I wanted to think of a creative title for my first post...

...but then I decided that being ready for our international flight tomorrow is of greater value than unleashing my inner wordsmith. So, without gimmick or flight of fancy: welcome to our blog! I've never tried keeping a blog before and we'll see how I do with keeping UP with one once we have full responsibility for a small person, but at least it should be a good way to keep everyone updated on our progress while we're in China.

Here is our itinerary:

Tuesday, April 15, 12:45 PM (East Coast time)--leave from Dulles airport on a 13 1/2 hour, nonstop flight to Beijing
Wednesday, April 16, 8:40 PM (China time)--arrive in Jinan
Thursday through Saturday--spend time with friends in Jinan
Sunday, April 20, 8 AM - 12 PM--flight to Kunming
Sunday, April 20, ~ 2:30 PM--receive Wen Jia Si Di and do some preliminary paperwork
Monday, April 21--more paperwork
Tuesday, April 22--drive down to Kaiyuan (Esther's city) with a guide and visit the Social Welfare Institute that has been her home since she was one week old. Spend the night.
Wednesday, April 23--return to Kunming to wait for Esther's Chinese visa
Friday, April 25--receive Esther's visa in the afternoon and fly to Guangzhou in the evening
Saturday, April 26--immigration medical appointment for Esther Si Di
Monday, April 28--immigration visa interview for Esther Si Di at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou
Tuesday, April 29, late afternoon--return to U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to take Esther's citizenship oath on her behalf and receive the paperwork that allows her to enter the U.S.
Wednesday, April 30, evening--fly to Beijing
Thursday, May 1, daytime--probably spend the day quietly with Linette's cousin Stephanie in Beijing. Since this is a Chinese national holiday and there will be hordes of people out and about, we're not inclined to attempt sightseeing.
Thursday, May 1, 6:30 PM (China time)--leave on nonstop international flight for the U.S. We are SOOO happy that we were able to reserve a bassinet seat, so Esther will have a comfy place to sleep on the flight home if she is so inclined (and we certainly hope she is!)
Thursday, May 1, 7:45 PM (East Coast time)--arrive back at Dulles airport. Would that the flight were truly only an hour and fifteen minutes long!! When we go through customs, Esther Si Di will become a U.S. citizen. Friends will meet us at the airport with our car, which we installed Esther's carseat in yesterday.

So...there's the blow-by-blow outline of our trip. Except for the first and last times, all times given are local to China. Right now China is twelve hours ahead of the east coast of the U.S. As far as I know, every place where we are staying has internet access. But there are no guarantees either that the technology will function as advertised or that we will be able to access blogspot to update it (when we first lived in China we couldn't read blogs on blogspot, though we could the second year). So, we will do our best to keep you updated, and that's all we can promise.

And now, to post this and see what it looks like!

Love,
Linette