Itinerary, Nursery Pictures, & Lots More!

Lots of questions being asked! When do we leave? What will we be doing there? When will we meet Brielle? Do we have her room ready? I am happy to fill you in on all of it!!

Itinerary

Wed 4/18- Leave Indy at 10am, connect in Chicago, settle in for long flight

Thurs 4/19- Arrive in Beijing around 2:30pm local time (2:30am Friday EST)

Fri 4/20- Tour

Sat 4/21- Tour, Overnight train to Nanchang, Jiangxi

Sun 4/22- Arrive in Brielle's province! 

Mon 4/23- Gotcha Day! Meet Brielle!

Tues 4/24- Adoption Day- Officially ours!

Wed 4/25- Enjoy Nanchang, visit the orphanage and foster family in Fuzhou?

Thurs 4/26- Tour

Fri 4/27- Receive Brielle’s Passport and fly to Guangzhou, Guangdong

Sat 4/28- Medical Exam

Sun 4/29- Free day

Mon 4/30- Consulate Appointment

Tues 5/1- Free day

Wed 5/2- Receive Brielle’s visa, travel by train to Hong Kong in the evening

Thurs 5/3- Head Home!! Arrive in Indy around 5pm (will feel like 5am Friday to us!)

Answers to some of those FAQ:

We will arrive in Beijing to get acclimated to the time change and do some sight-seeing. China is 12 hours ahead of us. So while you all are sleeping, we are starting the next day! No actual adoption stuff will be done there.

The adoption will take place in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province. Brielle will be brought by the orphanage workers to meet us either at the Civil Affairs office or our hotel. We will meet her either on Sunday or Monday, which is our "Gotcha Day." We will complete papers to be guardians for the next 24 hrs. This is referred to as the "Harmonious Period" to decide if we want to proceed with the adoption. The next day, we will go back and complete the adoption. At that point, she will officially have our last name and be ours FOREVER! We will then need to stay in her province until her Chinese passport is issued.

To complete the American paperwork, we will travel to Guangzhou, Guangdong. The US Consulate is located there so all American adoptive families end their journey in GZ to take the Oath of Citizenship on their child's behalf and to be issued a visa for her passport.

Once we meet Brielle on Gotcha Day, she will be with us the rest of the trip.

The length of our trip is based on the amount of time it requires for all of the meetings and paperwork to be processed. Just like in the US, a passport is not issued in a matter of hours. While we will miss our big girls tremendously, we are thankful for the bonding time we will have alone with our new daughter. Unfortunately, it may not be quite enough bonding time to enjoy the 15 hr flight home from Hong Kong. :) Prayers are appreciated!

We hope to visit her orphanage and meet her foster parents. Once we are in her province, we can request to go to Fuzhou, but we won't know for sure until we get there. I would love even just a few minutes to talk to her foster mom about her likes/dislikes, milestones, sleep & food routines, etc. We know this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity and we pray our request is granted.

The room we've been preparing for our little princess. 

The awesome growth chart my sweet friend Abbie got her!

I still have a few more things to add...like photo frames and big baskets for the shelves but for the most part, it is complete. This was originally the playroom but when I decided to go with lavendar, green, and aqua, it seemed silly to paint the other room the same colors. So we moved the toys into the plain white room and set up the nursery in the painted room. I hope she likes it. :)


A glimpse at what we have been doing in between packing and booking flights/hotels/train tickets:

The girls drew "our world" then a ship across the ocean and "China world" with a pagoda and Great Wall.

Our last weekend before travel, we asked the girls what they wanted to do. They picked bowling and Mr. Gatti's. They had a blast. Brynna watches the bowling balls like a hawk. ;)

Yesterday, we cleaned up the high chair. Brynna practiced being a big sister.I wrapped gifts for the girls to open each day while we are gone. I hope it makes the 2 weeks go by a little quicker for them.

Bringing out all of the baby toys is like Christmas morning! I heard them talking about their horses and harvest while playing with the barn last night. ;)

Braylee earned her 1st white ribbon (level 3) at gymnastics for vault. She was pumped! (I have been having C.R.A.Z.Y dreams lately! After seeing this picture, I dreamt last night that I only had one leg!)

We are so excited to finally be heading to China to meet our youngest daughter! Just like labor, the horrible paper-chase is becoming a distant memory and our eye is on the end reward!

We are so humbled God chose us for this journey and can't wait to see what He has in store for Brielle's life!