Happy Birthday Sean! Travel Approval Received Today!

So as you can tell by this photo...birthdays (for the adults) are kind of casual low-key affairs at the Powell household.  Don't get me wrong...we are very happy to still be having them...but we don't do anything too fancy or elaborate.  From the looks of this photo...clothes are optional (not for the adults!!)  I debated whether to include this lovely celebratory photo of my sweet family on Daddy's special day...but it is the only one we have marking the event of Sean's 41st Birthday! 

It is kind of funny looking back...it never crossed my mind when I was taking the pics and singing an off-key Happy Birthday that maybe it would be nice for Caroline to be dressed since I was taking photos!! 
Oh well!  Happy Birthday Sean...you know this is one of my favorite days of the year because I get to enjoy being younger than you for the next 8 months!
I LOVE YOU!

Adoption News:
I have been stalking my email for weeks as we await our TA (Travel Approval) from the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs).  This is the formal invitation by which our family is invited to travel to China during a certain approved period of time to adopt our daughter.  Our agency told us it could take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks from the time that our Article 5 paperwork was in Beijing.  The paperwork was sent to Beijing from the US Consulate in Guangzhou on July 6th and could take up to a week to get to Beijing.  I had calculated on our calendar the short and long estimate thinking that the TA would come sometime between July 27th and August 10th...so we actually received the TA pretty quickly although when you are just waiting for the email to come...it feels like forever.    This is the email we received from CCAI:

To: Sean & Sarah Powell

CCAI Group: 1614
CCAI TRAVEL WEB UPDATE 7/23/2010
Wonderful news! Today we received Travel Approvals for your family! With the arrival of Travel Approvals today, we have requested appointments hoping for your family to travel to China on or around August 11th. Your confirmed consulate appointment will determine your trip dates. We’re very excited for each family!!! We have faxed the U.S. Consulate - Guangzhou requesting appointments for the families who have adequate immigration approval today.

The Consulate typically takes about 1-3 business days to reply to our requests. We will email your group when the Consulate appointment confirmations arrive. Please keep in mind that we must have a confirmed Consulate appointment for your group BEFORE we can estimate travel dates, begin planning your travel, finalize arrangements with our China staff, or a travel agency can answer specific questions about your trip. At this time, it is still not possible to book your international tickets – we will advise you as soon as we have the confirmed dates!
We appreciate your continued patience and understanding as you wait to hear from us.

So...now we wait for the next step...a confirmed US Consulate appointment.  The appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou is the last appointment we have in China.  Once that date is set, all of the other appointments and travel are scheduled.