We got "the call" on July 16, 1997 at about 3:30pm. This marked the beginning our our next long wait. At the time, things were moving pretty fast. The average wait from referral to travel notification was about four to six weeks, then from notification to departure was about one to two weeks. Doing the math meant we had anywhere from five to eight weeks before we would depart. We left for Hong Kong on October 23rd, some 14 weeks from the day of our referral.

Two things got in the way. First, our acceptance of Emma (Lu Qiong), somehow got lost in Beijing. About four weeks after the date or our referral, Holt got a call from Beijing asking if we'd accepted or not. Apparently, they never got word (we learned later there were nine other families in the same situation with us). There were a couple very tense days wondering what was to happen. Had they given Emma to someone else? That question was too hard to handle, too unthinkable to imagine they had - but it crossed our minds.

We soon found out all was well and things were being processed, but didn't know if we had to go to the "end of the line" and begin our wait all over or would be be put back in our proper place in line? I think we landed somewhere in between.

The next hitch, was the Guangzhou Trade Fair, an annual event that fills all the Guangzhou hotel rooms. It comes in early October and lasts about three weeks. During this time, Holt doesn't book any travel - and that meant ours. We got word in late September that we had to be in Hong Kong on October 26, 1997 - that would put us in Guangzhou about the sixth of November - after the trade fair.

We made good use of the extra time. We had Emma's room to do, shopping to do, travel plans to make, getting our house ready, getting our lives ready - for that matter! Carolyn started a weekly exercise of picking up baby supplies so we didn't have to do one mega-shopping trip. This worked out good. Buying a little at a time allowed us to gather our information about what we'd need, what we wouldn't need, etc. We now knew what time of the year we'd be in China. We could get the proper weight clothing together and buy Emma some clothes of her own. We didn't have a real good handle on how big she was, so a lot of it was guess work. Carolyn solved the problem by taking several sizes of a few critical items and guessing at the rest. She not only bought things for the trip, but also stocked Emma's closet with clothes for the next sixty years. I think it was only last week, that Baby Gap was able to restock their shelves.

October was the craziest month of our lives. The pace picked up considerably and it seemed like there were too many things that still had to be done. Arrangements for our dogs, our house, winding things down at our jobs, stopping mail, newspapers, etc. Whew! Somehow it all got done.

During October, our friends gave us a HUGE baby shower. The mass of support for our adoption endeavour from friends and family had been emense. Now, most of them were collected in our house all at once and the sense of love and support was overwhelming. Emma got some really nice gifts and our hearts were filled with enough love to last a lifetime. As everyone was leaving, it slowly began to hit us.

We were about to leave for China to meet and bring home our daughter!