Acceptances mailed

We received word on Tuesday that our acceptance (along with the rest of the group) was mailed to China. We should receive our Travel Authorization (TA) in about 4 weeks. Once we receive our TA our agency can make our consulate appointment in Guangzhou, China. When they have the appointment date they will work backwards to come up with a Gotcha! date and the dates that we have to be in China. The consulate appointment is actually the last thing we do before leaving to come home. After we have the dates we can get our China entry visas and make plane reservations. With Kathryn's adoption we only had one weeks notice between getting our dates and having to be in China. Luckily we had already applied for our visas! We might get our visas early again this time since they are good for 3 months.

We are trying to find a housesitter now and reserve her for the month of December. Unfortunately, one of our regular housesitters will be unavailable at the the end of December. Yet another reason to travel early! :)

We are still hoping and praying that we can travel at the beginning of December and be home before Christmas.