Travel Meeting!!

We finally had our travel meeting on May 12th. It was great to see Heather and Todd, the couple we will be traveling with and a few other couples who may join us in China. Sandy explained the whole process from referral to bringing Sophie home. She told us that she hopes that we will have our referral in the beginning of June, maybe June 5th or 12th. She will call letting us know that referrals have arrived. We will go to the office the next day after the documents have been translated. We will get three pictures of the baby and her medical information. Hard to believe that this is going to happen.

We then will wait about 4-6 weeks for travel approval. Once we get our travel approval we have to be ready to go seeing once we get our Consulate appointment we will travel. We might have two weeks from our travel approval to departure. She thinks we will be traveling at the end of July. Seeing Katie will be with us during the summer she will be traveling with us to China. Flights are very expensive during the summer so Steve and I are trying to work a little extra to come up with the extra money. We are going to be checking into adoption fares with the major airlines soon.

We were told what we would be doing in China and what to expect in terms of transitioning with the baby. We will be in Beijing for three days, travel to the place where Sophie is and then end up in Guangdong. We were told it will be very HOT in China. Many places will not have air conditioning. Thank goodness all our hotel rooms will have AC. We were told about bonding and that sometimes the baby will bond with one parent (the chosen one) and cry anytime the other parent comes near. Sandy said this is normal but doesn't last long. I certainly hope I am not the unchosen one.

We will need to have our homestudy updated and our fingerprints re-done seeing both have expired. This whole process is overwhelming but we are getting closer. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I am really hoping to be included in the next referral batch that goes out the end of this month. If not, I am not sure what I am going to do.