Made it to Hong Kong

We've made it to Hong Kong and have settled in to our hotel nicely. The flight was delayed due to some storms that came through the Newark area, so we ended up spending about 17 hour on the plane, including 2 on the ground waiting for the weather to clear. Eva did great and got PLENTLY of sleep. So, here we are in our hotel at midnight and she is wide awake and ready for action! Hopefully we'll all get some sleep soon.

Our Itinerary

We just got our final itinerary for the trip.

• May 16: Leave Chicago 9:00 am - Continental 1176 to Newark,Continental 99 to Hong Kong
• May 17: Arrive in Hong Kong at 6:50 pm. We will be staying at theJ.W. Marriott on Hong Kong Island
• May 18 -19: Hang out in Hong Kong
• May 20: Fly to Hohhot - Cathay Pacific CX6872 to Beijing leaves at 8:05 am Air China 1128 to Hohhot leaves 1:55 pm

We are met by a guide in Hohhot who helps us complete the adoption process and takes us to see some of the local sights.

• May.20: Arrive in Huhehaote on flight CA1128/14:55, guide will meetthem at airport and transfer to Hu He Hao Te Holiday Inn.
• May.21: In the morning go to the Civil Affairs to meet the child andsign the adoption agreement. And will do the registration and applyingthe passport in the afternoon.
• May.22: Continue to do the process for notarization .
• May.23: Visit the Temple of Da Zhao Si.
• May.24: Go to see the grassland.
• May.25: Pick up passport.
• May.26: Huhehaote to Guangzhou on Flight CA1381(07:40-10:45). Transferto Victory Hotel. Medical for baby and take photos.
• May.27: Pearl River Cruise.
• May.28: Visit Temple of Family Chen.
• May.29: 09:00 am at U.S.Consulate for visa appointment.
• May.30: 16:00 Pick up the visa in the afternoon. Guangzhou to Hongkongby train T805/18:27, transfer to train station.
• May 31: Go home: Continental 98 leaves 10:25 am,Continental 1144 arrives Chicago 6:49 pm

Travel Approval!!!!!!

We received our Travel Approval today!!!! We will be leaving May 16 + /- 1 day. Kai will be joining our family on May 21. I will post more details when we have our travel arranged. Right now I've got too much to do! :)

Waiting...

We're patiently waiting for our Travel Approval and starting to think
about everything we need to do for our trip. The number of details to
account for is really quite alarming.

We've heard that blogspot web addresses are now blocked in China, but
there still may be a way to post to this site while we are there. I'm
testing out a few things - hopefully one of our options will work when
we get there.

Eva is also busily preparing. She likes to go through the house,
pointing out all items that will be Kai's and which items she plans to
share with him. So far, she has been very generous. We expect there
may be a change of heart when Kai actually arrives.

Letter of Acceptance is here!

We were notified by our adoption agency this afternoon that our LOA has arrived. This means that the Chinese government has approved our adoption application. We're very excited! We will receive it tomorrow. We need to sign it, "check the box" to indicate that we still want to adopt Kai and FedEx it back to our agency.

Next, we wait for our Travel Approval and then can really start to plan our trip. At this point, we think we'll be traveling mid to late May.