The wait to bring Michael home

It is just over 3 weeks since that wonderful day that we received our referral phone call that told us we were parents of a beautiful son. Since we have received Michael's first pictures, we have thought of nothing else but getting on that plane to bring him home to us.
But, processes have to be followed, and so we continue to wait. But only for a little while longer.
We have received this week a list of the names/addresses of the other couples that we will be traveling with in China, those in our "travel group". We actually participated today in a conference call with those couples and our agency, learning more about what we need to do to prepare for the trip. There are two travel groups going from our agency. One group of 6 couples will travel to Michael's province, the Jiangsu Province, and another group of 8 couples will travel to the Jiangxi Province. Initially, both groups will start off in Beijing, where we will stay for the first couple of days. We will attend a group orientation session, and do some sightseeing. We think we will plan to travel a day or two earlier so that we can make sure to schedule in a visit to the Great Wall (and have time to recover from the trip!).

The Jiangsu Province, China

Once we leave Beijing, we will travel to the Jiangsu Province where Michael's orphanage is located. We will go to the capital city of Nanjing. We have heard from others who have traveled there before that it is a beautiful city. We will spend a week or so in the Province, and then on to Guangzhou in Southern China where we will finalize the adoption at the US Consulate. We will fly home with Michael out of Hong Kong. A total of 12-13 wonderful, adventurous days in China!

Getting back to our travel group......we will be traveling with a couple from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Maryland among others. But our biggest surprise is a couple on the list who are also from Illinois. In fact, they live 40 minutes away from us, in my hometown of McHenry!! What a small world. We have emailed each other already, and hope to set up a chance to meet in person before we travel. Even better, we have found out that they also have been referred a little boy, who is 12 months old, and this is their first child too!! Only 2 families from our agency received boys, and it is us and them. Michael will have an immediate friend! It would be amazing if they come from the same orphanage.

All indications point to us getting our travel approvals possibly within the next week or so, as TA's usually come out right around referral time. And those behind us are anxiously waiting for their life-changing call, just as we were one month ago. Once we get our TA, we should get travel dates shortly after that. Our best guess is: China here we come, end of July / beginning of August!

Michael, Mommy and Daddy will see you soon!!!