Travel to China Seminar

Okay, I’d first like to say that my adoption agency, Lifeline Children’s Services, is the BOMB. For so many reasons and none the least of which is the seminar I just attended last Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. This was the BEST meeting. So informative and I will share a bit of what I learned. Some of it is nuts and bolts stuff and some of it is just reasons why my agency is so rockin’! First I learned that it should indeed be 2-3 months until we travel. I had it in my head it would be more like 4-5. Nope, likely three though when it is all said and done, barring any weird hang ups. I think I might wet my pants if it were only two months though. Now lets talk cold hard cash. The adoption costs roughly $31,000. We have already paid about $10,000+ to the agency and government for various fees. This leaves China fees and travel. That totals the other $21,000. But my big question was, “How does this all change hands and happen?” I mean I know wiring money is involved but what money…I had no idea. I know plane tickets are gonna be a huge expense…but who do I contact for that and how do the hotels and inner-country travel things happen. Never fear, Lifeline is here…is the answer. Whew. I love these people.

The first thing we do is “order” new money for our spending money in China. They suggest $1,000 per adult and $500 per child. So $2,500 for us. This is NOT primarily mad money, it is mostly for food and other unexpected expenses…ie. bottled water, baby supplies for Hope, random things we need…and some is left for mad money. China prefers to exchange new $100.00 bills and you gotta order those puppies early so the banks can order the “new” money in time. We ran into this when we went to Lithuania and Kenya.

Now the big guns…basically we jump through some paperwork hurdles and as we come down to the end of our wait time we will get what is called TA, that is travel approval. This is when we are assigned our consulate appointment in China. This appointment is the last thing we do in China before we come home with Hope. We have to get a medical exam done, a TB test and then our guide applies for Hope’s Visa and we go to the consulate to swear our oath and we leave China in the next 24 hours. So everything about our travel is wrapped around the consulate date. We will be notified of our date and then we immediately call our travel agency who sets everything up….and I mean everything…down to our shopping and sightseeing. Once we get our itinerary from the agency we immediately send it to Lifeline. They will get us a price sheet worked up pronto. This price work up does NOT include airfare!!! Then they will give us a total dollar amount…it is this figure we have to wire to China BEFORE WE LEAVE. Oh and did I mention you normally travel within two weeks of getting your TA and consulate date….I don’t think I did mention that!  We have to go to our bank and have them wire roughly $12,000 to Hong Kong. It is normally $10,500 for two adults but if you add another person (i.e. Noah) it is $1,500 more…roughly. We have to make sure our bank, when going through what is called the “middle bank,” tells the middle bank that our money has to end up in Hong Kong in U.S. dollars. Pretty much all banks have a bank they use to wire funds to other countries. If they don’t get it there in U.S. dollars then we could have a shortage on the other side due to exchange rates and currency values. No pressure.

So I’m guessing the airfare and side trip costs us the other $9,000!! Gulp! You are saying to yourself…side trip? What is that? Well the agency strongly encourages, especially if you are taking other children with you, what they call a side trip. This happens before you get your child from the orphanage. Normally people arrive 3 days before they are to go to their child’s province. Usually you go to either Beijing or Hong Kong. You do this to get acclimated to the time and recover from jetlag and such before you have to pick up your child who doesn’t know who you are and is terrified of you. This especially helps any children you have brought with you to China. So once you arrive in your child’s province you are better able to handle whatever happens, because you are more rested and in your right mind rather than just showing up to the orphanage after 2 days of being in a plane.

Here’s what this will look like for us. We will likely go to Beijing first and spend a few day there recovering from jet lag and getting used to the time change. We will be sightseeing some and trying to document some of Hope’s heritage and history for her. We will likely arrive on a Wed or so. Then on Saturday we have to travel to Chongqing where Hope lives. We will get Hope on that following Monday from a government building. Sometimes they will surprise you and bring the child on Sunday but most Gotcha Days are on Monday. Then on Tuesday we go back to the government building to fill out more forms. Wednesday is a ‘tour’ the city day of shopping and sightseeing with Hope. Thursday (and this is huge, I will explain later) we get to go tour the orphanage. Friday we leave Chongqing and head to Guangzhou where the consulate appointment will be. This transitions us into a more “travel leisure” feel of the process. We sightsee, shop and hangout with other adopting families while we wait for our appointment date which could be as soon as Monday and as late as Thursday. We leave for Hong Kong by train usually the same day as our appointment, and then fly to the U.S. the next day. So that is the down and dirty of it all. I have more to say about the meeting but this blog post is so long already I shall end it now and blog more tomorrow about the stuff that was really exciting to hear about in the seminar.