Hello all,
This will be my final Adoption Update for awhile.... So here's the ending to one
story and the beginning of another.
I received my travel letter 10/11. I got the call at 11pm at night and did not
sleep a wink telling me we might have to leave that Sunday! Only 4 days to get
ready! Unfortunately they could not get me an earlier Consulate appointment. I
was disappointed but I am happy we will be home for Thanksgiving and Zoey will
just have to be Raggedy Ann next year! My travel group was standing on
edge waiting to hear if we leave on Sunday, not me though I was ready and
thrilled to go!!! We found out on Friday 10/13 that
my Consulate appointment wasnt until November 9th. Then we had to count approx
10 days back from there and that is approx when we were to leave.
Everything is just about confirmed and we will be leaving on 10/25 Wednesday.
Due to my EXTREMELY, INCREDIBLY GENEROUS parents we will be flying ASIANA
AIRLINES BUSINESS CLASS!!!!! (Asiana is considered one of the
best!! and business class is going to be sooooo much nicer and much,much more
comfortable than coach for our 23 hour trip!!!!!) Who has the best
parents!!!
Our Itinerary is as follows we leave on 10/25, 11:50pm from JFK fly to Anchorage
Alaska arrive on 10/26 at 3am, (not much of a layover would have loved to see
Alaska) Leave Anchorage at 4:50am 10/26 fly to Seoul Korea
arrive at 6:30am on 10/27 then leave Seoul at 9:50am to Beijing arriving at
11:10am. I am sure we will be exhausted and just plain grungy!!!! We
will be in the air for about 18 hours and with layovers it totals about 23
hours.
My doctor gave me prescription sleeping pills, I cannot even imagine, I get
antsy in a 2 hour movie theater!!!! My mom will be meeting us in Beijing 2
hours later at 1:25pm arriving from Tokyo (For those of you who don't know my
mom won a business trip to Tokyo and leaves 10/19 and her trip ends 10/27 one
day before we had to be in Beijing) We are spending an extra day in
Beijing to meet my Mom which is a good thing anyway because with the extra
day we get to see the Summer Palace and The pandas at the ZOO which is supposed
to be incredible. Henry a representative from my agency meets us at the
airport and checks us into our hotel and we begin touring Beijing
this gives us time to adjust to the time difference before we get Zoey and see
and experience some of China. 5 other families from my agency will
be meeting us in Beijing on 10/28 we all tour together. We then all fly to
Changsha 10/31 (Halloween) about a 2 hour flight and the airport is about 1 hour
from the city. ShaSha meets us in Changsha and she will be our facilitator
helping us fill out all the paperwork, see the town etc. Changsha is where
Zoey is. My baby will be brought to our hotel either 10/31 or 11/1. Since
Zoey's orphanage is in town I am fortunate enough to definitely be able to visit
the orphanage during my stay and take pictures. They say you can see
the orphanage from your hotel window. We then stay in Changsha doing the
paper work required and shopping and touring Changsha (all the extra is of
course if Zoey is healthy) until the
8th of November. On 11/8 we then fly to Guangzhou approx 4 hours where the
American Consulate appointment is. My appointment is on 11/9 I have my interview
and we pick up her visa. We then take a train to Hong Kong on the
10th about 1 and a ½ hour train ride. We stay in Hong Kong for two nights to
sightsee leaving on November 13th ( The Hong Kong part is predicated on Zoey
being healthy if she is not and we need to get home we fly out of Guangzhou
headed for JFK on the 10th)
Leave HK on 11/13 at 1:20pm arrive in Seoul at 5:40p leave Seoul at
7:40pm arrive JFK with the BABY!!! at 7:30pm on 11/13. Weird huh? We gain the
day back that we lost on the way over we leave 11/13 and arrive 11/13 and I am
sure we will be emotionally and financially drained!!
While I am in China I will be speaking to Jessica all the time either by
phone or email. I gave Jessica the email addresses of friends and family
hopefully she will be able to forward my updates to you and you can write back,
if not and you want to see how we are doing you can call Jessica at
973-422-1494. When I return I will be on maternity leave for 3 months.
Well I am about to embark on the trip of a lifetime. Absolutely NOTHING will be
the same after this and I so look forward to all of my life changes and
challenges. I have a million things I need to finish before we leave. I
will be at work until Tues 10/24 if you want to contact me.
Today Zoey is 9 months.
Speak to you when I get back.
Oh and don't forget to check out my website for tons of new stuff www.lahaza.com
This is a new website address I got my own domain name, save it as one of your
bookmarks! I will be posting my travel story there when we
return.
Lisa