The great news continues to arrive!!

Today we received word that our group has a confirmed and official consulate appointment date of July 28, 2009. This is the day that we bring Gigi to the US Consulate and are interviewed and sworn in as her parents and sign lots of papers and our adoption is more or less official, at least as far as China goes. More to the point, this is a meting that takes place toward the end of our trip, meaning that we should be leaving for China about 10-14 days earlier. That means about three weeks from now we should be heading to China and holding Gigi in our arms within two or three days of arrival.
Later, we had our phone meeting with our agency and, among the other information discussed, we were told they are shooting for us to leave on July 17th (or possibly the 16th) and return home on August 1st. For those of you keeping score at home, the 17th of July is 22 days from now. We can now officially move from feeling like "we are not ever going to get to China" to "we are not ever going to be ready in time!!" This is a good problem to have in my humble opinion.
It is a cliche to say this has been a rollercoaster ride, but I am glad that we are finally coming into the station and will soon be on a much more entertaining and fulfilling ride with Gigi seated next to us!!
As Denise said yesterday, we are so thankful to everyon for their good wishes and, of course, their prayers!! WE canot wait to introduce Gigi to all of our family and friends!! I am bursting with pride and am so ready to get this party started. I apologize in advance for how annoying I am going to become as a bragging, doting, and over-protective Daddy!!