Soon to be "United"

Final approval is in and it looks like we will be leaving for China one week from today! At this late date for securing tickets, United was the only airline offering tickets for less than $2,000 a piece and only one stop. Now when we ask family for money as a Christmas gift, you'll understand why a check in an envelope looks so much more festive than a fancy, gift-wrapped box.

On December 10th we will leave Charlotte with a brief stop in DC prior to making our way to Beijing, China. Currently, weather looks pretty compatible with home as the Weather Channel's website is showing highs in the mid 40s and lows in the low 20s overseas. Once Leah is safely in our arms, we will return to Charlotte, passing through Chicago.

When I first heard we were going through O'Hare on Christmas Day, my mind wandered to the second Die Hard movie. Alas, my memory was wrong (as Angela always knew) -- John McClane was stuck in the DC airport on Christmas Eve. Either way, I'm hoping that we will not run into weather delays on our way home as I'm very excited about arriving home with our best gift of all on Christmas Day. Aside from bad weather in the windy city, my biggest fear is that our flight overseas will collide with Santa's sleigh as we will be airborne for over 20 hours, all on Christmas.

Stay tuned for all the joy (and stress) of our 2nd international adoption. If you stumble across our blog earlier than the 10th, you can always review our stories from our last trip in 2005 when we went to China to adopt Jeremy.

As a reminder to our technically-challenged readers (thanks for watching the boys while we're away Mom & Dad!), remember that clicking on an image will lead to a larger version. Clicking on the itinerary above should allow you to see all the details of our departure and arrival. ;)