Flights booked

We received confirmation of our Consulate Appointment (CA) on Thursday, which meant we we able to book our flights.  Our CA is on March 14.  It is a day later than I was hoping, which meant we had to make some changes to our planned itinerary. 

The US Consulate in China responsible for processing immigrant visas for adopted children is in Guangzhou.  It's a couple of hours by train or car from Hong Kong, and it's cheaper for us to fly back to Chicago from Hong Kong than from Guangzhou.  We were planning to leave Guangzhou and head to Hong Kong the afternoon we pick up Abbie's visa packet (the day after the CA), then we'd go to Hong Kong Disneyland for a day, then fly home the next day.  (Can we say the ULTIMATE incentive for the boys to have good behaviors during the trip?!?! GOING TO SEE MICKEY!)  However, when our CA was delayed a day, flights were 20% higher than if we'd gotten into the Consulate on March 13.  20% is a lot!  That, on top of the extra night in a Hong Kong hotel, food, park admission, etc. made it a no-go.  We nixed Disneyland.  Luckily, we hadn't mentioned it to the boys yet, so they're none the wiser.

Here's the itinerary:

• Wednesday, February 29: Depart Chicago at noon
• Thursday, March 1: Arrive in Beijing at 3:40 PM
• Friday, March 2: Meet Abbie!!!
• Saturday, March 3: Adoption agency orientation in the morning, hopefully more time with Abbie in the afternoon
• Sunday, March 4: Travel from Beijing to Nanchang, Jiangxi with Abbie. This is the Provincial capital of where she is from and where the legal adoption will take place.  This is also the day she will be transferred into our custody forever!
• Friday, March 9: Travel from Nanchang to Guangzhou.
• Wednesday, March 14: US Consulate Appointment and oath taking ceremony for Abbie's visa, which guarantees her US citizenship upon landing on US soil.
• Thursday, March 15: Pickup Abbie's visa packet from the Consulate and head to Hong Kong for the night.
• Friday, March 16: Depart Hong Kong at 11:00 AM.  Land in Chicago at 12:15 PM.  (Gotta love the International Date Line!)

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Our agency works with a travel agency that will book all of our in-China flights and hotels.  We likely won't have all of those details nailed down until the end of the next week, or maybe the week after.