Our referral came on Halloween, 10/31/00.
Our daughter was named Xu Xiu Min (pronounced sh-ouw shoe min) and was just
over 1 year old (born 10/25/99).
Our travel permission came in 4 weeks, 11/29/00. We were told they would try to get us there before Christmas, but that it might be later too. What we were not expecting was that travel might come earlier. However, on Friday, December 1st, I was called and asked if we could be in Nanjing on 12/6. That would mean leaving on Monday, 12/4! It was a mad scramble to see if we could arrange the flights and, especially, to try to get our visas that would allow us in to China ready in time. Arranging airfare was easier than we expected, thank to NW Airlines adoption special that does not require advance purchase. We had already sent for the Visa's via FedEx overnight, with an overnight return envelope. However, we had not paid the extra for Saturday delivery. I called the Chinese embassy in San Francisco to beg them to please change to overnight shipping WITH Saturday delivery. They refused. I then called FedEx and after initially refusing, and listening to me go berserk, they did agree to flag the package for Sat delivery.
Come Saturday morning the tracking data showed it was in a warehouse in Kent, scheduled for Monday delivery. After another panicked call to FedEx, they agreed to come let me pick it up. So, we had our visas.
We had wonderful, supportive, bosses and coworkers who allowed us to drop everything at work and go. Lisa's sister and brother-in-law were especially terrific in agreeing to housesit and pet-sit on such short notice. After some frenzied packing and repacking, we were set. On to China and Melissa!