As I am typing this, I am in Houston waiting for the Chinese Consulate office to open. (We will have our Visas tomorrow!)

We have 12-days left before we MUST be on a plane and there is still SO MUCH left to do! Other people that have had to rush to beat China's deadlines have told me that I have plenty of time, but I'm still worried about the timeline...

I have to take a second to compliment Kris and Morgan. We were told to submit our Visa applications at 1:00. Since then, I have been in spastic-mode finding hotel addresses and typing Visa applications and getting passport photos for everyone. (Why didn't our agency give me a heads-up about this before the weekend?!?!). While I was doing that, my kids put together lunch and snacks for themselves and their 3 cousins that were over for the day. They even cleaned up footprints after a dog came in muddy! They were totally independent for several consecutive hours--WOW!