Busy Bees...

Well, our minds have been in a whirlwind this week with all the planning and packing we need to do. There is so much to think about. I feel so overwhelmed, but it's a good overwhelming feeling. I'm definitely not complaining! We've been waiting so long for this and God has finally opened the doors for us.

Our 14th wedding anniversary was yesterday. Hard to believe that Dave and I have been married for 14 years. My mother in-law reminded me that 11 years ago around this time we found out we were pregnant with Jake and now we are heading to China for our daughter. We announced on Mother's Day that I was pregnant and just a few days after Mother's Day this year, we will have our new daughter in our arms!

In celebration of our anniversary and our upcoming China trip, Dave and I are going away this weekend for some much needed alone time. We haven't been away without Jake since he was a baby. Jake has stayed a night or two away with my in-law's, but Dave and I haven't gone away by ourselves. We are headed to the Poconos to one of those all-inclusive resorts. Hopefully we will get some much needed rest and continue to work on our to-do lists. We should be able to come back in full swing and prepare for our trip.

TRAVEL ITINERARY

We are definitely flying out of Newark, NJ on May 14th at 12:10 PM. We decided to go out of Newark because it is a non-stop flight to Beijing, China which is where we will spend a few days sight-seeing. You can't go to China without some sightseeing! We will arrive in Beijing at 1:50 PM on May 15th. We basically loose an entire day due to the almost 14 hour flight and the 12 hour time difference. It's already 8:35 PM there now!

I don't know much more than that at the moment as we haven't received our complete itinerary yet. We may not get that until the end of next week sometime. I know that we depart Beijing on May 29th at 3:45 PM, but we will need to get to Beijing from Guangzhou which is another flight since it's about 1200 miles. We arrive back in Newark at 5:30 PM on the 29th. We are getting back the day we lost in the earlier part of our trip! I'm sure jetlag will set in rather quickly!

I think we will meet our daughter for the first time on either day 3 or 4 of our trip. Once Rachel is in our arms, she will be with us for the remainder of the trip! I am so looking forward to that. We will be able to continue seeing her country with her for the remainder of our time in China. I really plan to take lots of photos and notes so that I can share them with her. Going to your childs' country is such a great benefit as I will be able to share our experience of her country and culture with her in the future.

I will keep you posted with more information as we get it. Stay tuned...