We have finalized our travel plans to China. We had to wait for our appointment date at the US Consulate in Guangzhou before we could book our flights, and today we received that info. Our appointment is set for Feb. 27, which means our Oath Taking at the Consulate will be Feb 28 and our flight home is Feb 29.
We will be leaving Minneapolis on Feb 14 at 1:10pm, arriving in Tokyo on Feb 15 at 4:40pm- a 12.5 hr flight. After a short layover, we depart Tokyo at 6:05pm and arrive in Beijing at 9:15pm. We will be staying at the Jinglun Hotel in Beijing and on Feb 16 we intend to travel out to Langfang, which is about 40 miles outside Beijing. There, we will visit the Langfang Children's Village/Shepherd's Field where Nathan was cared for before we adopted him. The Shepherd's Field is all new since our last visit in August 2005 and we want to see the changes and visit with the folks who provided such loving care to Nate in his first two years.
On Feb 17, we will travel on to Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. In Changsha, we will meet our new son Jeremy on Feb 18. Over the next several days, we will complete the Chinese portion of the adoption in Changsha and will also travel to Jeremy's home town of Yueyang to visit the orphanage there. On or about Feb 22, we will have completed the adoption and will procede onto Guangzhou. There, we will complete the US immigration portion of the adoption.
On Feb 29 we will depart Guangzhou at 8:3oam and arrive in Tokyo at 1:35pm. We will then leave Tokyo at 3:05pm and arrive in Portland, OR at 7am THE SAME DAY, 8 hours BEFORE we left Tokyo. That always blows my mind! At 8:50am we leave Portland enroute to Minneapolis, where we will arrive at 2:05pm (exactly 1 hour before we left Tokyo!).
As I mentioned before, you can follow our journey and see lots of pics at Journeytojeremy.blogspot.com
John
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
January Update
TA HAS FINALLY ARRIVED! We have received word from our adoption agency that the Chinese have issued our travel authorization. We expect to depart for China on February 14 and meet our new son on Monday, Feb. 18. If all goes as expected, we should return to the USA on Feb 27 or 28. During our travel, we will be posting daily on the Journey to Jeremy site.
WINTER IS IN FULL NORTH IOWA BLOOM: It's been a great week for the winter lovers here. Temps in the single digits as the daily highs, in the negative numbers for lows (as low as -17F on Friday night!) Today, we got about 5 inches of loose, fluffy snow. Caitlin and Grace are going to the North Iowa Winter Retreat at the Baptist Camp this coming weekend and are very thankful for the snow, as many outside activities depend on the white stuff being there (i.e. sledding, snowmobiling etc).
ICE FISHING: John and several friends from church have been working on building an icehouse to use for ice fishing. Clear Lake is frozen solid with up to 15 inches of ice on it. There are numerous portable and semi-portable ice houses out on the lake. If you've ever seen the movie "Grumpy Old Men", you'll know what I'm talking about. The house is 8' x 12', built on a frame of 2x6's and plywood. It will be fully insulated and we'll put a portable heater in it when it's done. It will be equipped with ski's for pulling it out on the lake with either a truck or a 4-wheeler. Hopefully the fish will be biting!
HOW 'BOUT THEM TERPS! Knocking off the #1 team in the country on Saturday. It's always fun for a Terp fan to see the Tar Heels go down. Next up for Maryland is a game vs. Duke. Two big wins in a row? We'll see.
WEDDING PLANS: Jeriah and Shawna have set the date for June 21. The wedding will be held in Colfax, IA which is about 25 miles east of Des Moines. We can't wait for the big day.
WINTER IS IN FULL NORTH IOWA BLOOM: It's been a great week for the winter lovers here. Temps in the single digits as the daily highs, in the negative numbers for lows (as low as -17F on Friday night!) Today, we got about 5 inches of loose, fluffy snow. Caitlin and Grace are going to the North Iowa Winter Retreat at the Baptist Camp this coming weekend and are very thankful for the snow, as many outside activities depend on the white stuff being there (i.e. sledding, snowmobiling etc).
ICE FISHING: John and several friends from church have been working on building an icehouse to use for ice fishing. Clear Lake is frozen solid with up to 15 inches of ice on it. There are numerous portable and semi-portable ice houses out on the lake. If you've ever seen the movie "Grumpy Old Men", you'll know what I'm talking about. The house is 8' x 12', built on a frame of 2x6's and plywood. It will be fully insulated and we'll put a portable heater in it when it's done. It will be equipped with ski's for pulling it out on the lake with either a truck or a 4-wheeler. Hopefully the fish will be biting!
HOW 'BOUT THEM TERPS! Knocking off the #1 team in the country on Saturday. It's always fun for a Terp fan to see the Tar Heels go down. Next up for Maryland is a game vs. Duke. Two big wins in a row? We'll see.
WEDDING PLANS: Jeriah and Shawna have set the date for June 21. The wedding will be held in Colfax, IA which is about 25 miles east of Des Moines. We can't wait for the big day.
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