Starting From Square One

No, not with the adoption. Everything's on track. But the travel agency that my adoption agency books through was really jerking me around price-wise. They were charging me more than double what all the other adoptive parents who have recently returned have paid, and they're only doing two out of the three cities we were going to be in--I was getting a customized itinerary from another agency for Beijing so I could hire a Chinese Sign Language interpreter for Xiao Tian. Excuse me? Twice as much for only 2/3 the work? My math isn't the greatest, but that didn't add up.


When I told my adoption agency that I felt like I was being jacked up, they said there is an option for just getting a guide for $600 to get us through the paperwork and the many appointments both in province and in Guangzhou at the consulate. Now THAT I consider a reasonable fee! So I told them to go with that, which meant I now needed to find my own hotels, in-country flights, drivers, tour guides, etc.


And this is Friday night. I'm leaving Monday.


Then I started wondering if the agency doing my Beijing tour handled adoption trips as well. Hit the web site, found out they did, and started making phone calls to China.


I don't want to see next month's phone bill. But OCDF (Our Chinese Daughter's Foundation) is walking in and picking up the pieces for me--cheerfully. When I told them what this other place was planning to charge me, the woman simply gasped in astonishment. She never said a word. She didn't have to. That gasp said it all.


Gave her the information I had and what needed to be done last night right before bed, which was first thing in the morning on Saturday for them. (They're 13 hours ahead of us.) By the time I woke up this morning, she was nearly done, and it's going to cost less than half of what the other place was charging.


Unbelievable.


If anyone wants the name of a travel agency to stay away from, e-mail me off-line. If anyone wants the name of an absolutely FABULOUS agency who can work miracles at the last minute, visit www.ocdf.org. Their travel planner is named Jenny, and she's simply wonderful.
So I'm in a very grateful mood this morning as I'm putting up with all the last-minute aggravations that always happen before a big trip, and trying to squeeze everything in that must be done. I have just survived my entire trip falling apart and being put back together. I have a roof over my head when I land in China.


And now, as someone on one of the chat boards so aptly said, "As long as they hand over the kid, nobody gets hurt."