Visa Day

Early last week, Dan and I sent our referral acceptance packet back to our adoption agency. They will wait for signed documents from all families in our travel group and will then send all of our information together back to China. China will then respond with what is called 'TA', or Travel Approval. Upon receipt of our TA, our agency can make Consulate appointments for us at the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou. Once we know when that appointment is scheduled for, we can book our tickets! We still hope to be in China by the second week of February.

Besides researching where we will be traveling to, gazing at Kenny's picture every 5 minutes and turning our dining room table into a mound of things to be packed, one of the several administrative things yet to be done is applying for our Visas to enter China. In order to apply for a Visa, applications must be hand-delivered, along with actual passports, to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. Because the windchill today was expected to be about a zillion degrees below zero, Dan and I decided this would be a good day to trek to the Windy City (ha!) to check another step off our list. (Dan was off work today because of the cold, so it actually did make some sense to go to the Windy City today...)

The Chinese Consulate is right downtown on Erie Street and we lucked out with meter parking just a couple blocks away. The Consulate was full to the gills with waiting people, but talk about a smooth movin' operation! In just over 10 minutes we were called to the window and our documents were reviewed for completeness. Our applications, passports and money order were clipped to the FedEx return envelope supplied by us and placed in a processing bin. We were given a receipt indicating they expected to process our request and FedEx it back to us by 12/30/08. This literally took 30 seconds. Efficiency is a beautiful thing. Seriously.
With the official business behind us so quickly, we decided to attempt a trip to FAO Schwartz for a celebratory toy for Kennedy. We lucked out again with meter parking just off Michigan Avenue (Seriously? Twice in one day?) and walked over to Watertower Place...only to be told that FAO Schwartz moved to State and Randolph. Normally we'd trek the mile over there, but given the 30 zillion below zero windchill, we got in the car and drove over there. On the way we spotted a European-style holiday market that we just had to get to, so we did the crazy and unthinkable when there was no street parking to be found--we parked under Grant Park. (Yes, it was approximately a million dollars to park for 2 hours.)
ANYWAY, we walked over to the market and bummed around the vendors, most of whom were from Germany, and bought some crazy mushroom ornaments. It may have been freakin' freezing cold out, but nothing stops Dan and Jen from eating bratwurst and potato pancakes. Yep, we ate lunch outside. And it was GREAT. Ya know, I really love the cold around the holidays. Don't get me wrong, this is extreme cold, but it's just fun to be all bundled up in layers and wrapped in a 3-mile long scarf inhaling a brat while the beat of Chicago hums all around. Magic-like.
We did eventually make it to FAO Schwartz only to discover that it is now part of Macy's and is not the amazing toy store I remembered from a childhood visit to Chicago. It sucked. There are no pictures because it sucked that bad. Seriously. It was so sucky it was funny. Poor Dan, all those years of hearing my tales of FAO Schwartz grandeur and then it sucks. Hilarious.

It was a great day! And we even made it home on time for Hank's 6:15 insulin shot. Life is good. Oh, and have I mentioned how badly we want to be in China...like...tomorrow?! Thank God for the distraction of the holidays. (But how will we make it through January?!)