Next Steps and Timing

A few families who are working with other adoption agencies received their travel authorizations today. Our agency is hopeful they'll receive the TA's for our group fairly soon, which would make it likely that we'll travel in mid-September rather than November. Here are the steps in the process:

1. The drop-dead date for receiving the TA's is 8/31. If they don't arrive by then, we'll travel in November.
2. As soon as the TA's are received, the agency will contact the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to make the necessary appointments to complete the adoption.
3. Assuming they are able to book the appointments for late September, we'll leave mid-September. We'll get our baby on the 4th day of the trip. We'll probably meet her in a hotel lobby.

By the way, we'll be meeting our baby in the city of Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province. We will not be able to visit the orphanage, which is 3 hours away. If you'd like to learn more about Nanchang:

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/jiangxi/nanchang/