Travel Dates

This map came from http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/asian.superpower/us.v.china/link.taiwan.map.jpg.

We found out this week that our civil ruling was on Tues., Nov. 29. So, we have booked our flights to go get William. YAY! We will fly to Houston on Dec. 17 and stay the night. Then we fly from Houston to Detroit to Osaka, Japan, to Taipei (Phew!) on Dec. 18 and 19. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a flight for all three of us together (Angela's mom is going, too) until Jan. 15. We definitely cannot wait that long as our AIT (American Institute in Taiwan) appointment is Jan. 5. This is where we will get William's IR-3 visa so that he can enter the US with us. It's really hard to get flights with frequent flier miles around the holidays. It took 4 phone calls and about 5 hours on the telephone to get this arrangement. So, Angela's mom will follow a day behind us.

While we are in Taipei, we will be staying with friends. We have asked our agency if we can pick up William on Dec. 21 or 22. We will let everyone know what our Gotcha Date is once it is scheduled with the orphanage. Hopefully, we will have internet access so that we can post to the blog. We don't have a laptop so we will be at the mercy of family and friends.

Then we plan to head to Tainan and possibly Taichung to visit family. We are thinking about taking a train from Taipei. Our thinking is that this may be easier than a plane flight on William. Our only other option would be a bus, which is not too appealing with a 7 1/2 month old. Angela has aunts, uncles, and cousins galore in Tainan and a cousin who lives in Taichung. It will be wonderful for Allen to meet most of them for the first time. He has only met an aunt and uncle, and one cousin (along with her family). Angela's last trip to Taiwan was 13 or 14 years ago.

We will return to Taipei in time for our AIT appointment (tentatively Jan. 5) and then prepare for our trip back to the US. Fortunately, we were able to schedule our return flights with all four of us together. We will leave Taipei on Jan. 11. We'll make the same stops as with our trip to Taiwan with an overnight stay in Houston. Maybe Aunt Jen Li will be able to stop by our hotel room for a short visit. Then we'll head home on Jan. 12.

This map is from http://www.orientaltravel.com/taiwan_map.jpg.