Hello World

Hi, I am Alex and I am not the Rumour Queen, but I do play her on TV. Okay, if you're shaking your head wondering who the Rumour Queen (RQ) is, stop reading my blog and get your cyber-butt to www.chinaadopttalk.com. If things still don't make sense to you, I might question why you're reading a China adoption blog anyway :)
We (myself, my DH and DD) are anxiously awaiting the newest member of our family, Julia XinShan. We've been LID since March 9, 2006 and were matched by our agency with a waiting child in November. We sent our LOI Nov. 22 and are currently waiting for TA, which seem to be coming at aprox 90-120 days. We're on day 56 right now, so almost halfway there!! Our agency has asked us to not post pictures of our daughter unitl we receive TA, and obviously we will honor that. But rest assured the nano second the TA is in my hot little hands, Julia will make her blogger debut!
Since we are hopefully travelling soon, I've started making preparations for our trip. I've done entirely too much reading about luggage and airline restrictions .... but I finally made some decisions. I bought DH and I each a 29'' suitcase (just barely meeting the 62 linear inch maximum for checked luggage!) and a duffel which you can wear as a backpack for Julia's things. I am thinking we'll buy an umbrella stroller in country and just donate it at the airport when we return home. I am totally confused about our airline miles with Northwest ... it seems everyone says you can get a better deal with posted fares than using their adoption rate. We were really hoping to use our miles to upgrade from coach. Flights to Asia from the East Coast are rough, even without a 15 month old on your lap!
If anyone whose BTDT has any great advice for pre-travel planning, I'd love to hear it.