August 15/ And now we are four

Ready to leave for the Civil Affairs Office

Mommy and daughter

Dad and Anxiang mugging for the camera

Can we say...two peas in a pod?

We are doing great so far... lots of silliness and fun!  We may not speak the same language yet, but we are definitely kindred spirits!  Will tell more story later because I've got some hungry people here!

August 15/This is the day!

Words don't come easy for all that we are feeling today.  We are literally hours away from meeting our sweet girl!  We are thinking about how she is doing... riding on a bus from her city to here.  We are wondering if we will live up to her expectations.  We are excited... so excited... to finally have her with us!  In the midst, I hear His voice, telling me that He has "got this."  Not to worry.

"But those who HOPE in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  Isaiah 40:31

The train ride from Hong Kong to Guangzhou yesterday was a great time for us to get to know our group a bit.  The other four families are all adopting babies from Yangtze.  A few are first time parents who have been waiting over five years for their "due date."  I can't wait to see their first meetings today too.

Guangzhou feels like the "real" China in comparison to Hong Kong.  Looking forward to seeing more of this beautiful country in the next week.

Kyle finally gave out yesterday afternoon

I will post pictures as soon as I can!  Love to you all!

August 13/Adventures in Hong Kong

Today we were up nice and early to go on a tour with the travel groups from our adoption agency. Lots of nice families, several with kids along for the ride too. Here are some highlights:

on a sampan boat cruising through a fishing village/the building behind
us is a huge floating restaurant

the view of Hong Kong from Victoria peak

at a jewelry factory

We had a delicious dim sum lunch, which was a new experience for us.  Hong Kong is known for its dim sum.  Kyle liked the dumplings best, but he tried everything.  I’m really proud of him for how well he’s handling our trip so far. 

Later, after a good nap, we caught up with Stewart Hughes, a young man from our church who is studying here in Hong Kong.  He seemed REALLY glad to see us, judging by the big hugs we got!  He showed us some of his favorite places (and foods!) here…

a night-time laser show on the harbor...

...the Hubble IMAX movie at the Hong Kong space museum...

...the Star Ferry to downtown Hong Kong...

...Bubble Tea!  It is this chai-style tea with licorice "bubbles" at the bottom. 

His favorite noodle place in the Mong Kok market… here we are walking behind the vendor stalls to get to it…

Thanks Stewart for showing us the town!

Next stop… Guangzhou!  We will be taking the train there tomorrow. 

August 12/We are here!

A few really good things….

               *We survived an almost 15-hour flight with our sanity intact!  (Thank you Korean Air for the wonderful in-flight entertainment—highly recommend flying with them if you are coming to Asia.)

               *All of our luggage got here too.  Yeah!!!

               *Our agency, CCAI, has got fantastic people working for them here.  Kudos to Matthew for waiting at our hotel until we arrived at 1 a.m.!

We will be touring Hong Kong tomorrow and seeing Stewart!

One of the really big planes (the other one was an Airbus! Chris loved that!)

Kyle making a lotus flower fan in the Seoul airport: a neat way to spend a layover

August 11/Preparing to Depart

We are on our way!  A journey that started several years ago has led us here, waiting to board the biggest plane any of us has ever been on.  After days of “serious” packing, I can say with certainty that the leaving is definitely the best part!  

Waiting at the *first* airport (there are 4!)

As we are counting the hours until we see Lorelei on Monday, I can’t help but wonder about how she is feeling.  She too is preparing to leave and begin a new life.  She will say good-bye to all she knows, her friends, teachers, her city…so that she can have a family. 

Lorelei celebrating with her friends

We are running on very little sleep.  The best laid plans to have everything ready and get a good night’s sleep went a bit awry, and it was not easy to sleep once we tried.  Hopefully we will get a few winks on this long flight. 

Next stop: Hong Kong!

(Drum roll please...) WE HAVE TRAVEL APPROVAL!!

Boy, has this week seemed like the longest week EVER!  I made the mistake of predicting that our travel approval--the last step in our waiting game--might possibly come last Friday, and I have been waiting for the phone to ring ever since.  And checking my email more times per day than.... well, anyone should!  My mom always used to say "a watched pot never boils," (she's so wise!) so I started in on cleaning up the school room this afternoon and wasn't anywhere near my computer when the email came in!  Got to love the timing... I hear you, Lord!  Waiting around the computer is so NOT a good use of my time.

So, yes... we finally have TA (travel approval) and should know our travel dates early next week once we have our consulate appointment scheduled.  The whole trip hinges on when that is, and it's usually the last full day there.   From the choices our agency gave us, we will most likely be leaving around August 10 or 17. 

We are so excited!  As Kyle said, we are now counting down DAYS until we meet our girl!

Here's another new picture to hold you over for a few more weeks :) 

NVC Letter... check!

First, we are one piece of paper closer to Lorelei today.  Can I get a woohoo?!  If you check out the timeline to the right, you will notice that there are just a few more steps to go.  Next we await the "Article 5" that is issued from the US Consulate in Guangzhou.  This should take about 2 1/2 weeks. 

Is it really July already?  We've had a busy month, what with Kyle going to two weeks of camp, then VBS at church.  Kyle learned how to make dumplings and speak a little Mandarin at a Chinese cultural camp held by our local school district.  Now he needs to teach his mom and dad!

We've been working on Lorelei's room too.... still needs a few more homey touches, but it's a beginning!

Hope you all enjoy a wonderful 4th of July!