Going to Taiwan and New Pictures!!!

We finally have our travel planned... we leave next Wednesday to pick up Tessa Jane!!!! It was quite a feat as apparently there is some sort of big trade fair in Taiwan and all of the flights and hotels are booked up. Many late nights on the phone with the travel agent for the flights and calling hotels in Taiwan (at $5.81 a minute!!!!). We are very lucky to be traveling with another family adopting a child who we've become friends with over the last 10 months. Of course this made planning our travel a little more complicated. Got everything worked out and our tickets arrived via Fed Ex yesterday. Was on cloud nine until I got home & saw that we had a voicemail from our caseworker. This was at 6:15. The message stated that there had been some kind of mix up and we may have to postpone our travel!!! She went on to say that she would only be in the office for a few more minutes and we'd talk in the morning.

Well, that wasn't going to work!!! We made phone call after phone call and finally got a hold of our program director. He agreed that this was unacceptable and agreed to call Taiwan immediately since it was already Friday there and waiting until Monday would put us in an impossible situation. Anyhow, I got an email at 7:45 this morning saying everything was worked out... whew!!!!! This week has been totally exhausting!


Here's our itinerary:

10/17 - Fly from Austin to LAX
10/18 - Spend the day in LA with our good friend Misty & family
10/19 - 1:00 a.m. Fly from LAX to Taipei
10/20 - 6:05 a.m. Arrive Taiwan
10/24 - GOTCHA DAY!!!!!! Not sure yet but probably around 10:00 a.m. Taiwan time (9:00 p.m. on the 23rd Central time)
10/25 - AIT (Consulate) appointment to apply for her visa
10/26 - Pick up her visa
10/29 - 11:30 p.m. Fly from Taipei to San Francisco
10/29 - 7:20 p.m. arrive San Francisco (she becomes a U.S. Citizen when we land on American soil)
10/30 - 12:45 fly from San Francisco to Dallas, then Dallas to Austin
10/30 - 8:30 a.m. HOME!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned!!! We will be updating the blog while we travel. And yes we'll post LOTS of pictures!!!!!!!!!!