Dozing

Snoozing between walks. 

Lucky for Breeda one of the other families has a 9-year old girl. They hit it off right away and played a racket ball game in the hallway yesterday evening. 

Breeda on plane

Breeda lost her Elite status on Continental when we moved to NJ. No more every-two month cross country flights for her. She was always a great traveling partner and still is. Though the length of this flight is tough on us all! It's now 4:00am and we've been up since 2:00am. That's what happens when you fall asleep at 6:30pm! :)

email back...sortof

I think it's a traffic issue. Can retrieve at night.

email

FYI - Even though we can access a lot more online here in Nanjing than we were able to last time in Shenyang I cannot access my me.com email address.

But, I can access my optonline account. 

Feel free to use my margbennett@optonline.net for now. 

:)

Arrived Nanjing

Two years ago to the day that we left China with Clara, we arrived again much bleary-eyed last night. In the pitch darkness we had our first of what I'm sure will be many interesting car journeys through back roads around the airport to the Nanjing Ramada where the three of us fell asleep within minutes of getting our room. 

Breeda's first day in China was spent getting familiar with our neighborhood. We located a small grocery store for snacks, explored the surrounding streets. Nanjing is a much richer city than Shenyang. The roads and traffic are much more orderly, cars are newer, people are very well-dressed. This is one of the richest cities in China.

As Pam suggested we had a silk hair washing in the hotel this afternoon. Lovely antidote to recover from our journey which was 24 hours door-to-door.

Then we met up with T and her family - another Homeland (our adoption agency) family. Their 9-year old and Breeda enjoyed our walk together. They are playing a game in the hallway now. Later we expect to meet the other family. In the morning we will all meet our guide in the lobby who will take us to meet our children.

Tomorrow: Lila. Finally.

Last US post

Our travel companions are on their way. We will meet them in Nanjing Sunday. 

Lila here we come.

CA

CA .... the final final final final final approval one needs before you can call Continental and book that flight to Beijing. The precious Consulate Appointment. 

Some of you know the lingo.

CA comes after the TA which is after the LOSC, or LOA, which is after the PA, but you might not get the PA, which comes before or after the LID, and the LOI - though the LOI could be before or after the LID - and most of this is after the DTC, though sometimes not.

Then you go on RQ forums and check which LID rec'd their LOSC or their LOA and then which LOA rec'd their TA. And then you start to guestimate. And you're always wrong. Because there is no pattern. And just when you think you've figured out a pattern - that TAs come three weeks after LOSCs, for example - the pattern changes and it changes when it's your turn up. But you watch as LIDs slip off the forum and yours gets closer.

At some point you email your agency's director - any updates? You tell her what you're hearing from RQ. She gives you a little perspective but can't make any guesses. It's not up to her, it's not up to anyone but China Center. 

The online lingo of parents waiting to adopt their children - each represents various approvals, stages, one's dossier goes through once it gets to China. 

At 11:00pm Monday evening I heard my cell phone ring. I knew it had to be news. We (us and the two other families traveling with us) had hoped we'd get it on Sunday night. We share a message board and I had just signed off my resignation that nothing was coming in that night, gone to bed, and then the phone rang. 

It was G, one of the moms traveling with us. I knew it had to be good news and sure enough as I called her back I saw the email from our agency: verbal confirmation for CA. 

That was Monday night. Yesterday we booked. Friday we're off. 

We meet Lila on Monday.