Busy times

I have not been a very good blogger lately, but at least I have a good reason for it - two good reasons in fact!

The carpets got cleaned this morning, so after dinner, I'm hoping the carpets will be dry enough for me to start putting things away. We've got most of the baby gates up, only one more to go. Yeah! Our double stroller came in the mail yesterday so that needs to get put together as well. We have a full supply of diapers and wipes so we should be set there, too! Slowly but surely, things are falling into place.

Their closet is filled with clothes beginning with 6/9 month on up to 18 month size. So hopefully, we're set with a good majority of the clothing. We'll have to wait on their winter coats until they are home with us so we know their size. They're going to get a shock when it comes to a good Wisconsin winter. Being from a southern province, they've probably never encountered snow before. I'm sure it will be a shock to their little systems, but they're young and hopefully adaptable. At least they'll have each other to complain to!

I've got my packing list all done and now it's time to put it to some good use! Wish us luck!

And also as exciting, my 7/22 Log-In Date friends are receiving their calls tomorrow and get to see their beautiful daughters faces for the first time. I get to re-live the excitement through their eyes. Yeah!

What an amazing start to the New Year!

Updated photos of the girls

Well, our little girls have certainly grown in the 10 months between our referral photos and our updated photos. These photos were taken on September 2nd, so they are pretty recent. They are about 17 months old here and I think as cute as a button! I can't believe we are only weeks away from holding them in our arms.

Miss "A"

Miss "B"

Consulate Appointments are set!

Double Happiness

Well, the next piece of the puzzle fell into place. We now have our consular appointment set in Guangzhou so we can now book our travel!

We are still waiting for the final itinerary, but our plan is to leave for Beijing on October 3rd, meet up with our travel group on the 7th in Hong Kong and then travel on to Nanchang to meet our daughters and end in Guangzhou where we do the US portion of the paperwork.

So much to do... so little time...

Thankfully, my mother-in-law is going to house-sit for us! Yeah!

Travel Approval!

Today, while I was doing a little shopping at Costco, I got a call from our agency saying that we have our Travel Approval! She wanted to know which preference for dates we wanted. The earlier option, obviously! I want to hold them in my arms already! I don't want them in an orphanage not for one extra second! So now we need to wait until we find out when our agency is able to get us our consulate appointments and that will be the ultimate decision as to when we actually can leave as opposed to when we want to leave. But, we are getting closer to having them in our arms forever.

Happy Day!

Another Busy Day

The paperwork doesn't stop once you get your referral. One thing I can say is that I am now a professional paper pusher! I set up a checklist and marked things off as I got them done. Now, I can honestly say that ALL those items are checked off my to-do list for now until the next round of paperwork hits my desk. Yeah!

Today, I got our applications done for the Visa's that we'll need in order to travel to China. I sent off the paperwork that CCAI (our agency) needed and even got our care package to our girls sent via the lovely USPS. I just love the little cute dolls (great TJ Maxx find!) and their skirts are so soft that I wanted to hug them forever. I hope my girls love them!

p.s. I know this confused a few of my friends - the Jolly Ranchers aren't for the girls... they're for their care workers.