We are in Beijing!

So we survived the plane ride. What can I say about it. It was long. Very long. Our travel time from leaving our house to arriving at our hotel was 25 hrs. All, of course, very worth it.

We did have one scary moment on the plane. It was when our plane was about to land at the Washington Dulles Airport. We were just about to touch down...literally just about to touch down. I was watching the runway getting closer and closer, when suddenly we were jerked upwards again. You could hear the engines rev up to high gear (is there such a thing on planes?) as we shot skyward again. We then began to circle the airport again. Of course Scott and I were looking at each other with our eyebrows raised. Then the pilot came on and said that there had been a plane in our way!!!! Yikes!

We are so glad that we got to leave when we did. Scott was just downstairs converting some money and on his way back up in the elevator one of the other families told him that the CCAA has just suspended all travel due to the swine flu. Talk about a close call!

We Are On Our Way!!!!!!!!!!!!

WooooooHooooooooooo!

It was a bright early start for us today. Our good friend Jim dropped us off at the airport. We never would have asked for a ride, but when someone offers even after they know how early you are leaving.... you take them up on it! Thank you Jim!

We left our house at 3:15am. Of course the ride down to the airport was a breeze. This is the only time I have ever travelled around the Atlanta vicinity that I didn't see traffic. So now you know, if you want a traffic free ride...3-4am is it!

Then, when we got to the United counter we found out that we couldn't check in for another 1/2 hour. So why don't they tell you to ignore the "two hours early" rule if your flight is at 6am? We could have had another 1/2 hour of sleep. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but to us right now it really is. We went to bed after midnight .... lots of double checking our luggage to make sure we weren't forgetting something, and lots of cleaning so that our house guests won't think we are slobs... or at least not too much. (Just don't look in the closets!) Plus it is always nice to come home to a clean house after a trip. (To our guests... just throw some cleaner in the toilet and the "clean smell" will be there again when we get home! ha ha! PS thanks for doing that for us!) Plus, friends pointed out that this is the last chance for our house to be clean......forever! We are ready to have the mess of twins! Will that finally give me an excuse for all my clutter? Yes, Scott, I know....NO CLUTTER ALLOWED!

I can't believe we are finally on our way. It still doesn't seem quite real.

Right now I am blogging from the Washington Dulles Airport. We have an almost 5 hour layover here. We originally had flights set up with a much smaller window on the layover, but on the advice of our agency we moved it to a longer window in case of flight problems. Our flight to DC was smooth sailing. We did have to loop around after the first attempt to land, there was a plane in the way... I'm glad they noticed! So now we are chillin' in the airport. We are trying to stay awake w/out napping until our flight leaves. That is hard to do when you are working on 2 1/2 hours sleep. But if we fall asleep when we leave here, we will be timing in with when we should be sleeping in China as there is a twelve hour time difference.

See you all at our next posting! (had to throw a little "Georgia" in there!)

Blogging our way to and through China

Hello all!

Scott and I are leaving on our trip of a lifetime!

The trip to meet and bring home our little boys!

I'm unable to put in words what this means to us.

We are going to attempt to blog during the whole trip. The good, the bad, the ugly.

We hope you enjoy following along!

what's going on?

Sorry folks, we've been busy!

Yes, we did get our Consulate Appointment for the day we were requesting: May 12th!

So we will be on our way next week. NEXT WEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It now feels like a mad dash to the finish line, with the finish line being getting on that plane!

We are so excited, and still feel like there is lots to do.

ie.....today (yeah day off!) dentist...had a filling fall out, fire dept...need to check carseat installation, mall.....need to buy our adoption officials, orphanage director, nannies, etc gifts. (It is part of the culture in China to give gifts as a thank you for completion of a service, etc. I am not really knowledgeable about this, but do know it is customary and "when in Rome" or in this case China....do as they do!) Then review our packing list to see what else is missing! Call our agency to find out about the in- China travel, and who knows what else!

Ta Ta....off to another busy day!

Thank you!

We want to send out a big thank you to all of you who helped us celebrate the other night at Karen & Jim's house.

K&J are very, very good friends (we call them our Georgia Family). They threw us a party/shower/celebration!

K, as always, made some amazing food.....mmmmmm!

My sister, Christina, sent us a beautiful fruit bouquet for the event! Thank you, Christina!
It was beautiful and yummy!


It was a lot of fun to have a bunch of our friends all together helping us celebrate...and it gave us a one night breather from all our running around (ha ha!)

Thank you all for the wonderful gifts you gave us for our boys. We greatly appreciate it.

TA!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOO
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!


WE HAVE TA!

ok....its hard to stop screaming, and jumping, and crying tears of joy!

We are going to go get our boys!!!!

Our Travel Approval from China just arrived!

Now our agency is trying to get our CA... our Consulate Appointment. Once they lock in that date, we can buy our tickets and go!!!!!!!!!

They are requesting May 12th! Yes that's right ! And that is the last thing we do in China before we head home!!!!!!

If we get that date we should be leaving April 29th!!!!!!!!!

2 WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


WOW, OH WOW, OH WOW!!!!!!!!


(can you tell how excited I am as I post this?)

We had been told it would come fast at the end .....but WOW!

We have a lot to do....still!

Thank you everyone who put up with me today! I know its hard to take a grown women bouncing and screaming and bouncing some more!

Check out this cake....and our cuties too of course!

We sent our little guys a cake! We got back pictures!!! They had a party Yeah!

Received updated photos!!!

We knew that when LOA was sent back in our agency would request updated information for us, but we were told it would be measurements.

We are so HAPPY to get to see our little guys!