They Put Out the Welcome Mat!

It's been just over a week since we saw this group of people waiting for us at the airport:

We started our long journey back to the US on Friday, April 19th.  We left Guangzhou, China around 9 am and took a three hour flight to Shanghai, China.  We collected our luggage, re-checked it for our international flight and joined at least four other guys from Jamie's company for our long 13 hour flight to Chicago.  Normally I don't get too excited about our long flight, but it was special because another family, that works for the same company as Jamie, was in China finalizing the adoption of their son.  

I'll be honest and tell you that I set my expectations really, really low for this flight.  I knew that LBean and EBean would be fine; they have flown this flight many times.  But, ChinaBean on the other hand, she is my loose cannon.  Not many people get excited about traveling with a 20-month old on a 13 hour flight.  I was also a teeny-tiny bit bitter about having to sit in the back of the plane in economy when Jamie had enough miles to get us into Economy Plus for free.  But, strangely enough, they're weren't 5 seats together in Economy Plus. Instead we were in the very, very back of the plane.  It actually turned out to be a wonderful place for us.  No one was behind ChinaBean and we put EBean in front of her so if she kicked a seat, it was just her big sister's (sorry EBean)!  ChinaBean surprised me and slept as we flew over Japan to western Alaska in her car seat and from Alaska to the Canadian boarder on my lap.

When we landed in Chicago it was snowing - no kidding!  We got in the longest line I have ever seen for immigration, but thankfully they moved everyone through quickly.  Many flights from the day before had been cancelled or delayed because of the extreme rain and flooding in Illinois and there were a lot of travelers at the airport.  After we collected our luggage, we had a special line we went through to hand over ChinaBean's immigration papers.  One friend, who flew into a different airport last year with her daughter from China, was sequestered in separate room for a half an hour while they processed her daughter's paperwork.  Thankfully we were all kept together and it only took about 5 minutes to process ChinaBean's papers.

We rechecked our luggage again and then crossed our fingers that the flight to Peoria would not be cancelled.  We were in luck and our last flight took off as scheduled.  As we were getting ready to land EBean looked at me and said "Let's go find a grandma!"

I did not know what to expect when we landed.  The only thing that was for certain was that my mom (my dad was also flying back from China that day, but on a later flight) and Jamie's parents would be at the airport along Jamie's cousin & aunt who would be taking pictures.  I was secretly hoping that maybe a few of my best girlfriends would be there, but I didn't know if they would be able to meet us at the airport at 9:50 at night. (Although, I knew all their kids would be in bed and dads could be at home to watch them...)

When we walked out into the airport we saw some really excited grandparents...

A "welcome home" sign...

Once I saw these excited faces...

I started to do this...

We call what I did the "ugly cry".  I might have made some loud noises along with my crying.  It was not pretty (my friends have confirmed it), but it was sincere.

We had been traveling for 36 hours.  We left 70 degree weather and landed in 30 degree weather.  I hit US soil for the first time in 6 months and for my big girls it had been 9 months.  I saw friends I hadn't seen in over a year.  And, I was celebrating the fact that our entire family, all 5 of us, were in the US together.  I really didn't know if it would ever happen.

Love from the grandparents and China Grandma (Cathy).

We made it!

This just sums it up right here!

I love seeing all of my close friends oohing and aahing over ChinaBean!

It really was a perfect ending to a long journey.  I will treasure these memories for a lifetime.  Thanks to Josie and Jan for capturing it all for us.

(And, I love that my friends know me well enough that when I send them my flight schedule that it might be my not-so-subtle hint to please come meet us at the airport!)

We have our dates! (Now to find hotels & flights)

We received an email from our agency over the night that our appointments in Nanjing and Guangzhou are scheduled!  We now have a time frame and we are researching hotels, flights and all the other details.  Yesterday was also an important day as we received our UPS package with original documents from both governments that are necessary to finalize the adoption.

What we know so far is...

Monday, April 8th we travel to Nanjing (2 hours north of Suzhou by car)
Tuesday, April 9th we sign papers making our daughter an official McClintock
Tuesday, April 16th we fly to Guangzhou (which is north of Hong Kong) and complete our daughter's medical exam
Wednesday, April 17th is our daughter's US consulate appointment
Thursday, April 18th our daughter's US Visa should be ready by 3:30 pm
Friday, April 19th earliest day to return to the US
Monday, April 22nd our daughter's first doctor's appointment with her specialist

I also know that we are super excited!!  Today I started packing.  I needed to pull things out of my "not-so-secret" hiding place for Easter and that led to me grouping gifts to take back to the US.  Then I decided I might as well pull together the special outfits (oh yes, there will be matching dresses for all three girls) and group them together.  We will be experiencing a wide range of climates and temperatures over the next month.

