Travel... in less than two weeks

So in my preparing and planning, sometimes it feels so real that we are going to China.  And sometimes, I just can't wrap my head around it.  But in less than two weeks, we ARE boarding a plane and heading to China to meet and bring home our little girl.
The plane tickets with our names at the top - and her Chinese name on an e-ticket.  That was a moment of REAL.  Preparing the room - buying the bed, clothes (only a few), and little things - sometimes it feels like it's far off in the future.  Because it has been far off in the future for so long.  But now the "later" is NOW - it's REAL.  And it's getting more and more real every hour.

So what is our trip going to be like?  Right now we have a general itinerary - and we will get a more specific one before we leave.  

We are flying out to arrive in China on a Saturday night.  Then the next day, we go to Wal-Mart.  To get things for us, for her and for the orphanage.  Yes.  Wal-Mart.  We have a wonderful travel team and facilitator/translator that will be with us most of the time!  We will be met at the airport and she will tell us when and where and what to do!
Then, on Monday, we get our little girl!  We do not go to the orphanage to get her; she is brought to the provincial city where all of the legal stuff/paperwork is done.  When we first meet her, we have about 10 minutes to ask her nanny any questions that we have about her schedule and what we need to know to take care of her (again, our translator will be with us).  Then she is ours.  And with us for the rest of the trip.

After the "Gotcha" moment (our social worker has told us it's quite anti-climactic after everything that we have been through to get here), we go to Wal-Mart.  Again.  Here we will get some food & drinks and some clothes for her. And since she is older, she can pick out some of these things.  We are only taking a few items of clothing with us, because we only have an idea of how big (or actually small) she is.  So this is when we will get the things she needs.  Then the next few days have a little paperwork mixed in with some shopping and some sightseeing.  All with our little girl.  This will be a very important bonding time. Me and my little one!!  We have been told that mommy needs to hold and bond with her most importantly - since daddy will be going back to work.  This will give her security and affirm that we are her forever family.

We are going to take a trip to her orphanage - taking her with us.  This will be a very long day.  A very hard day.  We pray that she will understand that she is staying with us.  This can be very confusing to the child because this is where they just came from - so why are they going back.  But it is important for us, as her parents, to see where she lived, who cared for her, and where she was found, so that we can tell her when she is older.  So that we can have an answer for her questions.  This visit will probably be a two-day event for us, since the orphanage that we are going to is about 5 hours from where we will be staying.

We are staying in the same place for the two weeks we are in China, since our little girl's provincial city (where her orphanage is) is the same as the US Consulate city (Guangzhou).  Guangzhou is in southern China, so it will still be quite warm when we go - think Miami.  They have about the same weather.  But I really don't know what to expect.  As is true about everything with this trip.