The "Brown Envelope" Arrived

Well, the brown envelope arrived on Saturday, the 13th. I've heard that some families get this envelope and others don't - there is really no rhyme or reason either way from what I’ve read. For us, we received one with Jada's adoption and now Ruby's as well.

The envelope doesn't contain anything all THAT important. It mainly has some forms that are needed in China, but those forms are easily acquired elsewhere and the adoption agency makes sure that all travelers have the appropriate paperwork before travel.

One item that I was glad to see in this "brown envelope" was a map of the area around the location of the new US Consular Office in the Tianhe District of Guangzhou. I have heard it is about a 45 minute trip from the White Swan Hotel to the new office location. It is a bit early yet (since the US Consular only moved on 8/8/2005) to know what most agencies will do as far as lodging since the White Swan was an icon among adopting families. There is a large, 380 room hotel just across the street from the new US Consular office called the Clarion Star Hotel. This hotel may be used by some agencies in the future, depending on what other services are close by.

So, there isn’t a lot more than that to report. We have already waited over two months since our dossier was sent to China, and almost two months since it was logged in to the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs). If referrals double up for the January and February DTC groups like has been rumored, we could easily have our referral by Christmas, or perhaps even earlier.

I’ll keep you posted…