Thursday, May 19, 2011

The nitty gritty

For those of who you may be wondering, "What in the world (literally!) will they do in China for two weeks?," here are the details. 

We are excited about the opportunity to travel throughout China, staying in three different cities.  First, Beijing for two nights.  Second, Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, for five nights.  And third, Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province and the location of the U.S. Consulate, for six nights.  We expect the weather, particularly in Nanjing and Guangzhou, to be exceedingly warm and humid! 

While in Beijing we will participate in an orientation hosted by our adoption agency, followed by tours of Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City.  I'm really looking forward to meeting in person a couple of gals whom I "met" through the Holt online forums.  We've shared with each other all the frustrations and joys of this adoption process over the past year, and now we will meet in China for the very best part so far--adding new children to our families!

On Sunday we will fly to Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu, and on Monday morning (China time...Sunday night here) we will meet Jiushu for the first time and have him with us from that moment on.  I think the adoption may actually be finalized the next day.  We'll spend the rest of the week in Nanjing sightseeing, shopping, and obtaining Jiushu's passport. 

On Friday afternoon we'll fly south to Guangzhou, where the U.S. Consulate is located in Guangdong province.  This is where we'll obtain Jiushu's visa so he can leave the country.  While there we'll do plenty of sightseeing interspersed with paperwork, a final medical exam, and our visa appointment and oath-taking ceremony at the Consulate.  We'll pick up his visa on Wednesday, and leave Guangzhou on Thursday for a very long return flight home.  I believe Jiushu will become a U.S. citizen the moment we land in Chicago. 

Did I leave out anything important?  If you think of anything you'd like to know, leave a comment or send me an email or Facebook message. 

Coming soon:  a prayer guide for our trip. 

6 comments:

HisWife said...

So happy for all of you, Jerusha! Can't wait to meet your new bundle of joy! I'll be praying for traveling mercies!

Doug said...

Can't wait to hear all about it.

petiteblogger said...

Woohoo! So awesome!!! Can't believe we're going next week!

Adrian Roberta said...

I'll be prayerfully following along Jerusha!

Mel said...

Stopping over from WAGI. Have a great trip to China!

Melissa
www.thecorkums.com

Nancy @ Ordinary Miracles & The Crazy 10 said...

I'll be following along with every post and pic!!! Whooo hoooo!
Nancy