Here We Go!

Today is the day!

We are leaving this afternoon for Baltimore where we will spend the night near the airport. We have a 6am flight which means a 4am arrival at the airport. We will arrive in Beijing around 3pm on Saturday. Our total flight time will be about 16 hours. Not bad considering we are going to the opposite side of the planet!

In case any waiting mamas are reading, here is a little bit of pre-travel advice from me to you-

1) The List: We have been planning for this trip for a year. I've probably been packing for about 6 months. One of the best things I did to get ready was make a list on my phone that I could add to whenever I read a blog or Facebook post discussing "must have" things to pack for your China adoption trip.  Bit by bit I made my list and started checking things off as we got ready. So, when it came time to actually get things packed, I was already 95% done.
(If you want a copy of my list, let me know and I will pass it along.)

2) Packing cubes: We got these packing cubes from ebags.com over Christmas and each of us has our own color. It had made staying organized so much easier as well as balancing out the luggage scales. (i.e. Justin's sock and underwear bag weighs 4 pounds...lets move it over to this bag). China has strict 44 pound weight limits on checked luggage for in country flights making my little digital luggage scale worth every penny I paid at TJ Maxx.  

 All of our things for five people x 2 weeks.  It's hard to believe it fit into these suitcases.....

3) TJ Maxx- if you are not a "TJ's" addict like me, let me just say that they have all kinds of nifty travel gear and baby items at great prices. The trick to being a successful TJ's shopper is that you can never go there looking for a specific thing. You must treasure hunt. Do you have 30 minutes to spare waiting for your kids to finish soccer practice? Run over there and walk around. One day you may find travel pillows, another day they may have a ton of travel adapters, or sippy cups, or baby clothes, or a brand new Ergo carrier for $70!! After my 30th trip there in the last 2 months, the check out guy said,  "Mrs. Allen, are you sure you don't want to open a TJ Maxx card? You really would save some money." (Typing this out makes me realize that I may actually need a TJ Maxx intervention.)

Here is our itinerary for the next few weeks:

5/17: Saturday- arrive in Beijing
5/18: Sunday- fly to Zhengzhou (Carter's home town)
5/19: Monday morning- Gotcha Day!!
5/20: Tuesday- adoption finalized

Hang out it Zhengzhou waiting for Carter's passport to be prepared

5/24: Fly to Guangzhou 

5/26: Carter's medical exam (required for his Visa)

5/28: US Consulate appointment

5/30: Fly home!!