Something is up.....

Those cheap fares were too good to be true. They must offer very few at those prices and when they are gone they are gone. Every time I tried to book them they came up as "sold out". What's that all about???

Heard from Hope. Good news, bad news situation. Yeah,  we can come but they now charge for room and board. That will add $600 to our budget. I know it is a deal and I know they have expenses but still it ups the ante.

Also talked to a woman who was there with her daughter last year and with another woman who lives in Beijing with her daughter who is the same age as our girls. Fact is I met her many years ago on Grace's adoption trip. Long story I will tell you about later. Great gal. 

We are making progress with our plans. We are so blessed to be able to do this. It is huge that I get the girls back to China. It is a promise we made and did not take lightly when the miracle of adoption brought us all together. I wish the whole family could go together but for now we have to do it this way. I am grateful.

Cheap flights....

Have found some great fares to Beijing and am seriously thinking of purchasing them now.

For budgetary reasons I need to hold off just a bit longer. Fingers crossed they are still there next week.

I have emailed Joyce at New Hope and asked if we can come next spring break.  I am hoping to speak with  several people who were there last year. I really hope we can be of  help in our time there, not just some tourists stopping by.

Pandas...

I took this photo at the panda reserve in Chengdu in March of 2008 when Isabel and I had our return trip to China. That place was one of the highlights of our trip. Loved the city as well. It took a real hit during the earthquake.

Vacation...

We are on vacation at the beach.....see our family blog in the links. I plan to book our flights in the fall but meanwhile I continue to follow, via blogs, all the adoption stories still happening. It makes me kind of sad that a lot of the experiences people have are not positive ones. I wish I could tell them that two weeks under the stressful conditions they are under is not enough time to get to know the real China or her people. I was as judgemental until we went back too and I was sorry for that and learned from it.

World's most boring travel blog...

Honestly it is like watching a clock. We really won't be booking until the fall and in the meantime we just keep living. School is out for the summer and you can either bookmark us and come back or check out our other blogs.....past and present. They are under the LINKS area to your right. For me I will continue to do my homework and arrange the best trip (trips) ever.

Nothing new...

Naturally this blog will be quiet until we begin to make travel arrangements. I am thinking October or November. I still go to kayak and expedia et cetera and price our flights out but it is kind of silly because we don't know what fuel surcharges will be like in the future. I still am thinking we will go to Hope and I still think spring break. Since we are also thinking of trying to go to England next year we may switch travel times. Maybe UK in early summer and China later. Don't know. Part of me would love to go back to Starfish for at least a couple of days but not sure how helpful we were or would be if we went again and without Brittany........it wouldn't be much of a holiday for my girls. China is definitely our number one priority. I took Isabel so now I must take the younger girls.

Air fares...

Had I been smart and had I the money I should have booked our flights a few weeks back.

Sadly, I did not and now since fuel has sky rocketed I will have to pay the surcharges. It is becoming clear that I will have to book by about September or so to get any deals. Whether the cash will be available is another story.

I am also investigating other airlines. Last time we used Air China and I had no complaints coming or going. The individual TV's were good and kept us entertained.  We had books and magazines and munchies. The girls can bring their Nintendos. What else could we need? Actually once on the planes I didn't find the flights all that long. It is the layovers and waiting that is tedious.

It would be a dream to fly first or business class but that is way beyond our plan of a budget trip so it will remain a dream!

I am excited already and it is still months away. The planning is part of the adventure for me.

I hope this time we can be more helpful than last time but we will do what we can.