We are on our way!

Despite the bad weather that has shutdown most of Raleigh, we are at the airport sitting in the American Airlines Admirals Club enjoying some refreshments before the flight to Chicago!  We had a car service pick us up this morning and we made it over in no time due to the lack of traffic on the roads.  We will be departing RDU around 11:15 for the Windy City and then have a layover until about 8:00 pm EST before we depart for Beijing, China!  Savannah has already eaten 2 donuts and half an orange, so we should be in for a nice ride up the coast!  It was a bit sad leaving the puppies behind this morning, but we have a son to get 16 hours away and we will be there soon come hell or high water!  I will post more later on itineraries and other things, so for now I will sign off and finish my coffee.  Till then.......

Mike (wow, I love free coffee!), Ann Marie (did we forget anything?) and Savannah (can I have another Krispy Kreme?) Kennedy

 Mom cannot get away from the phone!

Mmmmmm, Donuts!

One more night of sleep......

or the attempt thereof!  This time we are done packing and headed to bed a full two hours before we did when we left to get Savannah!  Even with the packing done, the check and double check, there will be little sleep to be had tonight for tomorrow we begin the adventure to Aiden, but this time with a little one in tow!  Savannah is very excited to meet her little brother and we cannot wait for Gotcha day to be here!  I am going to go lay in the bed and rest my eyes, but I promise to BLOG a little more while we are in our layover in Chicago and will add some pictures of our departure from North Carolina!  Till then......

Mike (how many bags ARE we taking?), Ann Marie (did that say 20 kg or 20 lbs?), and Savannah (all I need is my DSI and your iPod Daddy!) Kennedy

Two more nights of sleep.....

before we leave for China!  I am just finishing the Christmas cards as they have taken a back seat to lots of other preparations and work!  Tomorrow we will finalize the packing and begin the arduous task of fretting over what we have forgotten to pack and if we really need what we did pack!  I depend on Ann Marie for the packing task as I am horrible for a guy as I tend to over pack, and with a 22 pound in country weight restriction for China, I think I will leave it to the professional!  So off to bed I go and let the posting begin in earnest tomorrow night, but till then.....

Mike (what do you mean we should hand address them?), Ann Marie (do you think the applesauce will survive in the check luggage?) and Savannah (how much longer till we leave?) Kennedy

We are China Bound!

Just a quick post here at 5:30 am on Monday to let everyone know that we expect to be China bound on Thursday of this week!  Today we will begin the process of booking flights with a return to the United States on January 1, 2011!  What a Christmas and New Years it will be for us this year!  We will start Blogging daily on Wednesday, but now the fun begins and the questions multiply!  Till then.......

Mike (so how cold is Beijing going to be?), Ann Marie (how long until I get to hold my son?) and Savannah (how many minutes till we leave?) Kennedy

Here we go again!

The calm before the storm.....

is how I best describe what today will be like around here!  We received notification late last week that our TA had been received, the consulate appointment applied for and all we were awaiting was the official notification from the consulate of what our appointment date was.  The dates our coordinator applied for were December 27th and 29th which means that we would leave this coming week and be home on or around the New Year!  Can you believe it?  We cannot and have been sitting on pins and needles all weekend trying to remain grounded as we await the news!  We expect that we will get the conformation late today or very early Monday morning from our coordinator as we are 12 hours behind Guangzhou.  I will refrain from too much more for this post and will save the overarching details for Monday afternoon.  I am sure that the first phone call after the conformation will be to American Airlines to get on the first flight to China!  Till then......

Mike (we must have an aisle seat!), Ann Marie (do I have Ambien?) and Savannah (I need to tell Santa Clause I will be in China!) Kennedy

Keeping the tradition alive....

is really special to us!  Last weekend our good friends the Dadd's from here in our neighborhood took us out for a special Chinese meal to celebrate our impeding travel.  We did the same when they traveled, we were treated to the same when we prepared to leave for China when we adopted Savannah and we hope that we can return the favor to someone special in the very near future (Donna, if you read this we have our fingers crossed for your referral to come very soon!)!!  Chris, Karen, Charlotte, Ann Marie, Savannah and I shared good times, old memories and talked about the fun times to come while sharing some great food at Yo-Ho Asian Bistro in Cary.  The girls had a blast and we cannot wait to go out again when we get home with Aiden sometime in the next few weeks!  So a special thank you to our friends the Dadd's and the next time we have Chinese cuisine we hope it is in Beijing, China!  Till then.....

Michael (Sushi for me please), Ann Marie (Duck is good) and Savannah (Lo-Mien and Dumplings) Kennedy

Just then you think you are in the dark......

....the light shines brightest!!  Okay, I know I was high and mighty on my last post with statistics, probability theory, quantam physics and so forth, but sometimes you just get ahead of the game and forget where you are at!  Ann Marie and I were chatting about receiving our TA when she heard from our adoption coordinator that CCAA was working on about 200 travel authorizations for traditional adoptions in China and that ours may be stuck behind that backlog, thus possibly pushing out our departure for Aiden until after the first of the year.  I was a little depressed as I had built up my hopes to leave before that, but when I truly thought about how long these 200 families had been waiting for their children (some as long as 4 years) I was able to put aside the frustration and be truly happy for them and their new family members waiting patiently a world away.

So with that being said, when I got to work on Wednesday of this week Ann Marie called to tell me that our adoption coordinator had just emailed her with the news about the 200 TA's.  My heart sank and I looked back at my computer calendar just to see when I have set aside a date for our TA to arrive.  Much to my surprise I found that I had set December 6th as the day I thought we would get a TA, not November 29th!  I thought that was funny and went about my day as normal not giving it another thought based on what we had heard in the earlier email.

Then came Friday.  Ann Marie got another email from our coordinator that stated the following;

"Your TA has already been printed and was on the director's desk for his signature when I called last night.  The TA officer told me that she might not be able to get the TA out on Friday, but should be out on Monday."

Thats right!  We will know our Travel Dates next week!  Oh yea!  Its so close it is scary!  With that in mind we have to start preparing for Christmas, a work trip to Switzerland for Ann Marie next week and a trip to China to bring home our son all in the next couple of days!  Hectic and stressful, but I do not think we would have it any other way!

Keep your fingers crossed and whisper a little prayer when you can and I think we will be just fine!  Till then........

Michael "can we take workout gear", Ann Marie "already have a packing list" and Savannah "when do we get my little brother" Kennedy