Chugging Along

The process is grinding along and we are hitting milestones with more regularity now. October has been busy with our I800 approved (Provisional approval for Amy to enter the US as an adoptee and become a citizen) last week. The National Visa Center reviewed the I800 and has forwarded it to the consulate in Guangzhou. There are some additional forms that have to be submitted before the consulate will start processing the next phase. Unfortunately, the Columbus Day holiday costs us a 4 day delay. Instead of getting our approval yesterday per the standard 1 week processing time, Columbus Day added 1 day. The consulate only accepts document drop offs on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays AND China is 12 hours ahead of us. By the time I received the notice and completed the extra forms this morning, it was already late Thursday evening in China. Now we have to wait until next Monday.

Bummer. Everyday counts at this point as I am trying to leave on November 23 if at all possible. Leaving then would mean that Alice will miss one less week of school due to the Thanksgiving break. It would also guarantee that we could stay with the same family in Beijing we stayed with when we were there to get Alice. The plan is to spend about 3 days at the end of the trip in Beijing so Alice can do some visiting and we can take Amy sightseeing. Unfortunately, if our trip gets pushed later, Joy & Michael may not be able to fit us into their schedule.