A week from now we expect to have our TA (travel approval) from the Chinese government. Thankfully, we don't have to travel far:) In fact, because we won't need to wait around for her passport and visa, we can pretty much get her and go home. Well, almost.
When will this happen? 3-5 weeks from now, barring any mishaps. We are so very close now!
When we get a date, I'll post it, but the schedule will look something like this.
- We fly into the capital city of her province on a Sunday evening, all five of us, with our Ayi and perhaps our babysitter, too. Go Team Jubilee!
- Monday afternoon is "Gotcha Day." Daniel and I will show up, all showered and clean with sweaty palms and lumps in our throats, to the Civil Affairs office. They will go in the other room and get her. They will bring her in to our waiting arms. We will cry. We will sign some papers. We will take her back to the hotel with us, to the waiting arms of three little boys.
- Tuesday morning is "Adoption Day." We take her back to the Civil Affairs office and sign more papers. She is ours.
- Wednesday we apply for her Chinese passport, which they will mail to us.
- Thursday we will (hopefully) be able to visit her orphanage, depending on how far of a drive it is. This would be very helpful for her and for us. Thursday evening we fly back home.
Just Jubilee and I will then make another 5-day trip to her capital city in early December, to apply for her American visa. When we bring her on American soil in May, in Little Rock, Arkansas, she will be an American. We will re-adopt her during next summer, on the American side of things, but she will have been legally ours since the Tuesday morning listed above.
And there you have it. Hotel bookings and flight bookings and schedule-making and it is all just weeks away.
Be. Still. My. Heart.
