Almost Time To Go!

I have to admit that I had a really hard time waiting for the last couple of steps, the Article 5 and Travel Approval. No, I had a very hard time waiting for each and every step of Lei's adoption. Some of it is that I am not a patient person. But, some of it is that it is very hard to wait feeling that if I relaxed a little, or stopped pushing, that it would take longer for Lei to come home. I had many people tell me that I should relax and not get so stressed out about it. I am sure that makes sense to anyone who hasn't ever been in the trenches of an adoption. But for those of us who have lived it, it is not for the weak of heart and it takes a whole lot of stress and work to see an adoption through.
I basically spent my spring reading as much as I could about older child adoptions. I read books as well as any blogs I could find on older child adoptions. I wrote down words of wisdom, packing tips, or anything else I found that would make the transition easier for Lei. I spent the last couple of months reading blogs and checking (and rechecking and rechecking) various websites trying to guesstimate when we would travel. My estimate was that I would get my Article 5 the first week of August, my Travel Approval in the middle of September, and then travel the beginning of October. I had no idea about the big trade shows in China that mess up traveling for adoptions. I learned about that during one of my late night reading sessions. It basically meant, that if I didn't travel by Sept 15th, I would have to wait until the first week of November to travel! That is a really long to me to wait for a little girl who must be very nervous about meeting us and what her new life will be like.
I pretty much HAUNTED the very nice lady at my adoption agency who handles all of the families in the last steps. I KNEW she knew what she was doing and I KNEW she wan't personally responsible for how long things took once our paperwork got to China, but I also couldn't help myself from calling and emailing her. A lot.
My Article 5 Letter was picked up Thursday, August 8th, dropped off at the CCWA on August 15th and we got travel approval August 24th. If that sounds fast, it was. I had read that a lot of people were getting their TA's in about 14 days, which is fast. I was told that if we received our TA by Sept 2nd, we would be able to go to China before the October chaos and if we got it any time after that, we probably would have to wait until November. BIG DIFFERENCE! So every night I would get on my ipad as soon as my kids feel asleep and look for something (anything) that would give me an idea of when we could expect to travel.
THE CALL-
I told my husband that I could help my husband out at his office for a week to help him out. I was leaving to get lunch for my son, Brayden, who was at a soccer camp all week. I had promised myself that I wouldn't call my adoption agency until Friday. I knew that if they heard anything they would call. It was Wednesday around noon when the phone rang. How great to look down and see the name of my agency on my phone! At first they thought they would be able to get us out on September 8th! We actually didn't find out until Aug 30th that we would leave on Sept 15th. It works out better for us since Brayden, Brookelyn and Sasha start school on Sept 12th, so we will be able to be there their first few days.