval is received.  I waited to hear from Sabrina or my agency all night on Wednesday night.  Well, actually I just waited until about 1 am, but I heard nothing.  I thought that maybe I might hear something yesterday during the day.  My China adoption buddy, Tara, who is on the exact same schedule as us got her appointment, but I heard nothing.  I figured that last night would be the night.  Once again I stayed up past midnight waiting for some sort of email.  Nothing.  Now I was starting to freak out a bit.  China is 13 hours ahead of us, so last night was actually Friday daytime for China.  If nothing was set up last night, then we would be out of luck for a week since it appears that all of China takes next week off to celebrate their national holiday.  I was done waiting.  My supply of patience had run dry.  I needed to hear that I had a solid date to work with.

That leads us to the events of this morning. I woke up and found that there had been no communication during the night.   I was totally dejected.  What had I done wrong that could cause all of these increasing annoying delays?  It is frustrating to sit around all day waiting for someone else to contact me.  I needed some sort of distraction, I guess, but all I really wanted was this appointment date.


If ever a moment in this process called for a Charlie Brown moment, it was this one.  I was totally bummed out.  This was me all morning:



By the way:  I love Arrested Development!

Like I have every few minutes for the past month, I once again checked my email.  I was in the living room while Laney, Herman, and Spencer were all in various stages of computer work nearby.  All of the sudden they heard a loud squeal from my mouth.  This was me at that moment:



Did we get notice of our consulate date?  No.  But I did get a sweet email from an author I follow on goodreads.  She is Courtney Cole, and she writes the wonderful Bloodstone Saga.  I have read the previous three books in the series and really enjoyed them.  She contacted me and asked if I would be willing to be a beta reader for her new book, the last one in the Bloodstone Saga.  She chose two people to be beta readers for this book, and she wants me to be one of them.   So, I screamed, "Yippee!" and did a little happy dance.  I forgot that Herman, Laney, and Spencer were in the room.  They thought that I had gotten our CA notice.  Alas, no.  But, I was really excited for this opportunity, and I was happy to have this little piece of news to distract me for a few minutes.  Courtney will email a copy of her latest book, and I'll get a chance to read and review it.  I'll post my review here on the blog when I finish.  Yea!

So, after this little bit of happy news, I went back to worrying about receiving this consulate appointment.  I sent a quick email to Sabrina early this morning to see if she had any info, but I wasn't expecting any message until late in the evening because of the difference in time zones.  I decided to just relax and not worry for a bit.  Just at that moment I heard the happy beeping on my iPhone letting me know that I had a new email.  It was from Sabrina!  Hurray!  She shot me off a quick message from her phone to let me know that she had just received it, and we are scheduled for a consulate appointment on November 15th.  Yea!  It is a bit later than I was hoping for, but I'll take it.  At least now I could make some solid plans. 

I've been working with a travel agent to get the main travel plans set up.  We've just been waiting for some solid dates to use.  I sent a quick email to our agent, Sandy, and she got right to work.  By the end of the afternoon she got back to us with tickets for all of us for less than a thousand dollars round trip.  That is a HUGE blessing for us, especially because we have to purchase so many tickets to get there and back.  And an added bonus is that the tickets are from St. Louis, so we don't have to drive all the way to Chicago like we thought.  That will especially be helpful when we get home.  I was ready to accept things right away, but Herman wants to play hardball and see if we can get an even cheaper price.  Normally I really appreciate Herman and his bargaining skills.  He can get lower prices almost everywhere.  That will be a real blessing when we are haggling in China.  But I just want to get these tickets, and I know that this really is a great deal.  We'll end up getting them.  It is just that Herman needs to feel like he has done everything in his power to get the lowest price.  I just want to get them soon so that at least this part of the process will be over.

So, if all goes according to plan, here's our itinerary:

•  October 28th -- Leave St. Louis
• October 29th -- Arrive in Beijing
• October 30th -- Rest/Get Used to Time Change
• October 31st -- Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden Palace, Drum Tower and Bell Tower
• November 1st -- Great Wall at Mutianyu, Beijing Opera
• November 2nd -- Behai Park, Olympic Stadium, Wanfujing shopping, Da Dong dinner
• November 3rd -- Temple of Heaven, Confucious Temple
• November 4th -- Lama Temple and Summer Palace (old and new)
• November 5th -- Free Day
• November 6th -- Train or Plane from Beijing to Wuhan
• November 7th -- GOTCHA DAY!!!  We get to pick up Minsy!
• November 8 - 10 -- Adoption work and sightseeing in Wuhan
• November 11 -- High speed train to Guangzhou
• November 12 - 14 -- Paperwork stuff in Guangzhou
• November 15 -- Consulate Appointment
• November 16 -- Pick up Minsy's US visa
• November 17 -- Take train to Hong Kong
• November 18 -- Half day Hong Kong tour and Harbor cruise in the evening, visiting Victoria's Peak, Aberdeen Fishing Village, Repulse Bay, Stanley Market, Buffet dinner and light show
• November 19 -- Disneyland Hong Kong
• November 20 -- Full Day Tsing Ma -- Lantau and monastery tour visiting Tsing Ma Bridge, Tai O Village, Po Lin Monastery and Ngong Ping Cable Car
• November 21 -- Fly back to St. Louis from Hong Kong

Way fun!  Way exciting!  Way scary!  This will definitely be an adventure for the Blau family.  I hope it all goes well.  I hope that Minsy will soon feel comfortable with us.  But, we'll be very adaptable once we meet Minsy.  We'll let her be the guide for us.  If she doesn't feel like seeing the sites we'll lay low for the day. 

So this is it.  We finally have a plan.  Hurray!  I'm ready to get things finished.