Group 18

When we started this journey back in January of 2006, there were 13 other families doing the same thing with our agency in Vancouver. We were named "group 18". After this excruciating wait, all that is left of group 18 is us and one onther couple, Tom and Heather. Heather and I have gotten together a few times over the 4 year wait and we all got together for dinner last night to share pictures of our sweeties and make plans for travel. I can't remember if I have posted our travel plans but Horst and I decided it would be too stressful on Gus to bring him on this trip. We decided that he would be best at home with one of us so I had intended to make the trek to get Hildy on my own. In October, my dad surprised me by letting me know he would like to come with me. I was so surprised, then relieved that he would come with me. He will be my rock (except of course, when he is crying too...) Dad and I will be traveling with Tom and Heather throughout our stay and sharing a guide/interpreter. Their daughter is from the same orphanage as Hildy.. We imagine they have played together over the past several months and will be a comfort to each other in the days of change and confusion for them as we leave Qichuan, make our way to Wuhan, Beijing and ultimately back to Canada. As far as we know, we will travel in April. We are waiting on a court date to be booked in China to know exactly when we can go to get our girls. We will all arrive in Shanghai, stay there overnight, fly to Wuhan in Hubei province where we will receive our daughters. There we will go through several meetings to sign papers, go to court to make the adoption official then have a few days to get to know each other. After that we will fly to Beijing where we will visit a Canadian doctor at the Canadian Embassy, get all the paperwork authenticated, then order the girls' passports. We will have a few days to sightsee and get to know our girls, then as soon as their passports are ready, make the journey back to Canada. Whew... we have a lot to prepare for.