When?

That's the question that everyone is asking...when....when can we bring our sweet Lily home? I wish the answer was today! When we picked up Lily's referral information at the agency on Friday I wanted to head straight to the airport. Unfortunately, that's not the way it works.

I will try to provide a rough time line of what will happen from Referral Day until we travel to bring Lily home:

• March 9th - Referral day - Happiest day in our lives to date! Signed Referral Acceptance Letter and mailed it back to China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). Submitted applications for travel visas.
• Weeks 1 - 4 - The waiting starts again. As much as I want to be able to kiss those chubby cheeks and nibble on those cute little ears having Lily's picture to look at I think will make this part of the wait easier. Remind me I said that in a few weeks when I'm crying the blues!
• Approximately Weeks 4 - 5 - Receive our Travel Approval from CCAA. At that time our agency will schedule an appointment for us at the US Consulate in Guangzhou.
• Approximately Weeks 6 - 8 - LEAVE FOR CHINA!!!!

With this rough time line we should be traveling to China around the week of April 22. Unfortunately, there are some potential stumbling blocks in scheduling our trip. The 101st China Import and Export Fair is being held in Guangzhou the weeks of 4/15/2007 - 4/20/2007 and 4/25/2007 - 4/30/2007. From what I understand this is a positively huge trade fair (I believe the world's largest) and all of the hotels in Guangzhou are booked solid.

As if the world's largest trade fair isn't enough, the first week of May is also International Labor Day in China. During the week of International Labor Day government offices are closed and it is considered one of the peak travel times within China.

As a result of the trade fair and International Labor Day, scheduling our trip is going to be a bit of a challenge. Many adoption agencies simply refuse to send their families to China until the second week of May. Our agency has told us that they will try to arrange our trip around the trade fair and International Labor Day but to expect to pay higher airfare and hotel rates. Of course, I told them that's not a problem we can always get more money (the noise you just heard was Tony's heart skipping a beat) but we can't get back the time we are losing with Lily!

I will keep you updated as our travel plans develop.

On a separate note, thank you to everyone that has sent us e-mails, posted on our blog, or called to wish us congratulations! Tony and I have never been happier and appreciate your love and good wishes so much. I imagine you've noticed that I changed the date on Lily's referral post to March 9, 2009. Hope you don't mind.....I just love seeing her sweet little face each time I open our blog and don't want her to get buried amongst all my mindless ramblings!