Almost There

I just had to take a moment to make sure everyone knows that it is officially October.  We meet our boys next month.  I have to say that again because I can't shout at the top of my lungs on a keyboard.  We meet our boys next month.  I honestly can't believe it.

At this point, a week after Travel Approval, we should have our hotels booked and a flight to Ch*na on the calendar.  Unfortunately, we ran into a little bump last week.  (A bump?  In this process?  No way!  I can say that with a smile at this point.  Seriously.  I'm smiling.)  In order to schedule our appointment with the U.S. Consulate in Ch*na (which is the last tiny step after getting TA and before booking plane tickets), a family has to have current fingerprints for U.S. Immigration.  We have been fingerprinted before.  In fact, we've been fingerprinted twice.  (If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember our last way-too-early trip to be fingerprinted.)

Fingerprints for Immigration expire after 15 months.  Ours expired last Monday.  Yup, that'd be the exact day we got our Travel Approval.  No fingerprints = No Consulate appointment.

Thankfully, we'd already scheduled a new fingerprint appointment for last Wednesday.  We'd been told that the two-day lapse would be no big deal.  Because, you know, most people don't get their Travel Approval on one of the two days in fifteen months that their fingerprints are expired.  (Insert dripping sarcasm here.)  Oh, just wait, this bump gets even more interesting.

We went to our fingerprint appointment on Wednesday.  After our appointment, our fingerprint results had to be sent to our Immigration Officer who then had to send our renewed Immigration approval to the U.S. Consulate in Ch*na and our U.S. adoption agency.  With that new approval in hand, our agency would be able to request our appointment at the Consulate in Ch*na.  (That last tiny step I mentioned above.)

(If you're confused at this point, it's totally okay.  I'm feeling confused, and I've been trying to explain this to people all week.)

I got an email today saying that our Officer had received our fingerprint results and forwarded our approval along to the appropriate parties.  Good news...except for one little thing.  Ch*na is celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.  So the Consulate where we need to schedule that ever-so-important appointment?  Yup, it's closed until Thursday or Friday.  Oh yeah, and they're also closed for Columbus Day on Monday.

I'm still smiling.  Really.

As much as the OCD planner in me wants to have tickets bought and hotels booked, I can live in the uncertainty a little longer.  Because we've come so, so far.  And we're almost there.  (And, amazingly, plane tickets have actually gone down $100 since the last time I checked.)  Regardless of whether we receive our appointment date this Friday or next, we are still going to Ch*na next month.

And I'm pretty stinkin' excited.