The Amazing Race

Sorry people but I feel like I ran the Amazing race today so I am off to bed.  I will try to post tomorrow!  We are off to Henan tomorrow!  I did post pics on shutterfly.  The link is on the left hand side.  Goodnight, or good morning to y'all!

Busy Day

We all slept great last night until Rusty woke up on the floor because his air mattress sprung a leak!  This caused Jaden to wake up and move to my bed at 2 AM!  Luckily we were all back to sleep thirty minutes later!  And Rusty is happy I packed the duct tape he told me not too.  
This morning we started with a ricks haw ride through a Hutong, which Jaden loved!  We also went to a silk factory and then to lunch.  
After lunch it was the Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  That was pretty amazing.  The smog in Beijing is awful, a lot worse than when we went to Jiangxi to get Jaden.  Our guide is great.  We are trying to teach him to slow down because Jaden's little legs can't go that fast!  
The driving is crazy here but we expected that.  One of our travel mates had a car back into him today!  luckily the dude wasn't going too fast!  
I can not say enough how great Jaden is doing.  She is having a great time.  She asked me today when her baby brother was going to meet us in China!  I hope she still feels that way in a few days!
I will try to post pictures in shutterfly.  

We are here!

We got to Beijing today!  We went right to the hotel and are now getting ready to sleep.  I did not sleep at all on the plane but Rusty and Jaden got a total of three hours!  Tomorrow we begone our sight seeing so more to post tomorrow!  I will try my best to post come pictures!  Now good night, well goon morning to y'all!                

T- 5 days and counting!

I can not believe the time has come to go to China once again for our little guy! It seems surreal. But the checks have been written and the plane tickets are in hand so it is very real! Up until today I was super calm. As a matter of fact many of my friends have called and commented on how calm I am. But today has been another story! I am FINALLY freaked out! It all started when I went to the bank to get the clean $100 bills. They told me it would take 2 days and I even questioned that since it was so fast but they said that was right. I went into today and now they say it takes a week!!! Thats a problem since we leave Wednesday! They are trying to get it and I should know by tomorrow if I have to start visiting different banks! So after freaking out I decided to drop Jaden off at the neighbor's, covered in chocolate ice cream and do some last minute running around ALONE! Now all the prescriptions are filled, OTC meds are bought and many coloring books are now packed in kiddie backpacks! Oh and remember that room renovation that Rusty started on 4 weeks before we leave for China? Well it didn't get done! But I guess its a good thing because now my dinning room looks like this...

My dinning room is now packing central! So far the only thing I have packed is Warren! Oh and of course 5 shirts for myself! And these two little things too...

The kids' backpacks are packed and ready to go. Now to keep Jaden out of her's until the trip! And yesterday was proof to me that we are going on a trip. When I get stressed I get clumsy! So of course yesterday I fell! I landed on my knee which is now black and blue and swollen! Luckily nothing is broken but it hurts like crazy. I am hoping it is better before that long flight! So the next few days will be filled with packing and stressing! I plan on keep this blog updated while we are in China, plan being the key word! :-) We leave Ohio on 10/24 at the crack of dawn and fly to Chicago. We have a 3 1/2 hour layover and then our flight takes off for Beijing around noon. We will get to Beijing at 2:30pm on Friday their time. On Sunday we will fly to Warren's province and have our Gotcha day the following day! Then later in the week we fly to Guangzhou. We will take the train to Hong Kong on 11/9 and then fly to Chicago 11/10. We will FINALLY get in Columbus at 6:30pm 11/10! Luckily Jaden will be getting home the day before she turns 4! Rusty on the other hand will turn 39 in China! We are all so excited to meet our son and brother!

C freaking A!!!

We finally got our CA yesterday!!! So that meant yesterday was the day I dreaded! Booking our flight day! With Jaden's adoption it was crazy and plane tickets were going up right before my eyes and they were selling out. I promised myself then that never again would I do that! So this time I contacted a travel agent and let him deal with it! It still ended up taking all day but finally at 6 last night they were booked! We will leave Columbus at the crack of dawn on the 24th and make a connection in Chicago that will take us straight to Beijing! Notice I said Chicago and not Newark. That was my one request to the agent that we NOT fly out of Newark! After an 8 hour delay which caused us to spend 11 glorious hours in the Newark airport I NEVER want to be there again, so Chicago it is!!! We can't wait! The countdown is on!!!

TA!

We finally received our TA(travel approval) yesterday afternoon! CCCWA was nice enough to send it before they went on vacation for a week. Our two choices were leaving 10/24 or 10/31. Of course we went with 10/24! We now have to wait till next week to find out our Consulate appointment since they are on Holiday all week! Nice timing! My WONDERFUL friend Kelley surprised me yesterday with the cutest shirts for Jaden and Warren!

Can't wait to see them on! We are pretty much ready to go! We met my wonderful parents this weekend in Nashville so they can keep our three dogs! Thanks mom and dad!!! We had to buy new luggage because on our last trip to China ours was damaged!

Our passports with visas are back and ready to go!

Warren's clothes have been washed and put away.

Oh and Rusty decided to add a little stress to my life along with the adoption, planning Jaden's party this weekend and holding our adoption reunion next week. He decided to remodel the dinning room! He promised it would be done by next Wednesday but for the last 3 weeks it has looked like this...

It's getting closer!

Well I can hardly believe it but we are getting so close to picking up Warren! Yesterday our Article 5(I have no clue what this is)was picked up in Guangzhou and is on it's way to Beijing. We are now waiting for our TA(travel approval)! I have seen these come from 8 days to 3 weeks after Article 5. After that our agency will find out our Consulate appointment and then flights will be booked! It is hard to believe that it has been less than a year since this started and we are almost on our way to China! It looks like I will not be getting an update on Warren before we go. I am going to plan for him being on the big side like his sister, but I will take a few smaller outfits just in case. Not sure if he is potty trained or still on a bottle, guess I will prepare for that just in case. Here at home we are nesting! The funny thing is that its not me but Rusty. He decided we needed to move all the furniture out of the living room and clean the carpets!

Jaden and I have gotten our flu shots for the trip and all of the prescriptions we hope not to need! Now I am planning Jaden's birthday party a month early which will be followed by Jaden's China sister reunion here the next weekend! But I am not stressed! This reunion will be very low key! Somewhere in there I have to take the dogs to Nashville to meet my parents so they can keep them while we are in China! The next few weeks are going to be a little hectic for sure! Jaden is so ready to go get her little brother! I really hope that she can help him feel more comfortable with his new family!