I remembered seeing a friend, who was getting ready to move back to the US, labeling the outside of all of her suitcases with masking tape and the contents of the suitcases.  So smart!  I've started my Nanjing, Guangzhou, gifts for the US and US suitcases.

US clothes

That is gifts for "US" as in United States of America, not
"us".  We're already getting the best gift!

Guangzhou

Nanjing & Adoption thank-you gifts

What I didn't know, or at least know to expect, were some of the other emotions that I've experienced this week.  Monday was my last day to lead our Girl Scout troop for this school year and my sweet Scouting moms gave me a card and a tote bag.  Tuesday I told my three speech & language students that I wouldn't be seeing them again until next school year.  Wednesday it occurred to me that my older daughters may benefit from having a "going away" party with their classmates and that we wouldn't be a part of the end-of-school festivities.  And, these parties need to happen within the next two weeks! There are other details about registering the older girls for school in the fall, going through my "piles" (that's how I organize) and getting the apartment ready for our absence.

It is our current plan that all five of us will return to the US together and that the girls (heehee, all 3 girls-love saying that!) and I will stay in Illinois all summer and return to China at the beginning of August.  We don't know what our daughter's recovery will look like, how many follow-up appointments she may have and we've decided that it is best if we remain in the US.  That means 3 1/2 months away from our home in Suzhou and many weeks apart from Jamie.  Of course it is for the best reason possible, but there are still many emotions that go along with trying to pack for a three-month stay overseas.  I told my mom that I hadn't spent more than two consecutive weeks at her house in the last 13 years; this could be a big adjustment for us all!

So, pull out your US flags, your cameras and tissues...we'll see you soon!

Give me a "T", Give me an "A"!

My early morning habit of checking my email paid off this morning.  We received another email from our adoption agency and this one said we had our TA (travel approval)!!!!  As soon as our agency can arrange an appointment, we will travel to Nanjing and take legal custody of our daughter.  This could potentially be as early as April 1st.  We need to have some original documents, which our agency currently has, mailed to us here in China and then we can go.  We will have our first meeting on a Monday afternoon and then we'll return Tuesday morning to sign all of the papers.  At that point we will overwhelm the internet with pictures and video of our beautiful and spectacular daughter.  Please prepare yourself!

Our agency is also working on scheduling our appointment in Guangzhou, which we will travel to after Nanjing.  This is the US immigration side of things and where we will receive permission to bring our daughter to the US and obtain her US visa (she flies in with a Chinese passport and a US visa).

Hopefully the timing will work out just perfect because we chose April 22nd as our first appointment with our daughter's doctor at the Children's Hospital of Illinois so we can discuss her next surgery.

Jamie was in Japan all last week for work and I had an overwhelming need to "nest".  I'm talking about going through bath toys, magazines, clothes, the whole deal.  It's going to pay off because we're headed to the USA baby!

Since the beginning, my blog has been called
Table for Five in anticipation of adding the
fifth member to the family.  The table is set sweet baby,
welcome to the family!

Last Week, Brought to us by the Letter A (as in A5)

I received another great email last week regarding our adoption and we marked off another next step towards finalizing the paperwork!

We received an email from the US Consulate’s office in Guangzhou, China that the paperwork for our daughter’s visa had been provisionally approved and we had been granted our Article 5 (A5).  The next step is for all of our paperwork to be returned back to Beijing for a final look before China will issue our Travel Approval (TA).  

Once we have received our TA, we can make appointments with Nanjing and Guangzhou.  In Nanjing, which is a two-hour drive from Suzhou, we will take legal custody of our daughter and that will finalize everything with the Chinese government.  Then, we we go to Guangzhou and we will meet with the US Consulate’s office to wrap up everything she needs to immigrate to the US to become a citizen.

As we’re nearing the end of the paperwork on this side of the world (we’ll still have to apply for her US passport, complete follow-up adoption reports, etc.), I have started to think about how far we have come.  In 2010, on a spring evening, after Jamie and I had made the decision to adopt from China, we talked about whether or not we would take our other daughters to travel with us to China.  We decided to wait and see how old our girls would be at the time of travel and look at the cost of the trip and then decide.  What an amazing gift it is to know that we will travel as a family of 5 this spring!  It is a short drive to Nanjing and a quick flight to Guangzhou from our home in Suzhou and the “would-we, should-we, can-we?” has been already answered for us.

On a much, much sillier note, I was really excited to get a packet in the mail last week.  For a moment my heart started beating fast and I thought “oh my goodness” China mailed our adoption paperwork to our home (instead of to our agency in the US)!  This had happened to our friends and I couldn’t think of anything else that would be coming through the Chinese mail that I would require a signature.  Alas, I was wrong, and instead I signed for this...

My Starbucks gold card!  Until I moved to China I could count the number of times that I had been to Starbuck’s on two hands and I now I have the “Gold” card.  I am not sure if I should be embarrassed or proud, especially since I don’t drink (straight) coffee!