Visas and more paperwork ahead...

So, we were told to get our paperwork ready for our visa. The process goes like this as I understand it: you send your visa paperwork and passports to a designated courrier in D.C. We pay this person to wait in line at the Chinese Consulate where once they drop it off, our passports get stamped and paperwork processed. Our passports get sent back to us with the official stamp that allows us to travel in China during the next 6 months. My readers who have been there and back again, do I have this correct?

Anyway, the map above with the red dots shows where we will be traveling in China while we have Esther. Esther's province of Guanxi is colored in blue. We will fly to the capital city of Guanxi, which is called Nanning (red dot). Esther will be transported from her city four hours away to meet us there. We will have a fair amount of paperwork to sign over a several day period in Nanning and will be there 5-6 days. The paperwork spans several days as it must be processed and approved through the government officials in the capitol of that province before it can move on. (We all have our "red" tape, right? That isn't where the saying came from is it?) It is at this leg of the journey that Esther becomes officially adopted...yeah!

From there, we will fly to the other red dot, Guangzhou. Guangzhou is the capitol of the province Guangdong. Is your nose vibrating with all this nasal pronunciation? Some of you might be familiar with the city of Guangzhou, as it was formally known as Canton. Guangzhou is a massive city, in which the Center for Chinese Adoption Affairs (CCAA) headquarters is located. It is because of this that all Chinese adoptions must complete their final leg of the adoption journey in Guangzhou. There we will spend another week taking Esther to her exit physical exam, getting her travel visa from the U.S. consulate, and signing paperwork at the CCAA. There are probably some other steps I'm missing. It is these appointments at the U.S. consulate and CCAA that often determine your dates of travel, as they can only process so many baby's paperwork in one day. It might be hard to picture, but I have been told to be prepared that we will be standing in some lines with other people waiting for baby physicals, baby visas etc.

Is it any wonder that this two week change of life is stressful for the babies, not to mention the new parents? We are getting excited as the time draws nearer...