Thursday, June 21, 2007

Post-Referral Excitement

Ok - it's been a while since we updated the blog and we were starting to get some complaints from family and friends on the radio silence. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and excitement. After we got the referral, we had a few hectic days of doctor consultations. The medical checks came out fine and we signed off on the referral paperwork the Tuesday after we got the referral (June 11). The night we signed all of the paperwork accepting the referral, we had a nice informal evening with Esther and Gene (Etu and Eugenio) -- they had stopped by to drop off their passports and China Visa application forms since they will be coming to China with us and the other two families in our travel group. Etu brought over some cute baby clothes for Jennifer Rose and Rachel and Etu had a good time checking it out. Eugenio and I reviewed the Visa forms and got everything filled out. I dropped all of the forms back to Barker the next day (Wednesday, June 12) and it felt great to have everything finished on our side.

Barker sent the referral acceptance forms back to China on Friday, June 14 and also sent in our China Visa applications. We hope to get travel approval back from Chinia in early- or mid-July and then Barker will request an appoinment with the U.S. Consulate in China. Once we have that date confirmed, Barker will be able to confirm our travel dates and we can book our travel. We are currently hoping to travel in mid-August but it could come a little sooner or later than that. I had heard that this part of the wait is really difficult but so far it has not been bad at all. We have been so busy -- between the adoption-related stuff and work -- so we have not had too much time to be anxious about the wait.

So that's pretty much it for now. We'll post more later. We have plans to get together with the other two families in our travel group on Sunday at Scott & Elaine's house -- so we're looking forward to comparing notes and just being excited together. We also have more logistical items to go over -- like deciding on a joint gift to provide to the orphanage and also just figuring out what to bring with us to China. But it's somewhat fun to think about that stuff.

Ok - signing off.

J.

3 comments:

Lee K T said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lee K T said...

AHHH - my palms are sweating for you guys. How exciting!! OK, deep breaths - I'm ok now. (my goodness, I'm almost hyperventalating, and I'm not even the one going through the experience :-).

I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am for you guys. I'm working on my quilt patch and message as we speak. Just want it to be special!!!

Yeah!! (OK - i'll go be giddy someplace else now).

Music Gal said...

Can't wait to get together this Sunday. We have a lot of exciting stuff to talk about! Don't forget the pictures so we can all oogle over our little blossoming fruits!

Love, "Little Golden Apricot's Mommy"
Debbie H