Had our travel conference with Josh yesterday. He went over what we can expect during our trip. We will be the only family from SWA in Wuhan, and will have the guide pretty much to ourselves, unless they are working with another agency's family at the same time. He hasn't confirmed our hotel reservation yet, but, expects it will be the White Rose in Wuhan. He is also waiting to hear back from the guide about our request to visit the SWI. Apparently the requests have been getting more and more difficult to have granted, and if we are not given permission from about three or four different bureaucrats we may not be able to visit. That would be sad for Holly, as we hope to be able to take her shopping for a gift to bring on her visit, and believe this will give her some closure that she might not otherwise have. We should hear about this too over the next week.
He also said that we might end up having Holly brought to us on Sunday the 31st, instead of Feb 1st. Apparently, once the SWI finds out the family is going to be in town on a certain day, they just decide to bring the child to their new family on that day. So, we will try to be ready just in case.
We'll have 14 other families between our agency and another agency that is using the same facilitators in GZ. Plus, a third agency has confirmed their families are staying at the Garden hotel with our two agency's families, and it sounds like others are possibly doing the same thing. It will be a very active place to be for that week.
I found out another family is bringing their 15 year old son with them, so, Matthew may have someone his own age to spend some of the time with.
It is shaping up to be a fun trip with so many families, and so many kids of all ages. One family is adopting a 12 year old girl and I imagine other older kids will be part of such a large group of families, so, by the time we get to GZ, Matthew may end up making a lot of new friends.
Im still trying to get clarification on how many checked bags are free on an international flight, and if that includes the domestic leg of the flight. I believe we will be permitted two bags per passenger, and really only want to know so we can bring one extra bag to help out with the overall weight distribution. We may not need it, but, if we do, it will be nice to have.
We're in the homestretch.
You are so close! How is the family holding up? You are all excited?
ReplyDeleteI think we're starting to get nervous. It's surreal that in 8 days we will be on a plane to China.
ReplyDeleteWe will be at the Garden also. We are with Lifeline. We are adopting a six year old. We will be bringing our two four year olds and our 27 year old daughter. We leave on Wednesday the 27th on China Southern out of LA and arrive in Guangzhou on the 29th. We meet our daughter Feb. 1st. We will be at the Garden until Feb. 13th and then off for a post trip to Guilin to celebrate Chinese New Year. Then back home on the 16th . Hope to see you there!
ReplyDeleteVicki http://www.pomafamily.blogspot.com