We have Visas!

Oh this is truly fun, seeing the Chinese Visa in your passport!  I know sounds silly but it's one step closer to our Shelby.  After months of filing and waiting for more paperwork to be submitted , now it's down to purchasing our tickets and hotel reservations.

Also on my long shopping list of items to bring are various activities to entertain our Kira girl.   She has been very interested in writing and drawing lately and absolutely loves mazes and tracing.  Her art is so stinkin cute I'm going to have to frame some of it!  Meanwhile Kira herself proudly displays her artwork via tape all over the house.
For the trip, I bought her activity books, crayons, and updated my phone with all sorts of fun inter-active games.  In addition I told her she needs to pack her favorite toys to take with in her backpack.  I guess size doesn't matter to a pre-schooler, because she has her blankie, sweatshirt and favorite stuffed animal(s) and princess tee shirts all ready to go.

So now it's onto the checklist of items we must bring, sort of must bring and would like to bring if we don't go over the weight limit of the luggage.  It's hard because of the amount of clothing we need for two different climates (the colder weather in the North and her Provincial City and then the warmer climate of Guangzhou).  I am trying to keep the clothing list down to one weeks worth of items that we can launder.  We've certainly learned a lot from the first time and brought so much we didn't use or couldn't use.  So now it's about necessity (for Momma: earplugs, ipod, valium, granola bars, dried mangoes, sweatpants and chapstick in no particular order).

I so want to bring my camera but the lens and camera body are pretty heavy and there is no such thing as an inexpensive Nikkor lens.  I haven't checked out other compatable lenses but if there's time to do so, it may be worth it.  We may just bring a small point and shoot, hey my iphone has more photos on it than my D700 these days, so perhaps that's all that's needed.

We also have our full Travel Itinerery and I'm so glad we are working with Lotus Travel again.  They are fabulous having answered most of our questions already.

So for those who want to follow our blog here's the itinerary.
- Depart JFK International to Bejing on October 26th
- Arrive Beijing October 27th
- Check into big Hotel (forgot the name)
- Tour the Great Wall October 28th
- Holt Orientation October 29th and more fun tours of Bejing
- Depart Bejing for Gansu October 30th and receive our precious Shelby on arrival to Lanzhou
- Depart Gansu for Guangzhou (five days later also forgot those dates)
- Arrive Guangzhou for US Consulate Appointment
- Depart November 10th for USA!