Night in Austin…

Well, it’s the night before our flight and we are constantly going through our luggage making sure we have things just right. We made a “dry run” to the airport with mom and dad so they would know where to come and pick us up when we return. We will take the shuttle from the hotel tomorrow at 5:00 to make our 6:35 flight. I think that will be plenty early! Now all mom and dad have to do is figure out how to install our new carseat into their vehicle for the pick up. We didn’t get around to that. Maybe Carl and Susan need to come and help them practice…hint, hint…they need the practice too

We enjoyed a great meal at a little “hole in the wall” mexican restaurant….just in case you were wondering Jen!!! We took your advice, although we already had it on our agenda. :0)

This will be our last blog before we get to China. We hope to get online as soon as we can when we get to Beijing, however we will be very tired I’m sure. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, we love you all and hope to get a comment or two throughout our traveling!

;p) J & D

Travel Itinerary

Accommodations:

Dolton Hotel

Phone: 011-86-0731-4168888

Address: 149 Shaoshan Road, Changsha.

 

Date	Time	Events
04.22	2:55pm	Pick up family #8 Williams (2) with CZ3972 and send to Dolton Hotel.
	7:15pm	Pick up family #6 Sabo(2) with KA720 and send to hotel .
	7:25pm	Pick up family #2 Hytner(2) and #7 Tippens(3+1) with CZ3142 , and send to hotel.
	10:40pm	Pick up family #1 Catlett(2) with CZ3634, and send to hotel .
04.23	10:25am	Pick up family #5 Perryman(2) with KA728, and send to hotel .
	10:50am	Pick up family #3 Musarra(2) with CZ3376, and send to hotel.
	7:25pm	Pick up family #4 Paris (2) with CZ3142, and send to hotel .
04.24	10:00am	Meet babies at Civil Affairs.
	3:30pm	Do relevant paperwork at Civil Affairs.
04.25	9:30am	Shopping for babies.
04.26	10:00am	Visit to the museum
04.27	10:00am	Visit to the Lieshi Park.
04.28	10:00am	Visit to the Yue Lu Academy.
04.29	10:00am	Visit to the Juzi Park.
04.30	4:00pm	Get baby’ passports.
05.01	3:50pm	Families fly to Guangzhou with ZH9346

 

Guangzhou

Guide Information:

Name: Grace     

Phone: 13911503674

 

Accommodations:

White Swan Hotel

Phone: 011-86-20-81886968

Address: No. 1 Shamian South Street, Guangzhou, China

Date	Time	Events
05.01	4:35pm	Pick up families with ZH9346, and send to WS hotel.
05.02	9:00am	Sightseeing tour to Chen families’ temple.
05.03	9:00am	Sightseeing tour to Yuntai park.
05.04	9:30am	Taking baby’ visa picture and doing medical examination for the babies.
05.05	9:00am	Take families documents to American Consulate in GZ
05.06	3:00pm	Families go to American Consulate Interview and get visa

 

 

 

 

05.07	8:15am	Send family #1,#4,#6 and #7 away with CA1310.
	8:20am	Send family #2 and 5 away with CZ301.
	8:20am	Send family #3 away with NW10.
	1:05pm	Send family #8 away with CZ327.

 

Beijing

Guide Information:

Name: Grace     

Phone: 13911503674

 

Accommodations:

Poly Plaza

Phone: 0086-10-65001188

Address: 14 Dong Zhimen Dajie (South), Dongcheng District, China

 

Date	Time	Events
05.07	11:15am	Pick up family #4,#6 and #7 with CA1310, and then  sent to hotel .
		Family #1 fly to US with UA850.
05.08	9:00am	Sightseeing Tour to the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tian An Men Square
05.09	3:45pm	Send family #4 away with CO88.
	12:00pm	Send Family #7 away with UA888.
05.10	8:00am	Send family #6 away with CX6877.

 

*Great Wall reserves the right to change the above itinerary on a moments notice.

 

                                                                                

HOTEL INFORMATION:

We do our best to put clients in 4-star and higher hotels when available, but do not guarantee that all hotels have all services parents desire.

 

Upon arriving at your hotel, please call your family in the states and give them your room number. This way family or friends can easily reach you.

 

For dialing numbers from the States to China- 011-86 + number

For dialing numbers within China – if not local number- you dial 0+number

If you have any problems calling your guide with the above phone number, please ask someone at your hotel to make the phone call for you by showing them the above number.

 

Karlie’s room is ready!

All that’s missing is a chubby cheeked little black headed baby!  It was such fun going through all of the goodies from the shower!  We were told that registering for three bottles just wasn’t enough and we didn’t understand why at first.  We have so much to learn and  hope Karlie will be patient with her old 30 something + parents ;) We have packed some new things and some hand-me-downs for the trip.  Thanks to K.C. for all the adorable smaller outfits!  We hated to tear off the tags from all the new things until we see what size she really is.   Most of the shower stuff was 9 mos. or higher.  She will be very well dressed!  We will be there for her 8 mo. birthday and then have her here by Mother’s Day!  What a day it will be.  I am overjoyed just thinking about what a special time in our lives this is.  God works in amazing ways and we are confident that this was His plan all along.  I’m sure I’ll get little to no sleep tonight.  This will be our last night in our own beds for a long time. Nighty night all!

Final Packing

We finally finished packing our luggage for the trip tonight.  We each can have one checked bag that must weigh less than 45 pounds, one carry on, and a personal bag.  I have a backpack that will serve as my “purse” and drake will carry the laptop in his backpack.  We purchased a “wild game scale” to determine if our luggage will be under the limit.  Drake can use it next year during hunting season to weigh all his kills….

We also drank a bottle of wine to take the nervous “edge” off………Can you tell?

Shower PICS

We had our Mexia/Drake’s Family shower on Sunday April 13 and the Fowler Elementary shower after school on thursday April 17.  Since Julie was opening gifts we don’t have many pics to share from Mexia.  We are so thankful for all the gifts for Karlie.  She is a lucky and much loved little girl!

Here are some pics!

countdown to Karlie

We have 3 more days before we leave for China. We don’t sleep very well at this point. We have so much to do we can’t figure out what to do first. We will start packing tomorrow. A trip to Walmart to buy “travel” supplies Friday night turned into a 2 hour quest. I think we spent more than any trip in Walmart history, and can only pack one suitcase each that weighs less than 47 pounds……More to come tomorrow……