Our Article 5 paperwork was picked up on schedule last Tuesday, Dec. 3 and sent to Beijing to the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA). This began our TA (Travel Approval) wait. The TA wait is usually 10-21 days with 16 being the average lately. This past Tuesday I saw a few fellow adoptive mom's in my Facebook group had received their TA and their Article 5s were picked up the same day as ours. I was shocked and excited and emailed our social worker right away to check on ours. A while later my cell phone rang and caller ID said it was Birmingham, AL. Over the last few months I get butterfly's in my stomach every time my caller ID says Birmingham, AL. Our adoption agency's main office is located there. They have a local branch here in Louisville, which is so convenient and part of the reason we chose them as our agency. Our social worker Sarah only calls with good or bad news. She usually emails if it is just a question about paperwork or something. Anyway, when I saw caller ID I couldn't believe it! I quickly answered and Sarah told me we had received our TA! It had been only one week after we began our TA wait which I was hoping and praying would be closer to 14-16 days rather than the 20+ days some families are waiting. Who ever expected to get it in 7 days? She explained that we had the option to leave the following week and pick Hadley up Dec. 23. This meant we would be gone of Christmas, but we decided we would celebrate early and the girl's wouldn't really know the difference. Although I have already begun packing and preparing to leave the girls with family for two weeks, I was overwhelmed at the thought of leaving in 10 days. I didn't know what to do or where to begin so I did dishes and cleaned the kitchen. I finally got it together and called a travel agent that everyone in the adoption community raves about. He quoted some prices and it was not pretty. It was more that twice what we thought we would be paying for airline tickets. Apparently the few weeks leading up to Christmas are the most expensive time of the year to fly. He was even shocked by the prices. He explained if we could go a couple weeks later it would drop significantly so we decided to look into that. After talking with our agency and their contacts in China it was decided that would not work. There were closures in China the second week of January which wouldn't allow that plan to work. That pushed us back another week to our original plan we have had for months of leaving Jan. 3. Although we had a very short TA wait, we were still leaving the day we were originally planning on leaving. Flights ended up being even a little cheaper that week so it worked out for the best. I am praying for our sweet Hadley and hoping that she is being loved and well cared for and another couple of weeks ultimately won't make much of a difference.
So the plan is we will leave on Jan. 3, have our Gotcha Day (the day you get your child) on Monday, Jan. 6 and come home on Thursday, January 16. Although I would have loved to pick Hadley up sooner this plan will work better for everyone. We have time to pack and organize the girls and house, get to celebrate Christmas with the family and hopefully wrap up the majority of our attic renovation before leaving the first week of January.
I like having dates confirmed and airline tickets booked. Two very big things knocked off of my growing to-do list and about a million small things left. Up next, pick paint colors for the girl's new rooms, beg the pediatrician for prescriptions (I have been avoiding this one), try to unpack some of the million things I have packed to keep us under the 44 lb. weight limit, call the credit card and cell phone companies, buy baby Melatonin, cook meals to freeze, stock up on food and paper products to have on hand for the girls and our parents, etc, etc, etc. (On a side note, the last two times I have been in nesting mode while pregnant with the girls I always panic when the time is coming and insist on stockpiling paper towels, toilet paper and garbage bags. I have some weird phobia about my family running out of these things while I am gone or us coming home with a newborn/or in this case new toddler and running out of paper towels. Heaven forbid we have to drive to the store that is literally two minutes away and grab a roll. I will be stocked up for months just in case!) I think it is a control issue and one small thing I am able to control while the rest of my life feels so hectic. Our hands will be dry and our trash will be bagged, no need to worry about that!
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