Counting down the days...

Okay, 11 days until we leave for China, and 15 days until we meet Sawyer! I have piles of stuff all over the place to pack for the trip -- somehow I'm supposed to fit all of these items into 3 suitcases -- each of which is required to weigh less than 44 pounds, and 3 backpacks -- hmmm... not sure how this will work out. The baby stuff alone takes up so much room: diapers, bottles, formula, blankies, toys, jammies, Cheerios -- along with the complete pharmacy that I'm carrying with me. I also have 2 large bags of girl-clothes that I'm bringing to donate to the orphanage --these items are courtesy of my super-special nieces, Jacey and Cady -- I think it's so great that their adorable clothes can now be worn by babies in Sawyer's SWI! I'm bringing a very minimum amount of clothing for Clayton, Cooper and myself -- 3 complete outfits each, so we'll be wearing the same clothes over and over and over in our trip photos. We start our trip up in the cold part of China -- Beijing -- it's not really that cold there compared to here in Minnesota, but we'll still need hats, gloves, coats -- I've heard the Great Wall is a very windy place and that we need to bundle up -- according to the internet, it's around 35 degrees in Beijing right now. Then, we travel a bit south to central China to the city of Chongqing in the Sichuan Province -- that's where Sawyer is, and we get to spend 5-6 days there. Right now it looks like the temp there is 55-60 degrees. Finally, we move to far-southern China, to Guangzhou. This is where we remove all our layers of clothing and will be reminded of hot, sticky Houston weather -- it's about 80 degrees in Guangzhou now. We'll be in Guangzhou for 4-5 days before traveling back up to Beijing again to begin the trip back home to Minnesota. So, obviously, I have to think LAYERS as I pack our clothes. I also read about a trick people do -- they bring their old underwear that they hate and no longer want -- they wear this underwear on the trip and simply trash it as it gets dirty, lightening their luggage as they dispose of old undies. I love this plan -- I've already sorted thru my undie-drawer and plan on wearing my ugly old undies throughout the trip, discarding them as I travel through China :) We'll probably do the same thing with socks -- we all have socks that it's definitely time to kiss good-bye! So, back to packing and organizing -- I have to be honest here, I actually love to do this -- I've always been the personality type who loves to organize things -- give me a drawer or a closet to straighten out any day -- it's actually fun for me. Don't hear me wrong here -- I DO NOT like to clean, but I LOVE to organize -- it's like a puzzle :) I'm glad it's the weekend -- travel aisle at Target and Walmart, here I come!