official

while we don't have the tickets in our little red hands they have been signed and paid for. we have our appt's in China scheduled and now all that has to happen is the planet must keep spinning in order for Wed, Aug. 3rd to get here.

here's the rough over view. i'll post a more specific itinerary when we get it from the adoption agency.

aug 1 & 2 - head to wichita, get the boy settled in with the grandparents.

aug 3 fly to denver, meet up with most of the rest of our travel group. fly to LA. wait for midnight. fly to guangzhou.

aug 5 arrive in guangzhou (it's a 15 hour flight but we cross the date line and lose thursday). hop a flight to changsha, capital of hunan province. (did i mention that waaay back in january i pinned this to be the city where joy would be from? i was off, but that is the city where we will adopt her from!) stay the night.

aug 6 hop on a bus and travel 8 hours into the mountains to yuanling where the orphanage is. (did i mention we're helping to build an orphanage in cambodia? you can help, too! click the link to the right.) see orphanage, joy's home town, hopefully the place she was found and her foster parents, too.

aug 7 back on bus, 8 hours downhill to changsha.

aug 8 joy's adoption is official!

aug 13 fly to guangzhou. we have the whole week to do i don't know what! it'll be exciting. i'm sure there will be some tours and things we'll do as a group. maybe i'll catch star wars 3 in chinese?

aug 17 appt at american consulate. joy is officially a US citizen. we have several days here to also see the city, etc.

aug 19 at 9p fly back to LA where we land at 6:30p - before we left.

aug 20 fly to denver to wichita to the boy whose birthday it is today! we've been telling him that his new little sister is bringing him a present all the way from China. a toy, he says? yes, probably a chinese toy. (i don't mention that most of his toys are from China already).

then we'll see how we do as a family of four! i'll try to be diligent and post regularly as we go.