a busy last week of Freedom!

Well, I took the winter off to be ready to travel at any time, so when should we be traveling but during the busiest time of the garden center year. We should be leaving on the 9th and returning on the 24th or 25th of May. Supposedly our Travel Approvals are in the mail from Beijing to St Louis as I type. As soon as the travel co-ordinator receives them, she'll call for our consulate appointments and that will determine when exactly we travel. Tentatively it's set up as follows...
VERY TENTATIVE TRAVEL DATES:
Thurs, May 10th, Leave the US
Fri, May 11th: Arrive in Beijing
Sat, May 12th: Sightseeing in BJ (TianAnMen Square, Forbidden City, & the Great Wall (Juyongguan); Lunch is included.; & CHI Orientation
Sun, May 13th: Fly to your child’s Province (if you want to skip BJ, arrive in your child’s province this afternoon)
Mon – Fri, May 14th – May 18th: Receive your child and go through adoption processes
Sat, May 19th: Fly to Guangzhou
Sun, May 20th: Free day
Mon, May 21st: Medical exam
Tues, May 22nd: ACS appointment first choice (second choice: May 23rd, third choice: May 21st or May 24th)
May 23rd: Go to ACS to take oath and get visa late in the afternoon (around 6:00pm),
Departure to US in evening after 8:00pm OR next morning, May 24th (depending on date of the ACS appt)

We should get Acer the week of the 14th. If we actually get him on the 14th, it might still be the 13th at home, which means we MAY have him on Mother's day (or not, but at least it'll be that week)

Also this week, my best friend Jeni and her 5 year old daughter flew in from NM, always good to see her. I've been blessed to have a friend like her. Whenever we get together, it's like we were never apart.

We also, after an extremely long time, have finished the parquet floor in the dining room. It's a lovely pattern designed by my best friend's husband, dark outer border, light inner border, checkerboard in the center. We use this room as our main socializing room and the floor has been under construction for literally years. We've tried various things and thought of different ways to make the floor happen and now it finally has - Yeah Us! Thank you Brandon, Alex, Will and Beq for your assistance with the gluing and laying of the floor.

We also had a great dinner out with 2 couples from our Chinese Lang & Culture class from last summer. Good food & conversation, much laughter.

I went to Beq's house on Thursday to help her, in our standard housework exchange, her Mom Martha was also there and Martha and I harassed Beq unmercifully while we worked on our projects. I don't think she'll get the two of us together again anytime soon!

SIL Kerry, Nephew Oliver and Niece Lulu visited Friday and had a great time playing with the dogs. We wandered to different stores locally and the three of them rode the double decker carousel at the local mall.

Today's my first day back at work. I'll arrive at 11 and start my first seminar at 11:30. Jumping right into spring with a vengenance!
Heather