Travel Confirmed

On Monday, April 4th, our consulate appointment was confirmed for May 17th.  That's one of the last pieces of our journey.  Today, we finally received confirmation of the gotcha day as May 9th.  That's the day we get to meet Wen De and then he spends the rest of the trip with us.  We have various appointments throughout our journey between May 9 and May 17.

So, we've booked tickets to leave on April 30th at 11:55pm from Chicago O'Hare.  We will land in Seoul at 4:00AM on Tuesday, May 2nd.  We're working with AIAA and SWS, the agencies we used when adopting our other kids, to set up a visit with foster parents on May 2 or 3.  We'll stay in the SWS guest house for those nights.  Then on May 4, we will meet the Nam family (we hosted Brian at our home last summer) and spend time with them.  They have a lot of wonderful things planned for us while we are visiting.  We're excited to have the opportunity to visit Korea on our way to China.  

On May 8th, we'll leave Seoul and fly to Guangzhou.  On May 9th, we'll meet Wen De.

On May 17th, we'll take the high speed train to Hong Kong.  I'm excited to experience real high speed rail with speeds around 180mph.  We'll stay 3 nights in Hong Kong and then return home.  Flights were significantly less expensive leaving on Saturday so that covers most or all of our Hong Kong expenses.  

Excited to fly Asiana

We're excited about our flights because we were able to book Asiana Airlines for a reasonable price.  It helps that Asiana (as well as Korean Air), offer discounted flight prices for children under 12.  We traveled on Asiana to Korea when we adopted Ben almost 13 years ago.  We have fond memories of the wonderful service and amenities on Asiana,  which is on par with Korean Air, and knocks the socks off US-based carriers like Delta.  Hopefully we won't be disappointed since we'll be in the air for 14+ hours!

Note:  For all those criminals out there, don't even think about messing with our house.  Our wonderful neighbors are on high alert, watching over our house.  It's highly likely that you could encounter our good friend and her concealed carry permit.  Plus, there's a mean bulldog named Dozer who'll attack and if he doesn't stop you, then our neighbor's dog Valkyrie, who is part Huskie will take you down.  Assuming you make it that far, mean and ferocious Finli will take a chunk out of you.  Besides, what are you going to do with our house -- declutter and clean it?