We are in Minneapolis

We decided to leave this afternoon. Chris felt it would be in our best interest to be in Minneapolis tonight instead of leaving early Sunday morning (thanks Joel!). We are staying with our wonderful friends Jess & Ryan. We enjoyed a great cheeseburger meal at Ruby Tuesday's complete with endless fries! Chris was in glory.
Next post will be from China!!!!!

Packed

We spent today packing and double checking that we had everything on our packing lists. We are completely packed and ready to go. We got everything of ours and Emma's into a suitcase, large backpack (thanks to Joel & Emily) and a carry-on suitcase! We are under the weight limit and still have room for shopping.
Now we are enjoying an evening of hockey - Chris is disappointed that the Gophers game is delayed until late tonight. But he is happy that he can watch the MN Wild.
We are anxious to begin our trip and our parenthood journey.

Our Last Day of Work

Today was our last day of work. We both work with wonderful, generous, caring people. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the support you have given us. We couldn't have made it through the wait without you.

Happy Year of the Ox!

The Lunar New Year, which begins today, ushers in the Year of the Ox. Those born under the Ox sign are dependable, calm, modest and stable.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Lunar New Year!

What will keep us busy on our long flights?

Ok, we need suggestions of what we should do while on the 12 1/2 hour flight to Tokyo. Then we have a 3 1/2 hour flight to Beijing. I am not worried about keeping busy on the flight home - we will have Emma to do that for us. Last night we were with our wonderful friends, Jess & Ryan. They had some suggestions for Chris - they were quite entertaining. What do you suggest for us?

In a week - we will be leaving

We have been busy preparing for our trip. We received our final travel arrangements from our adoption agency. We are thrilled that our Family Day is still February 9.
We have practiced packing. Believe it or not - we packed Chris and my things into one suitcase! It is amazing! We are really trying to pack light to keep within the airlines baggage requirements. It is hard to believe that in a week we will be flying to Beijing!
A big thank you to everyone for their thoughts, words, support and prayers. We are truly touched.

Emma's First Birthday

Today is Emma's 1st Birthday!

Travel Plans

Our travel conference call with our agency on Monday night was very informative. It was 1 1/2 hours long. We did receive confirmation of our US Consulate appointment in Guangzhou. It is Tuesday, February 17 at 10:00 am. Since we finally received this confirmation we were able to start making travel plans. We are tentatively scheduled to leave for Beijing on Sunday, February 1. We will be in Beijing until the 7th, then we will travel to Nanning. We should have Emma on the 9th (Family Day). We will be busy in Nanning completing part of the adoption process. We will then travel to Guangzhou during the weekend, possibly Valentine's Day. On February 18th we will travel to Hong Kong. Our return home date is February 22.
We should have these plans made final on Friday or next Monday. I am hoping Friday.

Travel News

We received an update from our agency. We need to be in Nanning, Guangxi (the capital of Emma's province) on February 8. We will know more on Monday night during our travel conference call. It is amazing that we will be with Emma in a month or so!! We will keep everyone posted.

Travel Approval

Today we received travel approval from China. We could not schedule any adoption procedures in China until we received our travel approval. Our agency has already been in contact with our guide. Our guide will be contacting Emma's orphanage about scheduling our appointments. Then an appointment will be scheduled with the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. Our agency expects to hear about our appointment on Monday or Tuesday, then we will be able to schedule our flights! After three long years of waiting, the process is starting to move ahead quickly!

Update on Emma

Ann at Redthread (care package company) is amazing! She received an update on Emma! She has two bottom teeth. She is 27 1/2 inches and weighs 16 1/2 pounds. It was great to hear some news about Emma.