whew!

Things really started flying for this adoption. I had hoped and estimated that we would travel by the end of February. People said I was crazy, my agency said it was unrealistic, the forums said there was no chance based on the data on how long each step took, I proved them wrong.

Like clockwork our I-800 was sent and processed before the end of December, our approval was sent to the National Visa Center and cabled to the consulate in the first week of 2011, 2 weeks later our Article 5 was ready for pickup. That was the predictable part.

I was beginning to doubt that we would get our Travel Approval and be able to go in February. In fact, I had given up on it and thought it might be the second week of March. People were reporting that the consulate appointments for February were take, however, all we needed was one in the 3rd week of March and we would be good.

Then Chinese New Year was looming. The government office would be closed from February 2 to February 8. (Nice vacation!) Our Article 5 was ready for pickup on January 24th. This meant that it had to be delivered to the Chinese authority on a Wednesday and there would be less than a week to get Approval when statistically it takes at least 2 weeks. But we got it! February 2!

I was having a really bad day at work and at the worst time of the whole day my cell phone rang. Which was odd because no one ever calls me and certainly no one from a 301 area code. It was the Agency to say we got the Approval and that we could travel as early as Feb 25th, my birthday. Happy birthday indeed.

We opted for the 28th due to logistics and flights and such, but there we were, leaving in February. Yea!