We Got our Travel Date!!!

I just got off the phone with our adoption agency and we have our official travel date. We will be picking up Kaylee on Monday, January 8, 2007. Our appointment at AIT to get her visa and passport is the morning of Tuesday, January 9.

Travelwise we are looking at leaving Florida on Saturday, January 6 and will arrive in Taipei the night of Sunday, January 7. We will pretend to sleep that night and then meet our translator Monday morning at the domestic airport to fly to the orphanage in Tainan to meet with the St. Lucy's staff and get our daughter. We are hoping to get to see her birth hospital and Birth Mother's city, but would have to do that the same day. Then that evening we fly back to Taipei.

On Wednesday we go back to AIT to pick-up her visa and passport and then would be free to leave the country. We plan on staying Thursday and Friday to sightsee and then leave for the US on Saturday. The flight back is kind of crazy, as we would leave Taipei Saturday afternoon and arrive in the US Saturday morning, due to the time change.

Although we would have loved to have her home for her first Christmas and got to introduce her to family, we are just glad to finally have a date so we can make plans. Here are some pluses and minuses of when we're traveling.

Downside:

• Won't have her for her first Christmas
• Have to wait 27 days to get her
• Won't be able to introduce her to Troy's family at the end of the year
• We will miss seeing the Gators play in the National Championship Game (Josh, please record it for us) Yes, we pick her up Game Day!

Upside:

• She doesn't know when Christmas is...so her first one will be celebrated at home in January
• Grandma Bleeker will have to come see us again
• I'll get to spend Christmas with my Mom
• We will get to attend Grandpa Dangerfield's Memorial Service and spend time with family
  
• More time to plan and get our house baby ready
• More time to get caught up at work to be gone for my family leave
• Easier to get airline flights after the holidays
• We will have her in 27 days!!!

Not only did we set a record in the speed of our court case (2 weeks), but we will also be bringing home the agency's youngest baby, as Kaylee will be just shy of 7 months old when we get her home.

We may end up having the best tour guide with us in Taiwan, as our agency representative is planning on being there when we get her. If she is there, she has offered to videotape our first meeting. That would be wonderful! She told me that she has seen Kaylee on 3 separate visits and she is a very pleasant baby and enjoyed interacting with people.

Thanks to everyone who has prayed for us during this journey. Keep on praying. We're so excited to know that in 27 days we'll have our baby girl! God has been very good to us.