We are headed to Hong Kong!

I havent realized how behind I have gotten on posting, but this past week the cloud lifted! We recieved news on Monday that our file had been reviewed and our clearance had been granted. I was told that it was processing and that I should receive it in the mail on Friday or Saturday. I went to the mailbox Tuesday and saw an envelope from Homeland Security and my heart sank at first because I thought that I had probably received faulty information if I had a letter the next day. Low and behold it was our clearance! Jesus was driving a mail truck on Monday night from Chicago to Bloomington because there is no way a human could have gotten our letter from a desk in Chicago to my mailbox in less than 24 hours! I faxed the clearance to our agency, and they faxed it to China and within hours we had our visa appointment.

Here is our general itinierary:

Tues March 3~ Stay overnight at Hilton OHare

Wed March 4~ Fly to Hong Kong (15 plus hour flight)

Thurs-Sun Stay in Hong Kong at Holiday Inn Golden Mile (sightsee and adjust to time change)

Sunday- noon ...meet the Chinese Adoption staff at McDonald in the Hung Hom train Station (a short walk from our hotel)
Travel to Guangzhou and Stay at the Holiday Inn Shifu Guangzhou

Monday March 9~ 2:30 pm Head to the Adoption Registration Office of Civil Affairs Bureau of Guangdong Province to get Eliana!

Tuesday March 10~ paperwork day

Wednesday~ Doctor appt for Eliana for her visa and passport

Thursday & Friday~ paperwork processing

Saturday & Sunday~ play days

Monday ~ passport processing

Tuesday~ more passport processing

Wednesday March 18~ 2:45pm U.S. consulate visa ceremony

Thurs March 19~ take the train to Hong Kong!

Friday March 20~ Fly Home!!!!!

Needing a miracle!

Anyone who reads this blurb on the web knows we have been paperchasing, planning and waiting for adoption for our daughter Eliana from China. One large reason it has taken three plus years in waiting is of course the wait for all adoptions right now in China. However our submission of paperwork took longer than usual because our government kept adding requirements to our adoption paperwork. Well...they are still doing that! I will not bore all of you with the details, but early in December I submitted a refiling of our paperwork for Homeland Security and Immigration. We have gotten fingerprinted 3 times, filed paperwork 3 times (all of it) and paid that expensive filing fee AGAIN. Our paperwork was in well before it needed to be, and our "file" expired at the end of 2008...but you cant get a response from anyone at the office unless you have waited the requred 6-8 weeks. So I when we got our referral on new year eve (thats all the info regarding Eliana from China) I sent off an email asking about our file. You cant call their office unless you are traveling in the next day. What I recieved back was an email stating it hadnt been my full 6-8 weeks. Anyway...we finally get a letter in the mail last Friday (the 30th) asking for more papers! No one had ever heard of this new requirement...my social worker even asked me to send her a copy so she could have something to show people after us with this issue.!One of the documents had to be notarized. Since we didnt get the letter until after 3 on Friday, and the earliest we could get to a notary together with our documents was today Wed. So we sent them off....breathing a sigh of relief. Checking my email tonight we heard from our agency that we recieved our letter of invitation from the Chinese government....we can come get Eliana. But wait! We cant make any of the immigration appointments we need while we are there (hence we cant travel at all) until we get the clearance document from Homeland Security. So whats our miracle? When I call tomorrow morning that I will get the sympathetic ear of someone who can actually do something about our file without those two documents that are in US postal service la la land, or that our paperwork flies into the hands of the right people ...tomorrow. Both are a longshot, but nothing constructive will happen on Friday and I dont want to wait another month to hold my baby! If we dont get this clearance we cant travel with our group...please say your prayers for Eliana....thanks!