group49

At our final travel meeting on Wednesday, we received more details on our itinerary. Bear in mind that things don’t always go exactly as planned and there may be some minor changes.

Monday, Jan. 28. Arrive in Beijing, 4 pm after 13 plus hour flight. Additional flight to Nanchang at 7 pm, arrive by 9:30, at hotel around 11 pm. (This could be a rather long day!)

Tuesday, Jan. 30. Morning appointment at Adoption Ministry to meet the girls . Everyone returns to hotel for lunch and to get to know each other. Return to Center of Adoption Affairs in afternoon to complete paperwork and finalize adoption.

Wednesday, Jan. 31 to Sunday, Feb. 4. Time to see the sights in Nanchang, including the world’s largest Ferris wheel and the largest dancing water fountain in Asia. May also be able to visit the orphanage.

Monday, Feb. 5. Pick up the children’s passports in the morning. Afternoon flight to Gaungzhou.

Tuesday, Feb. 6. Get visa photos taken, walk to clinic for immigration physical.

Wednesday, Feb. 7. Another quiet day although we need to stay in our rooms in case there are any questions about the paperwork at the US Consulate.

Thursday, Feb. 8. Trip to US Consulate for “swearing in” and to pick up visas. Farewell banquet in the evening as well as the obligatory “red couch” photo. (Just about every group take a picture of the girls on one of the red couches in the lobby of the White Swan. Check out the Group 35 link to see an example.)

Friday, Feb. 9. Depart Guangzhou for Chicago!

We have our trip schedule…

1/28 Group leaves Chicago O’Hare (Some families are going ahead of group.)

1/29 Group arrives in Beijing, gets directly on another plane for the (relatively) short hop to Nanchang.

1/29 - 2/5 Jiangxi Hotel, Nanchang (7 nights)
We should meet the girls and finalize the adoptions on the 30th.

2/5 - 2/9 White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou (4 nights)

2/9 Return home via Hong Kong.

By the way, the comment submission process is up and running if anyone wants to try it out. Better to find out if there are any problems before we get there:-)

The first time you submit a post it may not show up for a while because I have to approve posts for each new user. (Actually you will see it with the note that it is “waiting for moderation,” but no-one else will see it until approved.) But after that it should go right through as long as you use the same name and computer. I wish this wasn’t necessary but without it these things get pretty cluttered with spam comments.

Another option is to register with a user name and email. Then you can log in from any computer anytime to leave a comment.

As we add posts of pictures of the other families, their names will show up in the “Categories” list to the left. When a post is first put up it will be at the top of the first page but as more posts are added, they will move down and eventually end up on the second page, third page, etc. (I think each page will hold 10 posts.) The Category links will let viewers go directly to those pages rather than having to scroll through all the other posts.