Journey to Harris Five: We're going to China!

SO much has happened in the short time since I updated.

We found out we have to redo our local background checks and be fingerprinted again due to Florida's rules for adoption. So I added that to the to-do list. We received news that our Article 5 pick up would be delayed because of the Independence Day holiday, so that was a bummer, but not a huge deal and we were told it would be picked up on July 10 rather than July 6. July 6 turned out to be a crazy day for Chinese adoption anyways. China released new rules and requirements regarding adoption, effective immediately. They changed things like how many children can be adopted at once, how many kids can be in the home already, and marriage requirements, among other things. One big change is that the youngest child in the home must be at least three years old. When these rules were released to the agencies, nobody was told if they applied to everyone in process, or if people, like us, who are about to travel to legally adopt their child, would be grandfathered in. For the better part of a day we didn't know if Ellie was coming home. Our agency did finally receive confirmation that anyone already officially matched with approval from China or who had their dossier already logged in would be grandfathered in. To say we were relieved would be a terrible understatement.

Our Article 5 pick-up did happen on Monday, July 10 and we began the wait for Travel Approval. I know Travel Approvals can take anywhere from three days to three weeks, with the current average being about ten days right now. When Thursday came, so did our Travel Approval! Much sooner than expected! Because our agency had already asked about travel dates, they went ahead and confirmed our consulate appointment date. ELLIE IS COMING HOME!

We will leave early on July 27 from Jacksonville. We will spend a day in Beijing seeing The Great Wall and going to an acrobat show, as well as adjusting to the time zone change before heading to Ellie's province. We will meet our daughter on July 31 and will officially, legally adopt her on August 1. We will travel to Guangzhou later that week, as all adoptive families from the United States must, to attend Ellie's consulate appointment and receive her immigrant visa. We will head to Hong Kong on August 10 and then fly to Greensboro from there the next morning.

We have been busy the last few days buying plane tickets, booking a hotel in Hong Kong, arranging our trip to Beijing, making work arrangements, getting Ellie's room ready, making final travel preparations and trying to do lingering projects around the house from moving. So, what does any responsible family do on the ONLY Saturday left in town before a big trip like this? Go to Disney World, of course! We had already been planning to go for the day on Saturday before we received travel approval and thought it would be nice to have a family day before we are away from our boys for two weeks and before we are a family of five! We had a great day! Charlie even got his first haircut at the Harmony Barber Shop on Main Street!

Please pray for us as we prepare to travel and throughout our trip.

-Please pray for Ellie as she is really too young to understand what is about to happen and she will be taken from the only place/people she has really known. Pray God gives her peace and also softens her heart towards us, that she would accept us.

-Pray for Graham and Charlie. They will have a fun time with family while we are gone, but we know us being away for so long will be hard on them.

-Pray for Tom and I as we travel. For peaceful hearts and calmed nerves, reassurance while we are away from our boys, our families as they care for our boys, health while we travel, and safety.