Countdown

Just a short note to show you how excited everyone is. This is a calendar that Kenley and Kellin worked up - not that they are counting or anything...

Thank You!

Hi everyone, this is Kenley! 
For those of you who may not know me, I am 14 years old and the oldest Cogan child. When we began this journey, I had wanted to help out more than I was able to when we brought Karwen home. The ways that we had thought of for me to help with were to blog some from now on, and also looking for, organizing, and helping apply for grants. 

So, we had been applying for grants left and right, and had almost exhausted our options when, yesterday, we received a wonderful surprise - an amazing grant of $300 from the OATH (Orphans Awaiting Their Homes) Adoption Ministries!!!! We are so very thankful for this incredible gift! It was just enough to cover the last bit of one of the boys' tickets. We are so blessed by the gifts we have received: keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, as well as monetarily. Knowing that people care is the best gift of all!

I am so very exited to be a part of this, and to help keep you up to date! 
More soon,
Kenley

Itinerary

We have a tentative itinerary now - the two hotels on the mainland are the ones we stayed at last time, so we have an idea of what is around there. Hong Kong...don't get us started. We are working on that part!

In-China Itinerary for the Cogan Family

3/22             Arrive Beijing on ### (3:10 pm), Your guide, Emma, will escort you to the Crowne Plaza Wangfujing.

Hotel phone number:

Emma Lee cell phone number:

3/23            Meet and take custody of Kai at the orphanage

3/24            Complete adoption paperwork.

3/25            Sightseeing around Beijing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and Hutong Tour 

3/26            Apply for Kai’s passport            

            Travel from Beijing to Guangzhou on a later afternoon flight. E-tickets, please use your passports to check in at an airline desk. Your guide, Elsie or Helen, will escort you to the Garden Hotel.

Hotel phone number: 

Elsie Chen cell phone number:               Helen Huang cell phone number:           

3/27            Meet Kade at the Civil Affairs Office

3/28            Complete adoption paperwork

3/29             Visa medical examination and TB test

               

3/30            Sightseeing around Guangzhou

3/31            Pick up medical report and prepare paperwork for the visa interview with guide’s help

4/1            Rest day

4/2            Visa interview at the US Consulate at 8:30 am

4/3            Pick up the boys visas, take the train to Hong Kong. Check into Harbour Plaza Metropolis.                               

            Hotel phone number: 

4/4            Depart on flight #### (8:20 am). E-tickets, please use your passports to check in at a Delta desk.

Travel!!!

Well, after all the waiting, paperwork, and waiting we now have official travel dates. We will leave here March 21st, get to Beijing on the 22nd. We are supposed to pick up Kai on Sunday the 23rd! We have to wait in Beijing for a bit of time and on Wednesday we fly to Guangzhou and should meet Kade the next day.  Then more paperwork/waiting and we fly back on April 4th.

We made flight reservations and are negotiating hotels right now. We learned a bit from our last trip and are looking for a few things in particular about the hotel (Beijing is cold so hopefully an indoor pool? Hong Kong is crazy so hopefully something close to the airport?). I think most people have heard about the smog in Beijing (which was outrageous last time, but has gotten so much worse). We decided to opt out of any of the tours there so that we could a.) start bonding without trying to keep up with a group and b.) protect Kellin's (and all of our) lungs. We might ask for a shopping trip as there are a few things that we would look for now that we did not know to keep an eye out for before.

So other than packing the last of the bags and making sure things are settled here for a bit, I think we are on the home stretch. I, for one, and looking forward to being home and slowing down for a while.  You know, just me, Keely, six kids, two dogs, three fish...

We have consulate dates!

Today was another big day in the 'let's get this thing moving' part of the story. We now have our consulate date appointment which dictates the window for our travel!

We will officially adopt the boys on April 2nd.  We will travel a couple of weeks before that, meet Kai first, fly south and meet Kade shortly after we get to Guangzhou. A week or so there and then home to Florida! Now all we have to do is book the travel...ok and finish packing, make the trip, fill out more incomprehensible paperwork .... but things are ticking down.  There is all kinds of excitement in our house tonight!

From far away and into our hearts...and home!

We Have Travel!!!

It's amazing to me how a day can take such a turn. Thursday was a nice, normal day. Keely and the kids did school and were heading to the park. I had some extra meetings so I was late meeting them. Right before I left, I checked my email to make sure I was not missing things and ... BAM... there it was. Travel approval! Suddenly the day was a different day.

The thing is, now we had a pretty good time frame for the next steps.  It means that we are done with the paperwork.  Now we had to look at consulate dates.  To do this, we needed to coordinate with the travel agency to double check tickets. Oh - people keep talking about 'trade fair'. What is that? Oh, you mean hotel prices are likely to double? Tomb-Sweeping? Yes, Kenley and Kellin have studied that in class. Oh, you mean it might be really hard to get a plane ticket? Where should we fly out of on the outbound? Atlanta? Tampa? Orlando? Tally? What about the return? Guangzhou? Hong Kong? You get the picture.  All of this was to pick our top five consulate dates. On one of these days we will  officially be the boys' parents in the eyes of the Chinese government.

I remember this day with Karwen. We were already a family. In many ways it was just another round of paperwork. But we were in a room full of new parents and families.  Joyful confusion!

They take everyone's family portrait as you come down the stairs:

To us, this really looks like the beginning of our new family!

So now we have travel approval. We will know in a few days when we will leave.  We are using the same travel service and have our fingers crossed that we will have some of the same guides. I have been amazed at how important our guides have been in our lives. We have not had any contact with them since we left (other than sending a  thank you email and pictures) but they are still in our family conversations.  It reminds one that you can make a huge impact in someone's life and you may never truly know what a difference you made.

   

What we've been up to...

One of the things about adoption is that the days are pretty much normal, except that you continue with lots of paperwork and constantly think about and work for the children that are here and those that are very far away.  It is a very strange, surreal time.  We get up and do what we usually do.  We do schoolwork and activities and errands.  We celebrate birthdays and work our way through colds.  All of the time, though, there are thoughts of our boys.  What are they doing?  Do they have colds?  Are they cold?  It has been freezing in Beijing!  Constant prayers that they, and all of the children who haven't found their families, are safe and warm and well. And then there are the rules.  Different rules for each orphanage.  We are allowed to request updates from both places but only Kade's orphanage allows care packages.  We have grown some since our last journey and can begin to see some possible reasons for this rule.  So, we just go with the flow.  The end result is that we were able to send Kade a package for Chinese New Year! Families traditionally give their children new clothes to begin the new year and he has a new outfit from his new family!  Included was a camera to help us know about his days without us. We were also able to send a letter telling him about us.  The rest is out of our hands.  We know that it got to where he is.  We won't know if he received it or what he was told about it.  We have one for Kai but it will have to stay with us and we will deliver it by hand!     

Beyond this, the paperwork lately has been our Visa applications which we have received!  We now have passports, visas and the boys bags are packed!  This part of the journey is drawing to a close.