Travel time is so close...

We will leave tomorrow to do a great wall of china tour before officially meeting our travel group. Excitement is crackling the air as packing does the same to my nerves. I will try to stay as close to China's lower weigh limits but we may end up paying a little in fees for overage. I'll know more of that tonight when it is all together and ditributed between 2 suitcases and 2 carryons. I confess to being a chronic over packer so this is really hard.
Gary is working today since it is tax season and hard to get away. I am off so all the last minute details can be taken care of.
Luckily our flight is not untill 12:15p tomorrow so our ride isn't coming at any ungodly hour to pick us up. Hopefully I will be able to sleep with all the excitement and nerves.
Our taxes are being mailed today. YAY. One less thing to be concerned about now. And hopefuly refund money soon to help with my unpaid family leave.
In an attempt to make sure we had what we needed for "gift" I probably over purchased. That is weighing down the bags too. Oh well better to be covered. And by Nanjing that will all be gone.
Everyone keeps telling me do laundry in country and we will most likely but ...I still like having what I need. Which has expanded now to diapers , wipe, bottles, toys and blankies for baby boy Ben!
I hope he likes what I have set aside since we will all be in a hotel room for 11 days together before that long pane ride home. 15 1/2 hours is how long that trip direct from Hong Kong is. This will be a crazy parenting challenge with a 16 month old.
So the travel goes like this we fly into Beijing China a day after we leave. We will be able to tour the Great wall and the forbidden city/Tianamin square before we receive Benjamin. We stay here until 3/28 when we transfer to his province Jiangxu, capital city: Nanjing. We receive Benjamin Rui 3/29 and stay here until he receives his passport for travel. 4/2 we travel to Guangzhou for the last of the governmental paper work and medical check. 4/8 we travel to Hong Kong by train and will be flying home 4/9.

Now that things from travel are out of Ben's room there is walking space yay! I can't wait till he is home with us. It will be such a joy to have our little boy home at last!!
We have taken a few classes in speaking chinese but sadly I think I will still be completely lost if someone start speaking fast and in long sentences. One of the women in our travel party speaks Mandarin and we will have guides from the travel agency which will bridge the gap in language.
5 other wonderful couples are traveling with us. Some of them are also receiving their first child. Others are more experienced parents and have gone to China previously for an adoption. All good resources I am sure we will become quite close during this trip. I hope the children can stay friends as well as the parents.

That is all for now I must finish the packing.
Thank you all for your overwhelming support and prayers for safe travel.

Blessings
Nancy