The last time it snowed enough to track a cat in Des Moines we got Molly's picture and information. We've had unusually warm weather ever since, farmers have been out in their fields, people have been playing golf. Saturday it was in the 50s. But today it snowed hard all morning and all this afternoon and our travel approval came! Wahooooo!
We've been anxiously waiting since December 8 and now we have it. More properly, it's called the "Notice of coming to China for adoption" form from the China Center of Adoption Affairs. We still don't know when we'll be leaving to go to China. Gift of Love says it could be February 1 at the earliest, but only if we get our consulate appointments on our preferred dates of February 14, 15, 16. (Yes, Valentine's Day!) Once again, we won't know anything until we know everything, probably sometime next week.
We watched the Lost Daughters dvd from National Geographic last week, after Jon's Mom sent it to us. It's a wonderful show and it follows a set of families making almost exactly the same trip we'll be making (Beijing, Nanchang, Guangzhou) on the same schedule. We highly recommend it if you have access to it at your library or video store. It explains some of the cultural and political reasons that some parents in China feel they need to leave their babies to be raised by different parents, and particularly their girl babies. It also shows how modern Chinese cities are and the very nice hotels we'll be staying in - so it could fill in some of the blanks for any of you who are having a hard time picturing our travels. We both cried during the scene where the families are first united with their daughters.
Molly's room is pretty much done, the house is ready enough, and we are going to start packing this weekend! Sarah and I are going to a place called "What's for Dinner" tomorrow morning to make and split 12 dinners to put in the freezer so we won't have to cook much when we get back. She said last time when they returned with Julia she just couldn't cook for several weeks. These dinners sound much better than round two of Lean-Cuisine-o-rama!
Love,
Cheryl
