Baby Shower!

My team at work hosted a wonderful baby shower for me on Tuesday, December 9! The food was awesome, and Kaelie received so many nice gifts. I am especially blessed to work with a staff that is so supportive of all three of our adoptions. It seems that everyone is excited! Next week is my last week of work before my maternity leave!

OK, on to pictures!

Beautiful Cake baked and designed by our in-house cake guru Kerri M.

What a load of gifts! I was shocked, and they were so pretty I didn't want to open them!



Here's a shot of me opening the presents!

The money tree! The staff collected money for the adoption trip, then gave a live tree in honor of Kaelie's adoption...this will soon be a fixture in our front yard!

All the opened gifts!

TA's are here!

Our Travel Approval (TA) has arrived! Yippee!

Mike, our travel coordinator at the agency, is working on the consulate appointments (CA) for our group right now. I think he's requesting either January 21 or 22 (I'll have to look back at my notes and see).

Here is what my tentative itinerary looks like:

January 8, 2009 Depart US for Beijing
January 9, 2009 Arrive in Beijing
January 10, 2009 Tour Beijing (Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Acrobat Show)
January 11, 2009 Tour Beijing (1/2 day)
January 11, 2009 Fly from Beijing to Guangzhou
January 11 (evening) OR January 12 (morning): GOTCHA DAY!!!!!
January 12 or 13, 2009 Adoption Day
January 13-20, 2009 Enjoy the sights in and around Guangzhou, get to know Kaelie
January 21 or 22, 2009 Consulate Appointment
January 23, 2009 Fly from Guangzhou back to US

Hopefully in the next day or two we will be able to start making travel arrangements. This is the last big hurdle to overcome for the trip. I have all the consulate and general paperwork gathered, and my suitcase is almost packed. My visa is supposed to come via Fed-Ex this afternoon. The only thing I need to get finished are my lesson plans that my substitute will use while I'm on leave! I'm so thrilled that this is finally happening!