Shamian Island... and happy new year!

Just one more quick update before we head to Yangshuo. Here are some pictures from Shamian Island this morning. We met one of the nicest people at a shop near by the hotel. The people we meet continue to surprise us with how nice they are.
 
In Yangshuo I don't expect us to get to email as easily so this may be our last update for a few days. Hope everyone is having a great start to the new year.

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Hong Kong Mansions and More...

When someone uses the word "mansion" in Hong Kong, be sure to have them tell you exactly what they mean. Our first night was spent at the "Mirador Mansion", specifically, "The Cosmic Guest House". (Ok, maybe this part of the name should have clued us in.). I do not know how to explain it, so we will include a picture here. Although, we were initially worried as we entered, our room was very clean and the proprietors were extraordinarily nice and helpful. And we were able to get some much needed sleep.

The next morning, we started our international experience by sitting ourselves down in a Starbucks and ordering lattes. Not such an adventurous start, but a good adjustment activity. Actually, Hong Kong is a great place to adjust since it feels very European and most everyone speaks English. Also, it is very easy to get around, very clean and organized. We went to Victoria Peak and did a short hike. It is beautiful in the high rise city sort of way. Found a great place for lunch, (more adventurous this time). We could not identify some of the veggies in my dish, however, we enjoyed it all except for the ones that looked like deflated balloons.

In the afternoon, we took a train into Southern China. We arrived in Guangzhou around 6 in the evening. All went very smoothly as the hotel van picked us up. We settled in to the hotel, The White Swan. It is the same hotel we will stay at when we meet Isla and quite a contrast from The Cosmic Guest House. Found a Thai restaurant for dinner.

The thing that strikes me the most here is how nice and how polite everyone has been. Exceptional, really.  Ok, off to breakfast and then we fly to Guilin/Yangshou area for 4 days.

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Hong Kong @ Night

First pictures from Hong Kong. Now to some food and sleep.
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Enroute to China

Even getting up at 3am we still just made our flight from Reno to San Francisco. We now have a 5 hour layover in SF before we buckle up for a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong. Ugg.

Last bit of packing

We are finishing packing today. We leave for China tomorrow!
Bottles - check
Baby outfits - check
Camera - check
Diapers - check
Swim diapers - check (?? its 11 degrees outside ??)
We hope that everyone had a wonderful christmas holiday. We did. Thank you to our 'Frosty' neighbors for a great christmas dinner!
Keep checking for more posts. Our next post will include pictures from China. Love to all.

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Travel details

Here are our general travel details so everyone can keep track of us. We will be sending family a more detailed itinerary with contact number etc.

29 December - Fly to Hong Kong
30 December - Stay in Hong Kong
31 December - Stay in Guangzhou
1 - 4 January - Stay in Yangshou
5 - 17 January - Stay in Guangzhou
18 January - Fly home

CONFIRMATION STATION!!

Our dates are now all confirmed! We meet our daughter on January 7th, 2008!!!
Only 3 and a half weeks to go!

Consulate date set, travel dates nearly final!

We heard back yesterday that our consulate date had been accepted. That is a very good sign that our dates will not change. Here is what it looks like.

Depart for China on Dec. 29th.
Dec. 31- Jan 5 explore Guillin / Yangshuo
Jan 5th Arrive in Guangzhou
Jan 7th Finally meet our daughter!!!
Jan 16th US Consulate appointment
Jan 18th Fly home!

Travel Approval Received!

Ok. Finally we received our travel approval from China. That was 3 weeks to the day since our agency mailed back the letter of acceptance.

Now with our invitation to travel to China our agency needs to apply for an American Consulate date. Once we get that (should be this week) we will know for certain when we are traveling.

At this point it looks like we will be traveling in the beginning of January and returning by mid January. We had hoped to get Isla sooner but we were not lucky enough to get our approval in time.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. Hopefully we will be in China with Isla in our arms in less than 4 weeks!

How long must we wait!!??

Hopefully this post will be followed shortly by a post that says "Yeah, we are leaving soon". At this point we are still waiting for the travel approval letter from China. The wait feels longer than the first 2 1/2 years even though it has only been 28 days since we sent the acceptance letter back to our agency.

The good news is that most everyone who received referrals in November now has travel dates and most of them are traveling in early December (we even know of one individual who already has her daughter). The bad news is we haven't received ours yet. :(

I (Will) can't tell you how jealous I am of the families who are leaving this weekend and next week to pick up their daughters. We wish them all a safe journey and that they all find their daughters in good health.

So we will be sure to update the blog as soon as we know when we are going to meet Isla. We are still hopeful we can travel in December but are preparing ourselves for the possibility we will have to wait until January.

Love to all our family and friends. Thanks for all the wonderful gifts for Isla and support for us.

Celebrating with friends!

WOW! Sending out a huge thank you to all of our friends who celebrated Isla's (soon-to-be)homecoming with me yesterday!! Special thanks to Stacie, Christie, Judy, and Kim for hostessing a magnificent "shower". And hugs to Chef Didier for the scrumptious and beautiful pastries.
We are overwhelmed with your generosity! Isla is so lucky to be surrounded with such loving friends. I can't tell you how much we appreciate everything. It was great to see you all and I can not wait until Isla gets to know all her new friends.

Isla Update.....and waiting for TA

We are finally getting back to our blog! Several house projects and setting up for Isla has kept us busy lately!! We have made lots of progress and are ready to bring our new daughter home!

We received the packet giving us more information on our daughter back on November 8th. The packet contained a translated developmental assessment and general info about Isla ZiShao. She is described as active, restless, and liking to play outdoors...hmmm, remind you of anyone? Her favorite activity is listed as "teasing others". She sounds perfect for our family! Isla's development looks great. Her assessment was done at about 6 months of age (on June 12th, Barb's b-day!). She is a bit small for her age, but she appears to be growing well. Big thanks to Dottoressa K. for reviewing the medical info and starting a growth chart!

We are now waiting (not so patiently) for our TA (travel approval )from China. Several new parents who received their referral at the same time we did have received their TA and are preparing to travel later this week!! Hopefully, our agency will soon be calling us with our travel dates. If possible, we will leave a bit early to get in some travel within China. The beautiful area with the limestone karsts is just north of where Isla lives. We would love to see that area and check out the climbing. The soonest we could leave is 10 days from now! On the other hand, it could still be another 3or 4weeks. Hope that we hear soon, we want to go and meet Isla ZiShao as soon as possible!