Countdown....

We are on countdown.... 11 days and counting until we leave for China. We have spent the last week making travel arrangements and booking international flights. It has finally all come together. Here is the plan:

We leave January 20th from Lake Charles and will stay overnight in Houston in order to catch a 6am flight to Beijing. This is not a direct flight (although Continental considers it a direct flight). We will change planes in Newark, NJ and have a 2 hour layover there before heading to Beijing. We arrive in Beijing at 3pm on January 22. Once we arrive in Beijing, we will be staying at the Novotel Peace Hotel through Saturday, January 23rd. During our brief stay in Beijing we have to attend an orientation directed by our Adoption Agency that will brief us on what is to come during the next couple of weeks. We will do a little sightseeing and tour Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

On Sunday, January 24th we fly to Xi'an and will be staying at the Hyatt Regency. This is GOTCHA DAY - we will get our little girl this day and be able to take her with us. We finalize her adoption the next day and will apply for her a passport. We will stay in Xi'an until Friday, January 29th and will have time just to get to know each other, bond and enjoy some down time. Friday afternoon we should receive her passport and will catch a plane to Guangzhou. In Guangzhou we are staying at the White Swan Hotel. The US Consulate is located in this city along with 6 million other people. Keith thinks he hates Houston traffic - just wait until we get here! LOL. Madelyn will need to go through a complete medical exam as well as filing for a US entry Visa. We will stay in Guangzhou until we receive her VISA on February 4th. We will take a train to Hong Kong and will spend the night. This is our last stop in China. The morning of February 5th we will catch a flight to the US and will arrive in Lake Charles at 10:02 p.m. For those that feel so inclined to do so - we would love to see you when we step off the plane in Lake Charles. We will be so homesick for our friends and family and would absolutely love for all of you to meet Madelyn as she arrives home.

Again, we will be communicating through Skype both on our laptops via video connection and through the iPhone Skype app via voice connection. If you have a Skype account please let me know what it is and we can connect.

We still have a couple things left to take care of before we are ready to leave, but we are working on them each day and the list is getting smaller. We purchased a new digital video camera to make it easier for us to download videos of her and share on our blog. I have attached a test video to this blog.

Aside from all the details, I am a bit nervous about flying and so much travel BUT I am "over the moon" excited and can't wait to get my hands on my baby girl!!! We are soooo close.

I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for all your prayers and support along the way!