Bringing Hank Home

We will be making a few stops along the way. First we fly from Newark to Chicago to Shanghai. Once we land in Shanghai, we will be go right to Nanjing This is the capital city of Jiangsu Province. In China, provinces are essentially like our states. We will be there from Friday through Tuesday and will meet Hank there on Monday.

Hank is from Suzhou Social Welfare Institute (SWI) A SWI cares for both children and elderly/disabled adults. A CWI is a Children’s Welfare Institute and is for children only.

Even though Hank lives in Suzhou, adoptions are handled at the Civil Affairs office of the capital city of the province (clear as mud??). Parents have to remain in that province for about 5 days while the child’s paperwork is processed and their passport issued. While we wait for his passport, we are planning a side trip to Suzhou for 3 nights. It is supposed to be a beautiful city and since Hank is older, we think it’s important to get to know where he is from.

Friday we hop back to Nanjing to pick up his passport and spend one more night at the Mandarin Garden Hotel.

Still with me?? Good! Ok, Saturday we leave Nanjing and fly down to Guangzhou.

This is where the American Consulate is located and more paperwork awaits us. All U.S. citizens that adopt from China must pass through Guangzhou so there are lots of new families there! We will be staying at the Victory Hotel

Still trying to tie up the last few days of the trip. Paperwork-wise, we could come home on Thursday 7/13 but there were no good flights so we are leaving on Friday the 14^th.

We might spend the last two days in Hong Kong, we might just keep it simple and stay put in Guangzhou.

Then we fly from Hong Kong, to Chicago to Newark!

I think that covers it!

I should probably pack….nah…still too early.....