Last night we drove to Greensboro to meet our State-Side Facilitator and our Program Coordinator. What a joy it was to meet them. After so many months of speaking to them on the phone and MANY MANY e-mails it was so nice to see that they are as lovely in person as they are on e-mail and via phone. We had many questions answered about "WHAT NEXT"? This process has been so different from our Guatemala experience. We learned that Maran is in an area where they indeed encourage and appreciate an orphanage visit. We could not imagine not seeing where she has grown up so far and visiting with her care takers. We also now know that we can ask them to stop shaving her head. We feel differently about the hair situation than many others. Others, at REFERRAL TIME, request for the hair to stop being shaved. We did not do this until we received our LOA. Reason for this is because their heads are shaved not only for more sanitary reasons but to keep order in the orphanage. Since we are close to the 90 day mark (if all goes according to plan and we stay within the average wait time) we felt it was OK to ask them to let her hair grow.
October is a BUSY month in China. We learned that even though there are the PAN AM games and the TRADE SHOW that you can still travel during this time. It is more expensive but the Consulate appointments are easier to get during this time since they are not as busy. We told them to "SEND US ON". My comment was -- and I meant it in a nice way -- "At this point what's a few hundred more dollars"? We just have to see her and hold her and touch her and we will do so even if China is "BUSY". If all goes according to plan we very well may be traveling during October. Bring it on. As well we were told that we could ask to "TRAVEL with others". We do hope that our friends from Alabama will go around the same time as us. Since our daughters are "BFF's" in the orphanage it would be an incredible experience. We also learned about some pretty places for us to visit while we are there waiting for our Maran to come to us. We were asked if we are taking Luke and we are up in the air about that. He is 4. We believe in bonding time with Maran and all that but also feel that Luke should be a part of it. We see the many pros and many cons of both sides. We may get lucky and can have one of our family members come over with Luke to meet us in Hong Kong so we can go to Disney. We will just have to wait and see.
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