and yes, all 4 of us will be traveling to meet and bring back our newest family member. This was part of the reason we waited to adopt until Addie & Mason were older and good travelers.
Traveling to China is not as easy as just booking a flight. It requires not only a valid US passport, but you must apply for a Chinese Visa no more than 90 days before you travel.
In this application you have to list your personal information & profession and your purpose for traveling, including where you'll be at and where you'll be staying. We needed to include our Letter of Acceptance from the China Center for Children’s Welfare & Adoption (CCCWA).
There are some pretty high fees and then your paperwork & passport need to be hand delivered to the Chinese Embassy that services your state. Ours is in Chicago. Thankfully, the person applying does not have to be the person delivering the paperwork. We paid to have a courier deliver and retrieve our Visas. She was the same courier that delivered our dossier paperwork when it needed to be authenticated by the Chinese Embassy. If you ever need a courier for the Chinese or Haitian Embassies in Chicago, Denise Hope at There's Alway's Hope! is the best!
It's nerve wracking sending away your precious documents & passports that took months and lots of money & time to obtain!!
Thankfully we had only very minor hiccups (I sent Brian's birth certificate to the Chinese Embassy in Chicago, but his needed to go to San Francisco since he was born in California and a couple Notary & date issues that they let slide) and we are now all set to travel to China when we get the ok!
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