Five weeks ago, we were saying, “Baah…we have five weeks. Plenty of time!”

Could you please tell us what happened to the last four weeks? Somebody stole them.

Final preparations began in earnest today.

After the soccer game, Carmi went shopping sans Eliana to buy gifts for those people in China who play an important role in our trip like the orphanage nannies, the orphanage director and our guides. The gifts are small and inexpensive but practical for them.

Somewhere along the way, she managed to find her way back to Kohl’s.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I prepped our laptop for it’s very important job. There was 2 years worth of junk on there so I copied all of the digital pictures to an external storage device and then reformatted the hard drive. Doesn’t sound like a tough job but it took 3-4 hours to update the operating system and reinstall the other necessary software.

It’s coming down to crunch time.

This is a sweet document to receive in the mail.

Our itinerary is tentative because there are still details for our agency to work out. We’ve got some extra traveling this time around. For the moment, though, here is what our schedule looks like:

Sep 14
Fly out of Charlotte, NC at 10:00 am.

Sep 15
Arrive Beijing at 3:00 pm China time and check in at the Wangfujing Grand hotel.

Sep 16
Tour Forbidden City in the morning. Take afternoon train to Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, and check in at the Hebei Century Hotel.

Sep 17
Take taxi to Baoding, apply for Karys’ passport and return to Shijiazhuang. We have requested to visit Karys’ orphanage in Baoding but don’t know yet if we’ll be able to. This is also the day that Karys becomes ours but we also don’t know if this will happen in Baoding or Shijiazhuang.

Sep 18
Sightseeing in Shijiazhuang

Sep 19
Sightseeing in Shijiazhuang

Sep 20
Sightseeing in Shijiazhuang

Sep 21
Receive Karys’ passport.

Sep 22
Take train back to Beijing and check in again at the Wangfujing Grand hotel.

Sep 23
Tour Summer Palace and the Great Wall.

Sep 24
Fly at 10:00 am from Beijing to Guangzhou and check in at the White Swan. Karys will have her health checkup.

Sep 25
Consulate appointment.

Sep 26
Swearing-in ceremony.

Sep 27
Return home!

I’m already tired just thinking about it!

Carmi and I received word today from our agency that the China Center of Adoption Affairs (also known as the CCAA) has approved our travel to bring Karys home. So it’s official!

For the benefit of those who haven’t previously been following our journal (shame on you!), we leave in 24 days on Friday, September 14th and return on Thursday, September 27th. Our travel group will include me and Carmi, our 5-year-old daughter Eliana who was adopted from Shaoyang, Hunan in 2002 and Tema, one of Carmi’s sisters.

You can see pictures of Karys here and here.

We quickly finished supper this evening and hustled over to the local CVS before they closed to get a photo taken for Eliana’s visa.

Is it just me or does this look like a mug shot??

I mean, I did tell her not to smile but for some strange reason she seriously seemed a little uneasy with the young girl behind the camera. I stood behind the crouching girl waving my hands and making faces to put Eliana at ease but she never flinched.

Our plane tickets have been ordered for China.

We leave Charlotte at 10:00 am on September 14th, connect in Chicago and arrive in Beijing at 3:00 pm (3:00 am EST) on September 15th.

On the return flight, we leave Hong Kong at 12:45 pm (12:45 am EST) on September 27th, connect again in Chicago and arrive in Charlotte at 6:48 pm EST on the same day.