It is hard to believe that the day is finally here. We all leave for China on Wednesday June 18th.
There will be twelve other couples traveling with us from the U.S. to China to bring their children home.
Below is a summary of our adoption journey to China;
6/18 Leave U.S. for Beijing. Departing Honolulu at 10:30am, connecting in Tokyo then on to Beijing arriving on 6/19. We meet our two representatives, Cecilia and Jean, who will be with us during our time in Beijing
6/19 Check into Four Seasons Hotel Beijing. We are so thankful and fortunate to be able to use my work benefit to stay at the Four Seasons, while the rest of the group stays at a hotel close by. In many ways, it would be nice to stay with the group.....but.....its the Four Seasons. http://www.fourseasons.com/beijing/
6/20 Guided Tour of Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Hutong. Adjusting to the new time zone and preparing for what is to come in just a few days
6/21 Guided Tour of The Great Wall
6/22 Depart Beijing for Zhengzhou on China Southern Airlines. Welcomed by our guides Vivian, Yisha and Rita. Staying at the Crown Plaza Hotel with the entire family group.
6/23 Today we receive Jake!!!!! Yeah!!!!! Orphanage Officer, Ms. Wang Ling Juan will deliver Jake to us.
In the afternoon, all of us will sign the Guardianship Agreement. Take registration certificate photos at the registration office and then return to the hotel with Jake.
6/24 All of the families will take a bus to the registration office to complete the Adoption Registration in the morning. After the registration office, we all go to the Provincial Notary Office to complete the notary interview
Then the group will split up and we will all travel separately to the city our children are from. We will travel to Pingdingshan City and apply for his passport with the local Public Security Office.
We need to prepare for an exhausting day of travel and paper work but the great news is we will be able to see a little of the city where Jake was found and hopefully have time to visit the park where he was found.
6/25 A free day to spend together as a new family
6/26 Receive our notary documents in the afternoon
6/27 Travel to Xinxiang City to receive Jake's passport and notary documents
6/28 Leave Zhengzhou for Guangzhou on China Southern Airlines. Staying at Four Seasons Hotel Guangzhou. http://www.fourseasons.com/guangzhou/
6/29 Meet with CCAI representatives, Jocelyn and Raymond, to prepare our paperwork for the Consulate appointment.
6/30 Take a bus to a clinic to complete Jake's visa physical and visa photo taken early in the morning.
7/1 Today is our Consulate Appointment!!!!! In the morning we will go to the US Consulate to take the oath of citizenship
7/2 We will receive Jake's visa packet
7/3 Free Day
7/4 Depart Guangzhou to Hong Kong for our flight home. Hong Kong to Guam to Honolulu
7/5 Welcome Home Jake!!!!!
Weather: http://weather.china.org.cn/english
Staying in Touch: Heather, very smartly, secured a private VPN for us so this should allow us to stay in touch with all of you by Facebook and this Blog. We also changed our cell plans to international which will give us limited text ability. And...when on WiFi, we should be able to Face Time and Skype.
However...we can make no promises that we will be able to stay in touch with all of you. We will be busy bonding with Jake and we may not have the access we hope for.
We love all of you so much. Thank you, for supporting us during this amazing journey. It has been full of incredible signs of confirmation that we are on the right path.
A Thin Red String;
A thin red string started tugging on our hearts over a year ago. At the time we didn't know who or what was tugging on the other end of the string. At times the tugging was painful in our hearts.
Everyday of this adoption journey the pain became less and less because as each day passed we got closer and closer to Jake. Now that the day is here, there is anticipation but the pain is gone.
We can almost see the other end of the string and now understand that the string has always been attached to Jake's heart. Soon we will be able to join the thin red string from our hearts to Jake's heart, allowing us to wrap the string around us. We will be a family.
Love and Light
Team White
