11/27/06 Part III
Well, for those of you not keeping up with every detail of the previously-mentioned Anderson family and their trip to China, they will be returning with their daughter this week. Katelyn is from the same orphanage as Mary. In fact, the director says they are great friends and play together more often than not. If Katelyn's health and happiness is any way to forecast Mary's, we're in for a real treat. It seems they have been very well cared for and are eager to be loved.
We are, however, putting less faith in reports of Mary's height and weight. Katelyn, like Mary, was thought to have crossed the 20-pound mark. When the Andersons weighed her themselves, they discovered she was closer to just 15 pounds.
I guess we'll see when we have her A WEEK FROM TODAY.
11.27.06 Part II
This weekend, we did the unthinkable.
We installed a car seat in my truck.
What's next...sippy cups in my golf bag? Dora the Explorer stickers on my chainsaw?
It actually looks pretty cool and Leigh's fits her personality to a T.
11.27.06
Arm Update.
Just a few days from our China trip, I thought it was time for a quick arm update.
Met with my surgeon today. I'm ready to travel. He relieved me of my brace and in another 4-6 weeks, I'll have no restrictions whatsoever.
Don't the scars look great for just being four weeks old?
11.21.06
An update on travel:
After Leigh and I were forced to delay our trip two weeks while my arm healed, we were afraid that we had been thrown off any typical travel schedule and would have to travel alone.
That is not the case.
We will be traveling with five other families from CWA, all of whom are picking up special needs children.
We are really very excited to have folks around to share the experience with.
11.16.06
It's been too long since we last posted a Mary picture. It's not new, but it's still pretty cool!
11.12.06
Yesterday, Leigh and I went to the Davidson-Butler football game. It was awesome. Having been a couple of years since either of us had been back, a visit was long overdue. The ' Cats won big, scoring 50 and ending the season 6-4.
Anyway, when we returned home, we found a FedEx envelope from our agency with our in-China travel itinerary (which also infomed us exactly when we'll meet Mary)!
As previously written, we leave Charlotte on December 1st, lose a day, and arrive in Beijing on the 2nd.
Once in China, we will have a guide/translator with us at all times. In fact, I believe he/she will stay in the hotel room next to ours and be 'on call' for whatever we need.
On the 3rd, we will visit the Forbidden City and Great Wall.
On the 4th, we fly to Changsha and get Mary that afternoon.
We spend spend much of the 5th doing paperwork and getting everything notarized.
From the 6th through the 10th we will spend time with Mary sightseeing, shopping and getting to know each other.
On the 11th, we'll get Mary's passport and fly to Guangzhou where she will have a medical exam and get visa photos taken.
On the 12th, we have a visa appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou for Mary to become a US citizen and apply for her visa.
We pick up her Visa on the 13th and leave Guangzhou for Hong Kong on the 14th. From there, we fly home and will actually pick up a day and be in Charlotte late on the afternoon of the 14th.
11.3.06
It's confirmed: We will leave for China on Friday, Dec. 1 and return with Mary on Dec. 14. Details of our travel within China are still being finalized, but this is a very big deal.
For those of you interested in these things and so Mary can one day see why mom and dad were an additional two weeks late picking her up, I decided to post pictures of my injury and recovery.
I'm sure they won't upload in order,but: One is from a fraction of a second before I tore the biceps tendon, hanging a left-front tire in pit practice. Next is a shot of the arm at the race a few days later, one day before surgery. Another is post-surgery and the last was taken just before the stitches came out on 10/30. I will add some from after the steri-strips fall off and the rehab begins.
11.01.06
BIG NEWS.
First, another apology for being slack for two weeks. I actually have been out of commission after tearing my biceps tendon practicing pit stops at Richard Childress Racing for a story on being a pit crew member.
I'm feeling much better, though I am stuck typing with one hand - please excuse the many typos.
Now for the important stuff...
We have known for some time that our travel approval and scheduling was just around the corner. In fact, this is one of several key moments in the process and something anticipated with great joy.
Ironically, after two tough years of waiting, our travel approval came through for November 17th - too soon after my surgery for me to make the trip. Since missing the trip and sending someone with Leigh in my place is totally unacceptible, we had to request a new date. It sucks that after all the delays, I am the cause of another.
BUT...
We now have our dates! We leave Charlotte for Beijing - with a stop in Chicago - on December 1st. We will meet Mary and begin our lives as parents sometime in the first six days. She will become a US citizen at 9:30am on Tuesday December 12th. We will leave from Hong Kong on the 14th and be back in Charlotte by dinnertime on the same day.
