Dates are set! Flights are booked! We are soon on our way!

We received word about this time last week that we would probably be traveling on the 6th of November, provided the adoption agency was able to get us an appointment with the US Consulate for Nov 17th.

Toward the end of last week, the agency called to tell us that the appointment is set and they emailed us a flight itinerary to review. We reviewed, we booked, and we leave on the 5th. Our official itinerary starts on the 6th, but we elected to go a day early to rest up from the 24 hours and 50 minutes of travel (19:40 in the air).

There are lots of big dates in this trip, and you can see I've added our full itinerary on the side of this page, but I’ll highlight the 3 big dates:

Wed, Nov 5th – We fly to China
Mon, Nov 10th – We meet Audrey for the first time face-to-face
Wed, Nov 19th – We come home with Audrey

I told Julie that when we meet her, she gets to hold her first, but when she hands her to me I plan to hold her for the rest of her life. I just can’t see ever putting her down. We’ll see how this goes. I can already see problems with this plan, like high-school.

After picking her up we will submit paperwork to the Chinese government & the adoption will be official. At the US Consulate’s office, we will submit the necessary paperwork, take the necessary oaths, and Audrey will be a US Citizen and we can bring her home.

I think it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, we are beside ourselves with excitement. Thankfully there are plenty of things to do in these last days before we leave to keep us busy. Many people have asked what they can do to help. Please pray for our family as we make this journey. This is truly the biggest thing you can do for us.

We may not post much between now and when we leave, but we hope to post daily while we’re in China. We may get some updated nursery pics on now that we have things on the walls.