Hooray for Kate

8 Days to go. We're ready! On Friday, we received our final package from Children's Bridge which had our Chinese Visa's and Air Canada tickets in it. Quite weird to see a ticket printed for He Fu Qing. For anyone who's been-there-done-that with Children's Bridge, our Beijing guide is Ma-Ri.

We've updated our wills, the banking is all done, the Christmas lights are up, and the yard is "winterized". Jennifer did the grocery shopping on the weekend for all of the non-perishables we'll need when we get back and her mother is going to pick us up all the perishables we need just before we get back.

The car is booked into the garage for a check-over and the car seat is installed in the car. After fighting with the straps for close to an hour, I finally have it snug enough so that it won't move around. The secret... lie across the car seat putting all my weight on it then strain like crazy to get the seatbelt fastened. Yes, I could have asked my neighbor with the 2 car seats in their car for help, but whats the fun in that???

The luggage is all under control. Each suitcase weighs 11 lbs which leaves us with 39 lbs each for everything we need. After doing a quick trial run the other day, it should not be a problem. We just need to gather the final clothes we'll be taking, throw it all in and that's done. The in-flight entertainment is under control - crossword puzzles, a deck of cards, the computer, a couple books, baseball gloves and ball (seeing if you're paying attention). We've made arrangements to have someone pick up the car from the airport on the day we leave.

It looks like Chris and Tracy from Moncton are going to get Madison at the same time as us. Wow! Their agency worked quick! They received their referral a month after us. They are flying out on the same flights as us then we're also travelling back to Toronto on the same flight. As their flights were only booked last week, they have to get home via Ottawa first, so they don't get in until later Thursday night. I believe there is 6 families in their group... that means somewhere around 14 adoptive babies on the flight back from Beijing to Toronto. Plus whoever else is on their with their kids.

Thats it from here...