Our Travel Itinerary!

We leave Lafayette on February 27th, fly to Houston, then Newark. Since we arrive in Newark around 3:00 pm, we are going to go in to NYC for the evening! Leave Newark around noon on Feb. 28th, arrive in Beijing 3:00 p.m. the next afternoon.

Stay at the Poly Plaza Hotel until March 4th. [top photo]

March 4th: Fly to Chongqing, Gracie's municipality, stay at the Holiday Inn Yangtze Chongqing Hotel. [right photo].

March 5th: Gotcha Day! We will be parents again! Jenn's an older sister! Gracie's a little sis!

March 9th: Get Gracie's passport; fly to Guangzhou in the evening. Now staying at the White Swan Hotel. [bottom photo]

March 10th: Gracie's visa photo/medical exam.

March 12th: Go to American Consulate for interview/visa

March 14th: Return to home sweet home! [also known as the "36 hour day going home!"]

We will fill in with daily itineraries as we take pictures and post while there.

Birthday Girl!

Happy birthday to Gracie AiWan Barousse! She is one year old today! Jenn's little sister is a Valentine Baby!

There was a celebration of sorts in that my coworkers had a baby shower for us today after school! Pictures from that to come. . . It was fun to have the support and well wishes for us, and especially wonderful to have the shower on Gracie's birthday. And the presents were so fun to open--little girl clothes are so cute!

Thanks to Ginnie in our GreatWall travel group, we have found Gracie's finding announcement that was published in the local newspaper in her municipality. It came in email today of all days!! I ran home and verified her Chinese name, and sure enough, this is our Grace! What a wonderful thing to receive on of all days but her birthday!

What To Expect on Our Journey?

We have our travel to and from China finalized, and we should be getting our intra China travel sent to us next week, so as soon as we have the whole trip itinerary, I'll post it. We leave Lafayette on February 27th and return home on March 14th.
In the meantime, here are my favorite links to families with similar journeys. Their trips will give you a feel for what we can expect!
http://home.comcast.net/~r.noonan/index.htm
http://home.comcast.net/~benjenn/
http://miraclesoflove.spaces.live.com/

A Little Geography Lesson

We arrive in Beijing [top right of China], go to Gracie's municipality, Chongqing [central China], go to Guangzhou [bottom right of China], then fly out of Hong Kong to return home! An exhausting, exhiliarating nine leg journey with an incredible ending! I'll post our travel itinerary next time!

So Who IS the Luckiest Sister in the World??

Well, that would have to be Gracie, because she has THE best older sister waiting over here for her! Jennifer is a great kid with great qualities: she is compassionate and nurturing ...she volunteers with ARF to help foster dogs from the "Arfanage Animal Sanctuary" [Animal Rescue Foundation, www.arfla.org]. She is very active, positive, and driven... head cheerleader for her school squad and a chosen participant for the NCA/NDA Orange Bowl pre game performance. She is spiritual...an altar server for our church and a caring and sensitive person. She is open and sharing...she has been so happy about having her little family circle expand to include a sibling after being the only child for so long! Jennifer is such a great daughter--being an older sister will be another accomplishment in her life that I know she will shine in! We love you, MoonPie!

Gracie's Bedroom

Here are some pictures of Gracie's room. Jenn still has some decorating ideas...a girl's room can never be too girlie or pink, you know! Right now, it is a smorgasbord of the saying "something borrowed" which would be the bumper pads from Madison's mom, Lisa; "something blue" which would be the glider rocker, "something old" which would be Jenn's toys {in between the glider rocker and the dresser}, and from my generation, the pastel art from Granny Cagle [I remember her asking us when we were little what we would like for her to make, and we would sit and watch her create our personalized masterpieces! I asked for the kitten, and the little fairies were for me and Holly]; and finally "something new" the various decorative attempts that we've done for her room while waiting!