The Plan

Here's the plan for our travels to meet our daughter.  5 days till we board
 the plane!!  Can you believe it?!!!



Wednesday, 4/6--Get on a plane for a very long flight to Beijing.

Thursday, 4/7--Arrive in Beijing around 1:45 p.m. China time

Friday, 4/8--Tour Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and Hutong Tour-
     Very excited as the boys have learned about some of these places
     in our History studies this year. 

Saturday, 4/9--Tour Beijing--Great Wall

Sunday, 4/10--Leave Beijing for Zhengzhou, Henan Province

Monday, 4/11--Gotcha Day!!!  We will meet her in the afternoon, sign
      guardianship paperwork, get registration photos taken, and prepare
      more paperwork.

Tuesday, 4/12--Appt. at the Registration office in the morning--our little girl will
      officially be ours!!  Free time in the afternoon.

Wednesday, 4/13--Free time

Thursday, 4/14--Free time.  Receive notary documents in the afternoon.

Friday, 4/15--Receive daughter's passport.  Fly from Zhengzhou to Guangzhou.

Saturday, 4/16--Adoption physical and visa photo, and TB skin test.

Sunday, 4/17--Prepare more paperwork for Consulate Appointment

Monday, 4/18-TB skin test read

Tuesday, 4/19--Free day

Wednesday, 4/20--Consulate Appointment, take oath

Thursday, 4/21--Receive visa paperwork, pack to come home!!

Friday, 4/22--Leave Guangzhou.  Fly to Beijing then home!!!

Good News!

Who knew two little letters could make you very happy?

 

We found out today that we received our TA (Travel Approval)
from China.  We are awaiting confirmation of our CA (Consulate
Appointment) and then we can book our flights.  We hope to have
that information in a few days.

If things go as planned, we'll be with her for her second birthday
on April 13th!!

Happy Birthday, D!

D turned 11 this past Friday.  He had a two day celebration since mom
had to work on the night of his birthday.  So rough, I know. :-)

The weather on his birthday was wonderful!  It was even nice enough to
bring out the basketball hoop and play with friends from the neighborhood.

Saturday, he and some friends went bowling.  Fun was had by all!

We love you D!  We're so blessed to have you in our lives and we are
very proud of the young man you've become!

A Day of Love

Yesterday, some wonderful women I'm honored to call family gave me
and our daughter-to-be an adoption shower.  I can't begin to thank them for
all that they did and all that they gave our daughter to help welcome her
to our family!!

The clothes were beautiful and I must say, she'll be better dressed
than her mommy.  Mommy...can't believe I'll eventually get to hear that
word again (cause right now it's just mom)...but I digress. :-)  There
was pink galore and lots of bows (poor S... he'll need to learn how to do
hair and figure out how to put on tights). :-)  There were even baby dolls.
All this mom has known are hot wheels, legos and N*SCAR. Please don't
get me wrong....I've loved every minute of that, but to play dress up and
have a tea party...CAN'T WAIT!! :-)

The best part about the day was the sharing of love.  Love that these
beautiful women shared with me.  Love that they have for our
daughter.  How blessed she is that there will be so many people
to shower her with love when she comes home!  Women that
have been praying her for before they knew who she was!

Thank you friends!!!

Delicious food and beautifully decorated tables.

Can't wait to read this book to her!

                                                   

The chopsticks were a gift to all who attended and were brought from China

by my friend, Deb, who just returned with her daughter. Thank you, Deb!

One of my closest friends, Heather.  Thank you and Jessemyn for

a wonderful day!

                                                                          

The special helpers who took turns bringing me the gifts. :-)

These two pics...the wonderful ladies I'm blessed to call family!
Please not that not all of them were in these pics!

Special thanks to Tranixa for capturing this day in pictures!

Article 5

Doing the happy dance at our house today! 

We received an e-mail from our adoption agency this morning to let us know
that our Article 5 was picked up from the Consulate in Guangzhou and
is on it's way to Beijing.  Once there, the C*AA will issue the TA (Travel Approval).
That can take anywhere between 2-4 weeks.  We are hoping for the 2 week
time period. :-)

We still don't know exactly what an Article 5 is, but what we do know
about it is that it will help decrease the amount of paperwork that we'd
have to do for our daughter's visa once we're in China.

Whatever the Article 5 is, we're glad we got it. Now the countdown begins
for our TA and meeting our daughter!

Progress

This past month and a half has been difficult....very difficult.  We turned
in our I-800 paperwork in Dec. of last year and it finally made it to the National
Visa Center in NH this past week!  A very long story and so glad that it's
resolved and we're back on track.  But it was time lost and we're a little
bummed about that.

Today we got some very good news.  Our I-800 was approved last week
(Feb. 8th) and the National Visa Center cabled our paperwork to Guangzhou
yesterday.  Our agency also sent paperwork to China yesterday. SO, we're
hoping we're on track for our paperwork to be delivered for our Article 5 this
week.  Then we have about a two week wait until we receive that and then
the final wait....the wait for TA (Travel Approval).

The next month or so will again prove to be difficult.  Remember I'm not a very
patient person but God is truly working on me through this journey.  So much of
this process is out of our control and we have to trust the One who is in control. 

There is so much to do before travel.  We have to finish getting her room ready.
Plan homeschool lessons for when we're gone.  Shop and pack items that
we'll be taking along with us. There's even a birthday next month to plan for.
Hopefully this will help pass the time and before you know it, we'll be posting
about our Article 5 and then TA.

In the meantime, please pray that we encounter no further paperwork delays.  
We also pray for God to continue preparing our daughter's heart for our arrival. 
We can't wait to meet her and bring her home!

What We've Been Up To

A little of this.....

and this, plus the garage.   This southern born and bred girl didn't

know what a roof rake was until this week.  I wish I could say I didn't

know how to use one, but now I do.  It's just as much fun as raking

leaves....NOT!  There's one good thing about all this snow...

the workout my arms/abs have gotten over the past month.

Who needs Jillian when you've got a good snowfall to clean up

every few days!

So now we have even more snow in our front and backyard.  We really don't

have room for anymore snow.  As you can see from the pics below, the piles are

 taller than our kids... and in some parts of the yard the piles are taller than S & me!

D & J in the front yard.

Below is a picture of the backyard.

Our dog, Jake, loves the piles in the backyard as now he

can see what's going on in the frontyard with ease.  There's

even a place by the gate where the snow is so high that he can walk right over the

edge if he isn't careful.

We love the snow, but really....we've had enough and we can't wait for spring!