Our Travel Itinerary....

4/7 Leave Portland, Maine and arrive in California

4/8 Hang out in California

4/9 Leave the U.S. for Beijing

4/10 Arrive in Beijing. Go to the Holiday Inn Downtown. Free time

4/11 Beijing Tour

4/12 Beijing Tour

4/13 Leave Beijing for Chongqing. Go to the Golden Resources Hotel. Receive your babies today in the hotel at 17:30. YEA!!!!!

4/14 At 9:30 fill out the adoption registration forms that will be needed for the afternoon. At 2:00 pm, walk to the registration office to complete Adoption Registration and Notarization.

4/15 In the morning walk to nearby by shopping for baby supplies. Waiting for your child’s adoption paperwork to be processed.

4/16 In the morning a half-day city tour to the Chongqing Zoo to see the panda. Waiting for your child’s adoption paperwork to be processed.

4/17 Rest & half-day city tours to the old town – CiQiKou. Waiting for your child’s adoption paperwork to be processed.

4/18 Rest & half-day city tour to Chao Tian Men, where the 2 rivers meet, and to the People’s Hall. Waiting for your child’s adoption paperwork to be processed.

4/19 Receive your child’s adoption registration certificate and notary paperwork this morning. Receive your child’s passport this afternoon. Rest and start packing. Group picture in the hotel.

4/20 Leave Chongqing for Guangzhou. Go to the Victory Hotel.

4/21 Have your child’s visa physical and visa photo taken today.

4/22 Today is your Consulate appointment.

4/23 U.S. Consulate to take the oath in the afternoon.

4/24 Fly Guangzhou to Hong Kong and then LAX

4/25-4/26 Rest, relax, hang out in California

4/27 leave California at night

4/28 Arrive in Portland. Delta flight 4459 arriving at 12:12pm

We are going to Beijing!!!

Beijing Summer Palace

That is the big news! We thought that we were going to fly into Hong Kong as our port city, but we are flying into Beijing and need to be there on April 10th!! We received our Consulate Appointment! It will be April 22nd (My friend Staci's Birthday) and then the swearing in ceremony is the 23rd and we can leave China on the 24th. Flying back we are going to spend a couple of days on the west coast with Vivian's Aunt Bunni and Monkey Joe! We do not have our complete itinerary yet, but when we do I will be posting it here and on the Yahoo group. Our agency plans for a 2 day tour of Beijing and then we fly to Vivian's province on the 12th of April. The next day, Sunday April 13th is the day we will finally get to meet our precious daughter!!!

New Photos

These photos were taken the first week of March 2008. We can't wait to be able to hold her and take care of her. We also received an update that gave us new measurements and a littel more information about what she is doing and not doing. She can sit, but not stand, crawl or walk. She still has zero teeth and is still eating like a champ. She is sleeping in a crib by herself according to the report. I had heard that they share cribs with 1 or 2 other babies so, I am not sure about this information. We are really excited about traveling to go get her and can't believe we have to wait a few more weeks!

Travel Approval and Baby Shower and Random Thoughts

We got our TA today!!!!! Yea!!! After speaking with our agency, it looks like we will leave around the 10th of April! Only 3 weeks until we are on a plane headed to China to meet our daughter!! While I was at work today my coworkers gave me a surprise baby shower . To say that I was surprised is an understatement! It was wonderful! There was food, friends and gifts-much better than the careplans that I should have been looking over at work. One person took pictures for me and I will post them after I receive them. I am not sure why, but I always feel odd having a party in my honor. The afternoon was really fun and a much needed break. The gifts are wonderful and I will post some pictures later. Everybody has been so nice over the past 2 weeks and their generosity is a bit overwhelming. Perfect strangers to friends and aquaintances have all amazed me with their well wishes and interest in our adoption. Adopting internationally is different than being pregnant...I didn't have to have my belly rubbed, nobody commented or asked how I was feeling on a particular day, and I did not have strangers ask me about when I was due or give me random advice. I could choose who I would share the information with and could not share if I didn't want to. After we bring Vivian home, I am going to get the strangers talking to me and asking questions. There will be times that I will be out with my daughter and have people stare at us, maybe even have them wonder if she is my daughter or not. This will also be strange to me, as I know that Vivian is my daughter and can't imagine any other child being my daughter. I guess what I am rambling on about...is this- I am truly lucky and blessed to have such great friends and to be able to be a mommy to Vivian. I am off to bed as it will be an early morning for me since I still have work to do before clinical starts.

