Wednesday, February 29, 2012

On the 12th day of packing....

I packed my sanity!  Along with:

12 gifts for officials,
11 electronic devices (1 laptop, 3 kindles, 2 cameras, 1 i-pod touch, and 4 cell phones!),
10 thousand dollars (!),
9 barrettes and headbands,
8 toys to play with,
7 pairs of headphones,
6 Chinese visas,
5 bags of toiletries (in quart-sized ziploc bags, all bottles under 3.2 oz of course!)
4 suitcases (fit everything in 2 small and 2 medium sized!)
3 Snapfish photo books (Andrew's and James' will go in their files in Seoul, Rosie's will go to her orphanage),
2 pink frilly skirts....all for
1 Shanghai girl named Mimi!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Itinerary

Ok, here's our trip...all we need are the dates.  I have a feeling we'll be on a plane in less than two weeks!  Thanks to all the adoption parties involved for letting us plan so far ahead......

- Fly Denver to Seoul and spend 2 nights in Seoul.  Tour Holt office that handled Andrew's and James' adoptions.  Hopefully get to meet Andrew's foster parents but it's looking doubtful.

- High speed train from Seoul to Pusan.  Spend 2 nights in Pusan, the city where both Andrew and James were born.

- Fly from Pusan to Tokyo, then take the bullet train past Mount Fuji and on to Kyoto.  I'm hoping this will be on my birthday!  Spend 2 nights in Kyoto.

- Take the train to Osaka and spend a night there.  Osaka is where John lived with Jim and Mike in 1993.

- Fly from Osaka to Shanghai and get Mimi!  Spend 5 or so nights in Shanghai.

- Fly to Guangzhou where we finalize the adoption.

- Take a 5 hour bus ride to Yangchun and tour the orphanage where Rosie lived.

- Maybe find time to go to Hong Kong??

- Fly home and sleep for a week.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

TA!!!

We got our travel approval today...a week early!  In the whole two year process this is the only piece of paperwork that's ever come early so my head is reeling.  Our agency is asking for a consulate appointment for the week of March 19.  Counting backwards we would get Mimi the week of March 12, and leave the week of March 5...or before!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

My "little heart liver"

I'm taking Chinese lessons and this week I learned that one of the sweetest things you can say to a child translates to, "You are so precious that you have a little piece of my heart....and liver!"