Travel Approval and Consulate Appointment

It's official, I have a travel approval and a consulate appointment! It has been a whirlwind of a week so far! Before I left for Florida, we were told that the earliest we would be leaving is Dec. 20! Then I found out on Monday that it could be as early as the 13th but we were waiting to see when our consulate appointment is!

Now it's official, I am leaving on December 13th and coming back on December 28th! I am flying into Beijing and then flying to Amaya's province on the 16th and meet her on the 17th!
We are staying in her province until the 22nd and then we fly to Guangzhou. There we have our consulate and visa appointment and Amaya gets a medical exam. Then we fly back on the 28th out of Beijing again. It's a 14 hour flight non stop! The longest flight I've ever taken was 9 hours and that was LONG! It's going to be hard but I will think about why I am doing it and that will make me feel better!

At first I was so overwhelmed with how early we are going and what I still have left to get done for the trip and everything I wanted to read about adoption/parenting, childproofing the house,
and stuff I have to get done at my teaching job (find a sub, go over everything with them, prepare materials for them, do report cards) and I was stressing out big time. Thankfully, I have 2 understanding principals and they are understanding of the time crunch and okay with me not turning in report cards until the kids come back in January! so that takes the pressure off!

My family is giving me a baby shower this Saturday - I am excited! We are having a chinese theme for it! :-) I'll post some pictures!

It's hard to believe that after waiting 3 years, now there's only 20 days left until I will be meeting my baby! YEAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!1