Got the email today. We're one step closer to leaving for China!
We got the email today saying that we're approved for travel by China. Next steps is to get our Visas done through a contracted travel agency in NYC. Hopefully CAWLI will have scheduled an appointment with the American Consulate in Guangzhou so that we can finalize our tickets & hotel arrangements.

It's been about a week since I last posted and I still have not received our TA. We are anxiously waiting for the approval and for the China Visa to be approved. Someone in our travel group got word from our agency that we should receive our TA next week and we're still on target for 9/6 travel date - which means we meet Julianne on 9/8.

In the meantime, I'm preparing the nursery and making sure I have all my ducks in a row. There's a new Baby's R Us opening in Manchester so I might go pick up some letters tomorrow J-U-L-I-A-N-N-E to be exact to hang in the nursery. I haven't decided if that's what I want to do since her name is so long. Maybe I just hang J-A-T instead? Thoughts anyone?

I spoke with CAWLI today and they are guestimating that Kit and I will be traveling around Sept 4th - with Monday, Sept. 8th as our "Gotcha" day. Gotcha day is the day we become our forever family... :-)


Kit and I will probably skip the Beijing portion of the trip (most families head to Beijing and visit for a couple of days before they go to the province to pick up their child) and head right into Nanchang, about 3 hours away from the Poyang County SWI. The nannies will bring the children from the orphanage to the hotel early in the morning and will meet Julianne around 9am!!!!! We will be in Nanchang from Sunday night through Friday evening, heading to Guangzhou on Friday night. Julianne will officially become a US Citizen in Guangzhou at the American Consulate... at that point, we'll be ready to come home.


Not quit yet though... sorry ;-) We've decided that we're going to stay in HK for about 2 additional weeks so we'll probably be home by the last week of September.


Can you see where Jiangxi province? That's where Julianne is right now. . .

Today I sent Julianne a care package... hopefully we'll get our items back on Gotcha day along with the cameras loaded with pictures of Julianne over the next couple of months with her nannies (Ah yees) and playmates. We're hoping that if we get the camera back that I will go and get the film developed in Nanchang.

Julianne got measured today at her orphanage and here's her update:

HT: 67cm
WT: 7kg
Head: 42cm
Chest: 43cm

So from March 08 to July 08 she gained 1.2 kg which is about 2.6 lbs. She now weighs 15.4 lbs.
Good girl - growing nicely!

曾文敏

Tsang Mun-Mun

This is a name given by grandpa!

Kit and I first knew we wanted to adopt in May 2006. After submitting our application to our agency, CAWLI (China Adoption with Love Inc.), we started our paper chasing. Such paperwork included medical clearance, Financial Reports, Home Studies, Photos, Birth certificates, letters of reference, and the list goes on. All official documents had to be notarized, certified and authenticated for accuracy and truth. We finally finished gathering all documents by November 2003. Our paperwork got mailed and logged in on December 13, 2006.


Then the wait began for a referral. . . . . month after month after month. . . 19 months to be exact. A referral is the photo and paper documentation of the child matched with a family for adoption.


We are finally at a point where Kit and I have accepted our match and we wait (yes we wait again) for our approval to travel from China. Stay tuned. . . .

Kit visited the doc today to review Julianne's medical records - and, thank God, everything turned out to be normal! Yes, we can finally signed the "Letter of Acceptance" so that CAWLI (our adoption agency called China Adoption with Love Inc.) can send our acceptance to China in return for a Letter of Approval (approval to travel to China).

We are excited to introduce to you Julianne Ava Tsang born December 2, 2007. We received "the referral call" from our agency on Monday, July 7, 2008. The wonderful part is that Kit and I were together in the car with Mom and Dad driving to NYC. It was a beautiful moment and Kit and I were able to share it with Mom and Dad at the same time. Good thing it was Kit driving.... :-)

Julianne is at the Poyang Social Welfare Institute (aka orphanage) in Poyang County, Jiangxi Province. Julianne's Chinese name from the orphanage is Bo Ji - Bo means "waves" and Ji means "lucky".



The photos here were taken when Julianne was about 4 months old. According to her paperwork, Julianne loves to smile often and loves to play with her friends. She's already a social butterfly! :)


Check back for more updates, as we go back to the begining on how this got started. We will be bringing our precious girl home soon... We are proud parents!