Update on Travel, but No Confirmation - Yet....

I opened up an email this morning with a title of "Trip to China" and my gosh my heart began pounding!

Here is what it said:

(From our SW)
Hi Jerry and Suzanne,
You can start to check into flights but DON't purchase until dates are finalized. You may want to check with Lawrence at Delight Travel to see if he has any less expensive tickets.

(From the Partner Agency)
This message from Adam is for our families in group 126B. The Consulate appts. have not been scheduled, so families should probably not book flights yet, unless the cost of paying a change-of-flight fee looks much lower than the cost of waiting a few more days to schedule flights. But we do want your families to be aware of the possible timeframe. Cyndi, we think, and are hoping this TA packet will include your expedited China family.

(From the Coordinator)
Hi Amy,

It looks as if TAs are on the way to here soon. This will be out next group.

Please tell families to start to look at the ticket situation as:

April 13, US -> Beijing, arriving on April 14.
April 29, China -> US.

Yeah! - I think we have some idea of travel timelines, but I still can't book flights yet. However, I will place some calls today to see what we are looking at as far as options.

Jadyn - Mommy and Daddy are getting closer!

A Disappointing Travel Update...

My SW emailed me late yesterday with an update from the partner agency stating that our TA's still have not arrived. The email also stated that our China coordinator has been looking at possible travel dates. He said that with the trade show in Guangzhou on the week of April 12, he would prefer not to have families travel then, because their hotels would cost 2-3 times as much if they did so (already knew that!). So he is looking at travel with arrival dates around the 19th. The family should not book flights until he schedules the Consulate appt., but that at least gives a rough idea.

I knew from the minute I heard the words Trade Show that we would be in trouble. Everything that could possibly impact our process has and why would this be any different?

So, looks like we have another 3 weeks to wait until we can leave - I am frustrated, depressed, sad, angry, and longing to hold my little girl! It is hard to believe that she was just 6 1/2 months old when we were matched, but she will be 9 months old by the time we get to hold her.

I'm off to try to find something positive out of all of this...

Birth Mother's Poem...

She left you one morning
She had no choice.
In a country of millions
She had just one voice.

The law made it clear
One child would do.
To obey it would mean
No hope for you.

As she laid you down
Her eyes became blurried.
On saying goodbye
Said don't you worry.

Another will come
To take my place.
A mother will come
From a different race.

She'll hold you and love you
As if you're her own.
She'll take you away
To a brand new home.

She then ran away
Her heart broke in two.
Don't ever forget
Of my love for you.
Tom Fisher

Still No Word on Travel...

OK - To say that I am beyond frustrated would be an understatement! I do not know what is taking so long. The most recent batch of referrals from March 1st have started to get their travel assignments and we have yet to receive ours! I am on edge every time my phone rings, I am checking my email a gazillion times a day, and I am more than ready to hold my daughter!

I know our SW said that they SHOULD arrive this week - key word being SHOULD; which isn't much comfort for me. I can say that WOULD is a more appropriate word and then I WOULD be feeling a little better. It is only Wednesday, but I decided to email our SW anyway to see what the heck is up. I want to know if something is holding up our travel group's paperwork or what - seriously, if they thought they were on their way as of last Thursday, it SHOULDN'T take until Thursday or Friday of this week for them to arrive. Packages are usually sent overnight from China so the agency certainly SHOULD have received them by now! Can you sense my snarkiness????

I feel like recording a message to play back to the question I keep getting asked -"When do you travel?" - It is getting more and more difficult to answer that one these days...

Update on TA...

Well, I received an email from my SW today letting me know that she has been informed that our group's TA's should arrive next week. She will call as soon as it arrives - I am very anxious to find out the timing of our appointments!!!

Yesterday, I stopped by the clinic to pick up the medical forms for the boys just in case they need medical care while we are gone. I have to name my Mom and Justin as guardians, so two forms for each of the minor children - 6 forms total:)

I also had to get our vaccination affidavit notarized so that Jadyn can receive her vaccinations here in the U.S. instead of in China.

I am getting everyone filled up on their prescription medications for while we are gone so I think almost everything is in order. We can hop on that plane anytime now!!!

A Shower From the Ladies at Work...

On Tuesday, March 9th the ladies at work held a baby shower for me after work and it was so nice. We went to dinner at a local restaraunt and had time to chat and laugh! They gave me some wonderful gifts; a few baby toys which we needed, wonderful adoption books, and now Jadyn is going to be one of the most stylin' little girls as they filled a bag of adorable little clothes for her. I also received several outfits from my VP which were absolutely beautiful! They had balloons and a cake, as well! They really went out of their way to make it a wonderful, memorable evening for me!

Thank you to everyone; Kathy, Beth, Lori, Krista, Jenny, Julie, JoAnne, Mallory, and Cory!

