Day 4 and Counting

Our travel group met at the agency for our final travel meeting. Jane is super-organized with the zillion of forms needed. She gave each of us our own form-carrying packet with neatly labeled, color-coded folders. Even a form-challenged person like me was able to navigate it!

We even had our itinerary for each day we are in China!! Now that's organization. I highly recommend Family Resource Center for its wonderful, ethical service. I don't think the agency is taking applications for Chinese adoptions, due to the massive slowdown of Chinese adoption. However, its domestic adoption program is going strong.

Anyway, I felt so much better after the meeting. Much more reassured, thanks to Jane's expertise and organization. And I'm so glad she and Tom (our translator) will be with us.

The talk about what restaurants to go to in Hong Kong, to be honest, was not something I wanted to focus on. All I care about is meeting my daughter and showering her with love. I figure that it is not rocket science to find a quality restaurant in Hong Kong without any guidance whatsoever.

The highlight of the meeting is when Jane told us that the babies will be brought to our hotel rooms the next evening around 6:30 p.m., shortly after our plane lands in Nanchang. My heart filled with joy at the thought of meeting her one-on-one so quickly after getting off the plane. And I felt gratitude that the orphanage was willing to make this transition so easy for us by bringing the babies right to our hotel room!!

We are very lucky.

Our first night there we will be in Hong Kong. I plan to sightsee early and have an early dinner at a nice restaurant I will find myself. Do they have an early bird special in Hong Kong? LOL Anyway, my goal is to go to bed early in the evening, so I can get a really good night's sleep, as the next day will be quite busy and I want to be able to save as much energy as I can for my daughter.

My goal is R&R in Hong Kong and enjoying my last night of true solitude. Because the next day, my life as I know it will change forever.

I love the saying, "It's not the destination that counts; it's the journey." I live by that mantra. But in this case, it's the journey and destination that count.

And I'm going to savor every moment of it.

Beth L. Gainer is a professional writer and has published numerous academic and magazine articles, as well as an essay on her breast cancer experience in the anthology Voices of Breast Cancer by LaChance Publishing. She writes about medical advocacy at http://www.bethlgainer.blogspot.com/, and her cat Hemi blogs at http://www.catterchatter.blogspot.com/. Beth teaches writing and literature at Robert Morris University in the Chicago area. She can be contacted at bethlgainer@gmail.com and gainercallingtheshots@gmail.com.