Travel Approval -- China for Christmas?

We got the call today -- we have official approval to travel to China. The next step is that our adoption agency, Holt International, will request a U.S. Consulate appointment. We will need to be in China two weeks prior to the consulate appointment in Guangzhou.

So, for example, if we receive a consulate appointment for Jan. 3, we would need to be in Beijing for orientation on about Dec. 20. (That date is plucked out of the air; we won't know for sure until next week at the earliest.)

Before we heard the news today, we'd already had our re-fingerprinting appointment at the Kansas City field office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. We can't keep a consulate appointment without current fingerprint clearance, and it is also required to get an extension for our paperwork preauthorizing us to bring Lillian home. (The original paperwork will expire -- get this -- Jan. 3!)

So feel free to pray for fast clearance for our fingerprints and prompt extension of our paperwork. The extension has been in the works for several weeks now, but the USCIS official here has been very helpful once we figured out how to contact her directly.

If everything goes right, we could be in China on Christmas Day!