Weekend

It is now Saturday night, and I am starting to not like weekends as much as I should. We have tracking information for our visas to get back to us, but FedEx doesn't deliver Saturdays or Sundays. I think our agency is expecting TAs early in the week, but are closed and I can't check with them until Monday. I am currently trying to get things washed and packed and organized. It is a slower process than I thought it would be. It is probably because I am excited and nervous and want to travel NOW!!! If the guess-timates are correct we will leave for China Wednesday April 2nd (my grandmother's birthday). This means exactly 4 weeks from Referral to travel...which is pretty good. I am off to clean a little more and pack some more and organize some more...I think it is called nesting!

One week ago yesterday.....

we received the package that told us all about our little ray of sunshine. This past week I have stared at her pictures MANY times, day dreamed about the day we will meet her, started packing, and filled out more paperwork!! Our agency had a travel conference call on Wednesday to answer any questions. They said we might be traveling the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd week of April. It is a wide range of dates, but at least they don't think it will be May! I hope it is the first week...I am ready to go get her! So, now we wait for our travel approval and consulate appointment. Hopefully our visas will be here in the coming week and we will have most of the paperwork done until we get to China and have much more to do!

: )
Amy

Shopping with a Friend

Today I spent the day shopping with my friend, Lori. She is a great bargain hunter and always fun to shop with. I picked out a stroller today and bought some other little things for Vivian. When I got home I had an email that states that we can download our travel packet and get started on applying for our visas! I hope we can get most of the paperwork done by Wednesday, if not sooner. If it was not the weekend and we didn't need a notary-we could easily be done in 2 days! Well, off to bed for me-another day closer to my sweet baby!

Busy day

Today we found out that our agency received our acceptance letter, I made our first pediatrician's appointment, bought an outfit for Vivian from Carter's, picked up my new glasses, put some of the pictures we got into a frame, and mailed some pictures to the grandparents. Busy, busy day! Above is a picture from yesterday...

New Pictures

Today we received our package with these 2 new pictures and all her paperwork. I can not wait to hold her and make her smile a huge grin! We also sent the Letter of Acceptance back to our agency. After they receive it they allow us to download a travel packet of information. We also went to get copies of the pictures made. I have never in my life ever shown so many strangers a picture.

VIVIAN

After two years of waiting, we are so pleased and proud to introduce our daughter, Vivian Mae HuaCai Dudar.

Chinese Name: Xiu Hua Cai (meaning Brilliant Color)

D.O.B.: August 24th, 2007- 6 1/2 months old

Height/weight: 24.8 Inches...13.64 lbs as of 1/8/08

Orphanage location: Chongqing (Southern China)

Orphanage Name: Xiushan County Social Welfare Institute, also called the "Social Welfare Institute of Xiushan Miao and Tujia Nationality Autonomous County"

We anticipate traveling to China sometime in the next 4-6 weeks to bring our daughter home to the States. We will continue to post updates and information on our Yahoo webgroup page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VivianMae/ . In the meantime, we will be busy as ever in preparing for Vivian's arrival.

All our love,
Amy and Peter Dudar

Tomorrow!

This is about the place where I break out into song...."The sun will come out tomorrow!" For two years we have been waiting for our daughter. My husband has written a journal. I tried one of those...didn't get very far. I worked on designing a webpage....again not very far. I set up a Yahoo group ...doing okay with that. Now I am setting up a blog.....we will see how this goes. We will get "the call" tomorrow at around noon EST. I will try to update this along with my Yahoo group, webpage and various emails to friends and family. I am off to make a baby blanket for my precious daughter that we will see a picture of for the first time in less than 13 hours!