Things have solidified!

We are leaving for China in a couple of weeks! Wow. After 5 seemingly endless years of waiting we are on the verge of finally having the child we have been praying for. Julia and I are just over the moon. On another note, after we return from China, I am going to set about building a grappling dummy. The commercially available models are prohibitively expensive. I have found some designs for decent home-made models that don't sound terribly difficult or expensive to build. I will plan to build the dummy a little bit at a time, here and there. I think it will be a great training aid for myself and for Zach when the time comes.

On the Brink!

Things have been just crazy busy lately with final preparations underway for our journey to China to get our Zachary. Had to get all kinds of travel vaccinations, do final prep of Zach’s room, work our way through the final bit of paperwork jungle. We received our updated form I-171-H the other day, which is the final piece of the puzzle. Now we are just waiting for our agency to let us know when they have our consulate appointment scheduled. Our travel plans all hinge around that. We are hoping for a departure date of 3/24. The wild card in all of this is that, in mid-to-late April, the city of Guangzhou, where the US consulate is located, hosts a big trade show. During that span of time, there are no hotels to be had. Therefore, those are considered “blackout dates”. In essence, if we don’t travel by around April 1st, it will likely get bumped back to May. The thing about that is, our travel approval from China has a shelf-life and will expire on May 7th. Therefore, if we don’t travel by May 7th, we have to renew our travel approval which could delay things further. So, we are hoping for 3/24. Will keep you posted.



On the BJJ front, this weekend, I am going to a seminar being taught by Prof. Pedro Sauer and Andre’ Galvao, both of whom are very high-level BJJ black belts. My school is affiliated with Pedro Sauer. This will be my first time meeting and rolling with practitioners of that level. It will definitely be an honor. I will post about my experience and include pictures when I get back.