Still No TA...

Unfortunately, we are not any closer to knowing when we will travel. Many of the people from the February referral batch have been receiving their TA's (travel assignments) over the last two weeks and appear to be leaving anytime between March 12th and March 31st.

I emailed our SW again over the weekend to see if there was any news on our group and she said that she will check in again with the partner agency, but that she still believes we will travel around the 8-week mark (post-referral). That puts travel around April 1st or so. She said that we will probably have little notice on travel and she believes that it will be soon.

I hope so because I have heard of some agencies delaying travel for families until after the trade show (April 15 - May 3) and I certainly do not think Jerry and I can wait until early May to hold our little one!

My Surprise Baby Shower...

My wonderful sister threw me a surprise baby shower on Sunday and it was absolutely beautiful! She has secretly morped into Martha Stewart's hidden twin and left nothing undone - she hand stamped the invitations AND EVEN the thank you cards!









She made all of the food; the menu included chicken salad on croissants, turkey sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit salad, chips, veggie platter, pickles, homemade punch (spiker was available at request:-))and of course, a beautiful cake!

She had primrose plants as table toppers and door prizes and the decorations were so cute with balloons, daffodils, banners, and hanging lanterns. She had pink M&M's and snackmix throughout, pink hershey kisses wrapped in cute netting for each guest. She had cute baby feet stamped on the back of the placemats for the lucky winner to take the table top plant.

Then, she had some baby themed scratch off lottery tickets for "door prizes" which were cute little hurricane candle lamps.

She also created a scrapbook which she had displayed along with Jadyn's referral picture right when the guests walked in so they could write a message to Jadyn - they are such treasured messages! She told me that I have to give it back though because she is not done with it yet:)

We received such wonderful gifts and truly appreciate everyone taking the time out of their day to share in the joy of bringing our daughter home! I know that there were some family and friends who also were not able to be with us, but we know they were there in spirit and we appreciate their love and support!



A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to my sister, Kathy! You're the greatest sis in the world and you've always been a fantastic Auntie and I know you will be adored by Jadyn, too!

Thank you to all who attended, sent their gift, or participated in our day simply in spirit - we truly feel blessed and overwhelmed by all of the love and support from all of you!!!

Clarification on Name Translation...

There is a wonderful lady on the Rumor Queen site that many PAP (prospective adopting parents) who are adopting from China rely on for information related to China's culture and any other relative information. I just found out that she provides a translation of your child's name if you provide the Chinese pinyin characters so I decided to ask her what Jadyn's full name means since I felt like we were missing part of the translation. I also wanted to be sure that we should keep both of her names as her middle name. Here is what she wrote:

留 translates as "keep", or to "reserve", or can mean " wear" (this is Liu)

Click below and hover over 'liu' to hear prononciation:
English-Chinese Dictionary: liu

碧 translates as "green jade", which is the most precious and revered of the jades in China. (this is Bi)

Click below and hover over 'bi' to hear prononciation:
English-Chinese Dictionary: bi

留 碧 combined conveys a meaning of "treasured jade", with treasured meaning a family heirloom, something that would always be kept and never let go of.


I think this is just perfect for a daughter that we will certainly treasure and never let go of!

There is a shop owner in China that will beautifully write the pinyin characters of your child's name; we'd like to do that with Jadyn's name and hang in her room.

Now, only if our TA would come! I've only heard of one person receiving theirs and one other person said that they were told by their agency that they probably would not get theirs until early April, but that seems hard to believe because travel would then be 1-3 weeks beyond that, which would make it 10-12 weeks after referral!

Let's hope that is not true!

The Care Package...

I received an email from Ann at Red Thread with two pictures of the care package that I ordered; it includes some cashew shortbread cookies and tea for the foster family and a panda bear and blanket for Jadyn. It also has a letter that I wrote to the foster family with some questions that I've asked about Jadyn and a disposable camera that they will hopefully use to take pictures while we wait to come and meet them. It looks great!




Here is a close up of the blanket; I think she wanted to be sure that I knew it was pink since I accidentally ordered the 'boy' package on the website - she was sure to correct that error for me!



Ann is wonderful and I highly recommend her!

I've been busy shopping and packing; I have almost all of the items from my list and most of it fits into one suitcase and the two backpacks, but not all. I am also worried about the weight limit so I will have to distribute the items accordingly; I still have to get one more suitcase, though, and then we should be all set.

I am waiting for our visas and then I have to get our paperwork in order. This past weekend I got my new computer up and running and have my oldest son, Justin, loading my camera and camcorder software on it today. He is also going to be labeling the cords and chargers so we can begin to pack up the laptop backpack. We will want to make sure everything is fully charged before we leave though.

Now, we just need to wait on our TA which will hopefully come in the next week and then we can book our plane tickets - WoooHooo!