Today, on Christmas Eve, the very day Victoria thought, we received Travel Approval (known in the adoption world as "TA"). What a wonderful Christmas gift, bringing greater definition to our plans beginning in 2010. It looks like we'll need to be in China on the 24th of January so we can meet, greet and welcome Xiao Qian into our family the following day, the 25th (that's a Monday). We're going to sit tight before making any definitive travel plans until after the Christmas Holiday because we need to have our Consulate date nailed down before we can book flights. Everything revolves around that Consulate date. So, basically, we're looking at almost exactly one month from today when all of this wonder begins to unfold. Unbelievable!
We called Austin & Meagan to let them know about these dates so they can begin planning on their end. I think it's nice for them to have some definition as well.
Victoria laid the groundwork with Barret's high school teachers to allow him to travel to China with us if he wants to. Most of his teachers have responded that this could work just fine, provided he take a lot of homework along with him. He'll have to be disciplined to do studies while we're away, but I don't think that would be a problem for him. We've now asked Barret to faithfully pray about this and give us his answer about whether he'd like to go or not by next Wednesday. After that we'll begin the process to obtain our VISA's. We're hoping that Barret will come along.
We're enjoying a relaxing day around the house today, preparing for this evening and tomorrow. We're all missing Austin and Meagan a lot, this being our first Christmas away from one another. We're also missing my Mom & Dad who would have normally been with us but finding it difficult to travel these days. Poppy's quote of the day while running wildly around the house with Willow in complete jubilee, "This is the best day ever!"
Merry Christmas!
Tom (& Victoria)
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