Travel Itinerary

Thursday, May 1st	Flight to Beijing 1:30 pm
Friday, May 2nd	Arrive in Beijing 9:30 pm
Saturday, May 3rd	Sight-seeing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City & Summer Palace
Sunday, May 4th	Church service, the Great Wall and Peking (Beijing) Duck Dinner.
Monday, May 5th	Morning – flight to Wuhan, Hubei Afternoon – meet Nathaniel Lee Gerteisen!!!!!
Tuesday, May 6th	Civil affairs appointment
Wednesday, May 7th- Friday, May 9th	Paperwork, sightseeing & shopping
Saturday, May 10th	Flight to Guangzhou
Sunday, May 11th	Medical exam
Monday, May 12th	Consulate paperwork
Tuesday, May 13th	Consulate appointment
Wednesday, May 14th	Pick up child’s Visa
Thursday, May 15th	Flight back to Indianapolis

The Boy with 3 Names

Nathan has 3 names now. His name in foster care is Jin Felipe. Check out this blog of his orphanage: http://www.bringingjoytojingmen.blogspot.com/. His real name in China is Jin Huan and his name when we adopt him will be Nathaniel Lee (Nathan). We're coming baby Nathan! :)

I171H & The Sale!!!!!

The weekend started off great. Matt brought the mail in after work on Friday and showed me we got the form we've been waiting for from the US Govt. Our updated I171H form!!! Yeah!!! So, now we are totally ready, paperwise, to go on May 1st. God took care of it, just like I knew He would when I gave it up to Him. Such a great feeling.

Saturday was the sale I have been waiting for so that I could get Nathan loaded up with supplies, a crib, clothes, etc. We weren't lucky enough to find a crib, but we found lots of other great items and tons of clothes. My sister Becky & hubby Pat bought our crib for us at Babies R Us. It is beautiful and I will post pictures of it as soon as we get it put together. Thank you Becky & Pat!!! Becky also bought him other things like a little ride on car and a diaper genie. Woo-hoo!!!

A good day. :)

TA , CA & Travel Plans

We received TA (travel approval) on 3/31/08. We found out that we would travel with group #133 and leave on May 1. There are 25 families in this group - so huge! We were still a little wary because we have not received our updated I171H back from the US govt. yet. On Tuesday, April 8 we confirmed our flight arrangements and spoke with Kristen at our agency. She assured us that she didn't forsee any problems with getting the form in time and was sure that they would expedite it. As of now, we haven't heard, but we know it will all work out. Here we come baby Nathan! :)

Care Package

We wanted to send Nathan a care package and this led us to Ann at redthreadchina.com. What a sweetheart. This is her business, but she is the sweetest thing and helped put together a special package for him. She also checked with the orphanage and got us up to date measurements, which will obviously help us with buying clothes. She also sent us this picture of his package.

Letter of Acceptance - 3/3/08

We received our Letter of Acceptance on 3/3/08. This is the letter from China that we had to sign to basically tell them that, "yes" we want to be Huan Jin's mommy & daddy. My hand was shaking and I was afraid I would mess something up.

Where is Nathan?

Nathan (Jin Huan) is located in the heart of China, in the Hubei province, Jingmen City (which has 3 million people). He is currently in foster care.

Dossier to China - 1/26/07

After starting the adoption process in August of 2006, we were finally DTC on 1/26/07. Months of gathering documents, doctors appointments, and homestudy appointments were over. Such a great feeling. Here are the documents we assembled.