Happy Thanksgiving/5 more days!

Happy Thanksgiving! Only 5 more days until we leave. There were so many times I thought this adoption would not happen and now I am typing 5 more days.....How exciting! We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season, family, friends, our health and a little girl waiting for us in China. God has truly blessed us. We are so thankful for all the support and prayers through this process.

I am so excited and happy but also a little nervous and so many other emotions. I can't wait to hold Ciarra after only having a picture to look at for several months but also a little worried about leaving the kids at home. A HUGE thank you to my parents, Grandma Shers and Pop for taking care of them while we are gone with not much of a break. I know taking care of 3 kids with very busy schedules is a lot when you are not use to it. We will have a cell phone in China and will be calling home often and of course will have to get updates on basketball games.

We are traveling with 4 other families and have been in contact with them. One of the families will be on our flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo to Beijing. There are 3 boys and 2 girls that will be united with their forever families. Please pray that all have a smooth transition.

Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving and our next post will be from China!

Itinerary

Today we received our itinerary. It looks like a busy couple of weeks but we do have a couple free days that will be good for just spending time at the hotel with Ciarra and bonding. We are so excited and ready to travel. I have attached a photo of the care package so that I can make sure it works. We were hoping to have an updated photo of Ciarra to add but it looks like we will have to wait until we get to China.

Dec. 2nd - Depart Cedar Rapids at 9:00 a.m to Minneapolis to Tokyo to Beijing.

Dec. 3rd - Arrive Beijing at 9:40 p.m.

Dec. 4th - Visit the Great Wall and Cloisonne Factory.

Dec. 5th - Visit Tiannanmen Square, the Forbidden City and Hutong Tour.

Dec. 6th - Meeting in the afternoon and Acrobatic show in the evening.

Dec. 7th - Fly to Jinan and meet Ciarra in the afternoon - Gotcha Day!

Dec. 8th - Adoption registration and notarization.

Dec. 9th - Travel to Qingdao (Ciarra's birth city) for her passport and back to Jinan in the evening.

Dec. 10th - Free

Dec. 11th - Visit Daming Lake Park.

Dec. 12th - Receive all documents and fly to Guangzhou and stay at the White Swan.

Dec. 13th - Medical exam in the morning and meeting in the afternoon to review consulate documents.

Dec. 14th - Free.

Dec. 15th - Visa appointment.

Dec. 16th - Go to consulate at 3:00p.m. to take the oath and pick up visa.

Dec. 17th - Fly home.