Well, its almsot time to go. Everything seems so much more "real" now that we have a travel itinerary! Day 1 we will be flying out of Newark, New Jersey on a 14 hour direct flight to Beijing, China. Since China is 13 hours ahead of us, when we arrive in Beijing it will actually be Day 2, and 27 hours later than when we started! I wish the last two years could have moved at that pace!! We would have gotten Megan a whole lot sooner!
We will spend that night, and all of Days three and four in Beijing seeing whatever we can squeeze in. On the morning of Day 5 we are all off to Wuhan in the Hubei province. We will arrive around noon and head off to settle in at our hotel. This is our last full day as expectant parents and siblings, so we're not quite sure what we will be doing. Probably finding all new ways to be impatient!
Day 6 is "GOTCHA DAY"!!! This is it! The day we have all been waiting for, for 33 months now! We aren't sure what time we will get Megan, but it is definitely today! With four potential photographers we should be able to capture the moment! This will begin our time learning all about each other and visiting Megan's home turf We will be in Wuhan for 3 more full days (Days 7-9) before heading to Guangzhou (also known as Canton, as in Cantonese cuisine!) on Day 10. With luck we will be able to visit Megan's home county of Qichun before we leave Wuhan. Some families in the past have been able to visit with the Social Services Director and staff, and visit places where Megan spent time with her foster family. That would be fantastic, but we won't know until we are there if we will be that blessed. The time her serves two purposes. First, we are getting the cultural experience to bring home with Megan. the Chinese are very proud people and hope very much that we will nurture a memory of her heritage within her as she grows. Secondly, we have no choice! It takes about a week for her visa to be ready so that we can bring her home! This is done in Guangzhou, and that's where every adoptive family ends their journey.
Days 10-14 will be spent in Guangzhou. We will receive Megan's visa on day 13, but it takes the consulate 24 hours to guarantee the visa, whatever that means, so we cannot leave mainland China until after 6:00 PM on Day 14. Guangzhou "luxary" portion of the journey, as the White Swan hotel is a fabulous 5-star hotel with a premium riverfront location near most of the attractions. Every adoptive family also stays here as part of the adoption process. They want to make sure you go out with a bang!
On the morning of Day 15 we are on a short flight to Hong Kong, and then off on a 16-hour non-stop return flight to Newark. When the wheels hit the tarmac in Jersey, Megan will officially be a U.S. citizen! We have decided to make the shorter trip to Michele's Mom's house on Long Island rather than head for home during afternoon traffic. We'll head for home and pick up Dugan on Day 16. Home, Sweet Home!!
Evan and Corey will obviously miss a bit of school, but they should be able to produce some sort of project on their travel experiences to prove the "educational value". Fortunately, Spring break is not long after we get back, so they will have some free time to catch up on whetever they missed. Tayler just began her new job in Vermont, but her management was kind enough to grant her the time off to join us! Hotels in major Chinese cities are primarily 2-person max rooms. Most travelers are on business, not family travel, so rooms with high occupancy levels are hard to come by and very expensive. We will have two adjacent rooms everywhere we goso we don't have to worry as much. They always add a crib to the adoptive parent's room, and arrangements have been made for a rollaway in the other room so Tayler and the boys will bunk in together. I'm sure they wouldn't want it any other way!
Of course, you will know when we leave, so all of the Day 1 through 16 will make more sense to you, but I didn't feel that it was necessary to post actual dates on the blog. Please post to the blog any time you want... questions, comments, whatever!!! You can also email us at pgeier@hotmail.com or mhgeier@sbcglobal.net if you prefer that to posting questions or comments. We will be trying our best to update the blog each night with stories and pictures from our daily adventures, but at least to say hello and we're alive. We are only assuming we will have time to do that though, so don't panic if we appear to be missing in action. I suppose we just have to hope for the best and see what we get! The important thing is that we get Megan! Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. We won't be surrounded by too many God-loving Christians while we are there... so we can use all the help we can get!! See you here again soon!! Love to all of you, from all of us!
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Hello all! Just the Geiers again testing out the comment feature to see how it works. So... here's how it works: You need to click on the title of whichever post you want to comment on. when you do, it opens just that post in your browser window, and when you scroll to the bottom of that post there will be another link to post a comment! And there you have it! Please post as often as you want... it will be nice to have as many of you "with us" as possible!
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