Out of our hands...

Well... it's officially out of our hands now...

We received word earlier last week that our visa petition was officially "cabled" over to the US Embassy in Guangzhou. That should set off the official countdown for our travels to China:

• Approximately 10 business days after the NVC cable - the US Embassy issues the Article 5 letter stating that we are completely in compliance with the Hague Convention rules for adoption and that our little girl meets all the requirements stated under the Hague rules
• About 2 weeks after the Article 5 letter is produced, the Chinese goverernment will issue the travel approval - which is our official invitation over to China to get custody of Mia.
• At TA, we will then book all of our travel - which will include flights into Beijing (likely direct through either Detroit or Chicago), hotel stays for 3 days in Beijing, a domestic flight to Guiyang in the province of Guizhou (3 hr flight), more hotel stays in Guiyang (likely staying here for 4-5 nights at the Sheraton Guiyang), another flight from Guiyang to Guangzhou (another 3 hrs), hotel stays for 4-5 nights in Guangzhou, a 3 hr bus ride to Hong Kong, then our flight back to the US out of Hong Kong. Travel dates are typically 2-4 weeks after TA.
• So right now, based on my elegant date models (haha)... we are still on track for a late October / early November departure.

I will say that it is all very surreal being at this point... and there's so many questions still lingering in our minds... like:

• What will her reaction to us be?  (likely petrified and quite upset)
• Has the orphanage even told her about us yet and shared the items in the care package we sent? We know that a majority of the time they do share everything with them, but there are cases where the little girl doesn't even know they're being adopted until that very same day...
• Will Mia and Ashlyn get along together?
• Obviously finances are always on my mind... that's alot of $$$ for the travel plans... not to mention the huge sum of cash we need to take for the orphanage donation...
• How well will we do with the language barrier?
• How well will Mia handle the sheer culture shock of living in the US? I have heard through a good friend locally that has adopted a young girl from China last December that there's a restaurant near here in central Ohio that cooks fried chicken's feet... something their daughter have been simply craving since coming to the US... I can just imagine that chicken's feet might be on our menu soon...

So anyways, the nice travel coordinator at America World adoption said that the next time we hear from them will be to inform us of the TA and to begin booking all our travel plans...  it's so incredible to believe that a mere 8-10 weeks from now, we will be back home and beginning life as a mixed family of 6!! As daunting as that is, I know I got a great teammate in my wife, and we can take on this awesome challenge. So, in the words of one of my favorite characters on TV nowadays:  

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!