Travel Dates

We have lift off! Our travel dates were confirmed this morning and we are in the process of purchasing plane tickets RIGHT NOW! We will meet Makena EE on June 7th...one week from Sunday!

A Travel Update

We've started the countdown...we are supposed to be leaving in about a week. I say supposed to, because we still do not have plane tickets yet. Before you say anything, we can't purchase them until we have the green light from our agency, who is waiting from the green light from Mak's province. Charlie and I decided that we were just going to go with the flow and be happy with whatever our travel arrangements (and dates) end up being...although we kind of feel like our girl does when they first put her down in front of that giant cake! Not unhappy, but definitely not completely comfortable.

We are so excited about the next couple of weeks though...wish us luck!

Please remind me...

If (actually, from what I hear it is "when") I ever get tired and long for my old life of business travel and conference calls and Banana Republic suits and high heels and working dinners and feeling important, please remind me how it is not cool that the people at multiple airports know your name... and it is not cool to spend half your time in a hotel room... and it is not cool to troubleshoot the hotel's wireless connection every night... and it is not cool to use your BlackBerry as your alarm clock.

It is cool to be there for your children and it is cool to spend time with your spouse and it is cool to go out with the girls and it is very cool to not wear all dry clean only clothes! Right?

Change

I love change. I embrace change. I long for change. I like to move. I like to change jobs. I like to meet new people. I love to travel to foreign countries. Change for me is good.

Today, I'm freaking out about change! I am SO ready to start this new parenthood journey with Charlie and I am SO ready to say good-bye to traveling every other week for work and I am SO ready to meet our little girl...but today, I'm completely freaked out. We leave for China two weeks from today! ...and we're not ready. I'm up in the NJ/NY area until tomorrow night trying desperately to concentrate on work (I got a great email thank you from one of my colleagues today that said, "You are one of the most effective and enthusiastic trainers I've encountered!"...so at least I was on my game during those sessions!). My awesome neighbor said that we had some big boxes from Babies R Us delivered this week, so I can't wait to get home and see what they are. We ordered Mak's car seat and baby gates last weekend. Wow. A car seat in the car. That's bizarre - and awesome!

Yes, we're a bit crazy...

...for trying on the pool and/or bath visors that we received for Mak at our baby shower yesterday. Apparently we are cracking under the pressure!

A great group of work friends threw us a fun baby shower. The food was great and the kids were so cute! I don't think anyone will forget the Oh Sh*t incident! Now onto the thank yous...

We "might" be headed to China!

We got a message on Friday that they released appointments to our group with the understanding that if there is any bad news on the swine flu front that we will be turned away when we get there...and they want us to leave June 4th! That is less than 3 weeks away. We are so excited and so completely not ready!

We did break down last night and buy baby gates for the top and bottom of the stairs, as well as her car seat. They are both only available online (our town is pretty small and doesn't have much variety in stores) and could take up to 2 weeks to arrive. Ugh - let's hope that UPS delivers better than DHL!!! We need to have that car seat installed before we head to the airport - let me say it again - on June 4th!

Something that Made us Smile....

One of our concerns about being put on hold due to swine flu is that Makena EE wil have to stay in the SWI even longer. The pictures that we received from her birthday cake celebration made us feel a lot better about that. Makena looks happy, healthy, and well taken care of. It also appears that she is loved. In the background of several of our pictures shows a lot of fun and brightly colored toys; a few of the pictures also show one of her nannies. I wish that I could reach out and hug her nanny for taking the time to help Makena celebrate her birthday.

Happy 1st Birthday, Makena EE!

Charlie and I had a wonderful surprise waiting for us when we got off the airplane from the Bahamas (very nice...) last night. Pictures of Makena with her first birthday cake! She looks happy and healthy; we feel blessed that we were able to get the pictures. Crazy as it might sound - in the first picture we think that she actually looks a bit like my baby pictures (and my sister's, as well as my mom's). We are a bit biased, but what a cutie...and..she did a great job with her first fork experience and first taste of frosting!

The Good and the Bad...

Woot woot! We got our travel approval (TA) from China! Yay! That was the good news...we were granted our Chinese Visas (multiple entry good for a year) and finally received our TA. All systems go. Then Great Wall tells us the bad news...Mak's province stopped granting appointments because of the swine flu. There is no estimate on how long they will stay closed. One step forward...two steps back! We do not know when we will be able to travel now, but will be sure to keep at it until they allow us in!

Trauma

Charlie travels all the time. He travelled so much internationally that he had to get more visa pages in his passport. How crazy is that, right? Imagine my surprise when, after going through the Chinese Visa requirements one last time before submitting our application, I realize that there is not one entirely empty visa page in my passport! The morning that I needed to send it into the consulate too...trauma!!!!!

After some research, phone calls, and a chat with Charlie, I was able to get an emergency appointment at the closest passport agency. So I hopped in the car that evening and drove to Washington DC. Expedia supplied a relatively cheap hotel...I got there so late that night that they upgraded me to the suite. There was a full kitchen, living room, and bedroom - more closets than my house! I headed to the passport agency with all of the required paperwork the next morning for my 9am appointment. Turns out, I had to leave it there and return at 2pm. Since hotel checkout wasn't until noon, I changed into running clothes and took a 90-minute run around the mall. Ran around all of the monuments and caught a glimpse of several politicians. After a quick shower I headed out for Chinese (fitting I thought) and sat next to some senators from the midwest. Very interesting to eavesdrop on!

At 2pm I returned to the agency. Long story short, my passport wasn't ready and I got to enjoy the company of the other hundred or so folks waiting for their paperwork as well. Right before 5pm they called my name...woohoo!!!! I headed straight to FedEx down the street to send in all of our visa applications information. It's actually due back to us tomorrow! Ugh...what a relief it will be to have everything in our hands again! We are still waiting for our TA...that pesky swine flu needs to go away so that we can travel!