A new year and a new week.

It's 2010! The year Holly comes home. As this is Sunday daytime in the US, it is the middle of the night in China, so, by the time the sun goes down on us, it will be Monday morning there and another business day. That means that it will be another day when they could be working on our TA. Perhaps they have already worked on it and will send it out this week. Who knows. It's just as likely that they won't send it out for two more weeks. Either way, we will get TA this month as long as all goes well, but, when it gets here will determine if we bring Holly home this month or next month.

Tonight I will begin the onerous process of packing away all the Christmas decorations, and starting the big clean up in preparation for being gone for two weeks and then jet lagged for at least another week. Oh, I remember those days after bringing Myleigh home. It's like having the flu. You're groggy all the time, achey and sore. Just want to sleep, but, we'll have so much to do when we get back, not the least of which will be to help Holly adjust to her new home.

I can't decide which would be better, to drive ourselves to the airport, and then drive home on our own when we get back, or have Katie and James bring us up and then back. I'm thinking, based on the fact that it will be winter time and weather could be dicey, it may be best if we drive ourselves in the outback. I know the kids want to do a homecoming of sorts at the airport, but, I just don't want to risk there being a storm on the day we get home. I guess they'll have to figure something out to do at the house. It's going to be tough to drive home being jet lagged, but, if we do a layover in California at a hotel, we can nap through the night, get cleaned up, and then head out a bit fresher in the morning the next day.

It's starting to feel real. We could be in China in just a few weeks. After all this waiting and pushing paper we are at the end of the tunnel. From the first time we heard Holly's story back in May to now it has been such a rough road. Funny, it will be nine months at the end of this month since we first saw her face. Just like a pregnancy. How odd is that?