I am still waiting for travel approval from the Chinese Government. It should honestly arrive ANY day -- how about Monday??? :)
In the mean time I have had a hellatious week waiting for passports and visas for the other three kids. The boys were fine but without making this blog a dissertation, the Houston Passport office that I was working with through my passport expediting agency misplaced Joy's Chinese adoption papers, her Chinese passport and all evidence that she is indeed who she is and was adopted in China by us. They kept claiming that they needed more notatarized evidence of the adoption. I ended up involving my congressman and after about 3 dozen phone calls, I finally got a call from the Houston passport agency on Friday morning saying that they had found Joy's papers and her passport was issued. THANK GOD!
I should have all of our pasports and visas in hand by Tuesday June 27th. At this point in time, if travel approval comes on Monday, I do not anticipate being able to leave for China before July 10th and I think that realistically, I will not be leaving before the 20th of July. I have several committments this summer and my two ideal windows for travel are after July 14th with a return before July 24th or leave on July 27th and return immediately following and before August 8th. We shall see....
For now, I continue to wait for my wee one. I wrote this little poem last week about waiting for travel approval.
Waiting for TA
Here is sit with cell phone in hand
The ringer is on high -- the phone is charged
I figure that my TA should be arriving
But Alas,I think it drown in the ocean while swimming
Here I sit at the computer each day
I check lists, emails, any sign of life out there?
Where oh where is my TA? Can anyone answer...
I ask again and all I get is internet conjecture
At night I hit the sack and pray ... not for my TA
But rather for my daughter who waits
My hope for travel is not my selfish desire
Instead it is the heartbreak of a mother whose daughter needs her
In my dreams, I pack and travel and see her
One night she was in the hotel next door and all I had to do
Was get the bunkbeds paid for and the go get her
Aren't dreams the easy answer always?
So here I sit. Waiting for an invitation. To travel.
My daughter is a world away. Waiting for a mom.
I pray each day that she will have dreams of me
Just as I have dreams of her each night.
My time will come and the plane will leave
Deep in China, I will hold the wee one
She is etched deep in my heart, imprinted on my deepest memory
But tonight, we will hold each other in our dreams alone
Oh travel approval.... swim faster.
Get a jet boat motor and hurry across the ocean
My cell phone is on. My e-mail is up.
And here, I wait for a word.
Jack
Waiting for Julia
Day 69 from Log In
