Updates

We went to dinner with my family last night and were asked a ton of questions. I thought the rest of you might like a few more details, so here we go...I've updated the map that was in the last post. If you look north of Hefei, you'll see a pink star on the map. That's approximately where the city of Xiaoxian is located. That's where Maggie has been living for the past 2 years. She'll be there until the 28th, then her caretaker will travel with her to Hefei to give her to us. We won't be travelling to her orphanage, but we may be able to tour an orphanage in the Hefei area while we're there.We've been asked about "meeting" Maggie on the 29th. I should have said "she's ours on the 29th". We'll be spending the week with her in Hefei, then we'll all be travelling together to Guangzhou. We'll have an interview at the US Consulate in Guangzhou on the 6th, then we'll go back over on the 7th for the official adoption. She won't officially become a US citizen until she gets off the plane in Portland on the 8th and steps foot on US soil. We won't have to do any adoption stuff here in the US, it will all get taken care of over in China. Once we're home, we will apply for a US birth certificate for her with Bryan and me listed as her parents and get her a Social Security number, and that's that!Here's a link to some photo galleries of the places we will see in Beijing. Check out the Great Wall pictures, they are amazing.Gotta' get back to work! So much to pack, so many lists...we're leaving in less than 48 hours!