Our TA Arrived!

I got an email this morning from CCAI saying they received our TA last Friday! I let them know we didn't receive any notification of this. Praise God it is here and we can order our tickets! Looks like we will be gone from 9/11-9/27! Thanks for all the prayers!

Halfway There-Prayers Still Needed

Good news! CCAI was able to get us an appointment with the consulate! They are too fabulous! Now we are waiting on our travel approval. It is normally the other way around, but I guess we are different. (I think that has been the theme throughout this adoption.) We cannot purchase airline tickets until after we get our TA, so this is making me a little nervous. I checked Expedia to see what is out there with the parameters that our agency gave us regarding our itinerary and those tickets are $$$! Try over $2000 each! Please pray that we get our travel approval soon and airline prices will go down!

URGENT! Prayers Needed!

Just when we thought we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel to bring Ty home, our agency called and told us the consulate denied all the dates for appointments they suggested. They are resubmitting the dates with an explanation that we need to be home before the October holidays in China. Our agency remains optimistic, but PLEASE pray we will be grated dates in September. We do not want to wait until October to bring Ty home.

We Are Blessed!

After watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, once again, we are reminded we are blessed to visit China weeks after the Olympics take place. There is so much history and culture we want to expose Ty to so he can know about his birth place. After looking at www.nbcolympics.com, I think we need to purchase the opening ceremonies and Olympic highlights to share with our son. He needs to know the pride his country displayed and all that took place during his Gotcha Year!

One Step Closer

While we are still waiting on our Travel Approval, the CCAI travel department called to check some important information and make sure we have the vital documents to take with us to China. In addition, they gave us a tentative departure date of Sept. 11th! That is in 3 weeks...YIPPPEEE! We cannot make flight reservations until given the say so by them, but at least we have something to go on. We were also told we would be traveling in a group, fly into Beijing and depart from Hong Kong. Time to take another look at that packaging list and start preparing to pack!

Still Waiting

We continue to wait for our TA- Travel Approval. This will give us our traveling dates to China. I saw that some people who have the same LOA (7/31) as us, got their travel approval today. Ours might be delayed a few days since we waited until I was home from SLC to sign and send our LOA in. Hopefully ours will come early next week. Those that got theirs today leave Sept 3rd, in 2 weeks! I hope 2 weeks is all we have too!

We have a BUSY weekend ahead. Troy and I are both doing a sprint triathlon on Saturday. In fact, the last time I worked out was at the tri back in June. I know I will make it. I did this tri last year and it is A LOT easier then the tri in June. After the tri and visiting new moms at the hospital for work, off to Abby's (Troy's cousin who lived with us for 6 months) birthday celebration. Our church is throwing our adoption celebration on Sunday and then we have the Tri-Gators picnic on Sunday to share our stories, socialize and eat.

I bought a couple of outfits and PJ's at Kohl's today. They were between 60-70% off and then I had a 30% off coupon off of the total. Believe it or not, these are the first clothes I have bought for Ty. I even got him a swim suit for next year. Hopefully he likes to swim like his mom and dad!

We Got Our LOA!

Update: Troy has the LOA package!

.... or at least the e-mail saying it is on our way. It is to arrive today by FedEX, but I am in SLC and Troy is working, so I am PRAYING all is well. Troy said he will handle it, so I am trusting him. I can be a control freak and I DO NOT like being thousands of miles away from a major milestone, so this is a good test for me. We also got an update on Ty from the CCAA a couple of days ago. This time it says he is introverted and loves his bath. I find it interesting because our referral information said he is extroverted. Oh well. Sounds like a typical kid to me. We cannot wait to see what he is really like. We also got this picture that was taken on the day we got his referral!