It's only 8 days until Gord and I finally meet our daughter, Hannah Rose Bao. It's hard to believe we're almost there, after what seems to be an eternity of paperwork and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and more paperwork, and more waiting..... I will write about what has gone on between then and now some other day, as right now, I am too filled with anticipation of things to come, and find it hard to focus on what has already come and gone.



We fly out on the 3rd of July (Happy Birthday, Norm!) and arrive in Beijing on the 4th of July. We'll be flying with one other couple from Open-Arms to International Adoption Agency, Deb and Roger. They're from Oshawa and are adopting a little girl which they named Mercy Marie. We'll spend a few days in Beijing touring around (The Great Wall, Chinese Acrobat Show, etc) and adjusting the time change, (12 hours ahead of Toronto), and greeting the other families as they arrive. There are 9 families in our group who are adopting children from Fuling SWI, and they're all from the GTA.



On July 8, we'll fly to Chongqing, book in to the Holiday Inn, hop on a bus and drive to Fuling SWI, and meet, (gasp), Hannah Rose. The rest of the week is spent completing, I'm sure you can guess, more paperwork. Chongqing is supposed to have an amazing Panda Zoo which I hope we'll be able to squeeze in. PANDAS, MOM!!!!



We will then head back to Beijing on Saturday, the 14th (Happy Birthday, Dad! - (July 13)) to complete the immigration process. We were told that at this point there is very little paperwork left (yay!) and most of the time is spent on tours of The Great Wall, perhaps again, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and silk, pearl, and jade factories.



We fly home on July 20th. Home. Home with Hannah Rose. I can hardly wait......