It is almost time!

Here is a quick itinerary of our whirlwind trip.  Tomorrow morning at 7:30 our plane leaves Cleveland, OH.  They recommend being at the airport 2 hours early for international flights.  That means we will wake up at 3:30 am (I may be still awake), to leave the house at 4:30 am, to be in Cleveland by 5:30 am.  We change planes in Newark, NJ and have a slight layover before heading to Beijing.  We should land at 1:45 am Sunday morning...Ohio time...or 1:45 pm in Beijing.  We have a day to get settled before we fly to Shanxi Province where Kelley is waiting.  It is a short 1 hour flight to Taiyuan.  Sometime on Tuesday, we will meet our new little girl!  Wednesday - Friday will be some sightseeing and shopping in her Province.  Mostly we will spend our time getting to know her.  We have SOOO many questions for her.  The latest pictures of her are beautiful!  After she gets her passport and documents, we will fly out on Friday afternoon to Guangzhou.  The flight is almost 3 hours headed south.  That means we will be entering hot and humid weather...Dan's favorite.  Saturday thru Monday we have some sightseeing planned and more shopping.  There is a river cruise and a trip to the zoo and Chen Clan Temple.  Kimmy already said she wants a new tea set & some fans from the little shops.  That's my favorite part!  Tuesday morning is our appointment at the US Embassy.  On Wednesday she gets her visa and we will drive to Hong Kong.  Thursday, October 17th at noon we will board a plane to fly to Chicago for a 15 hour flight home.  As soon as we land in Chicago she becomes a US Citizens.  We will have to wait thru Customs and then will fly to Cleveland, hopefully by 7:15 pm.  Dan has already asked if the Government shut down will affect the US Embassy and/or Customs.  We hope not, but who knows!

Thank you for all of the well wishes that I have received in the past week.  I will update you again with pictures and stories of Kelley as soon as I can!