Travel plans finalized!

We finalized our travel plans today. We leave out of Ithaca on November 3, and fly through Detroit and Tokyo to Beijing. We'll spend a few days in Beijing touring, and then head to Chongqing on November 6. Monday, November 7 will be when we meet Hannah for the first time. The orphanage will drive the girls directly to the hotel from Qianjiang -- about a 7-8 hour drive by van -- and we'll have them hopefully as soon as they arrive on Monday. We'll then spend the week in Chongqing, completing paperwork and waiting for Hannah's passport and paperwork to go through. We head down to Guanzhou on Friday, November 11 where Hannah will have a medical checkup, and we'll have our official interview with the U.S. Consulate (which, ironically, we don't even attend). The interview is set for Monday, November 14, and our swearing in is set for Tuesday. We'll also pick up Hannah's visa and passport, and fly out of Guanzhou on Wednesday, November 16. We'll fly through Tokyo and Detroit, and arrive in Ithaca at 3:34 pm on the same day.

We're really looking forward to traveling. The travel company takes care of all in-country arrangements, including having guides, tours, and recommends shows to see. We'll be travelling with two other families, so that will certainly be fun. They've recommended visiting the zoos, especially the zoo in Chongqing because it is quite well known for its pandas.

We've been working on our new family website -- it is located at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jss44 and has some updates and photos of Alex, info about Hannah and our adoption process, and other fun stuff.

That's all for now....we'll keep you posted as we get closer to travelling.

Joe & Darese