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!

Awesome!

First of all, the good news!  We received our LOA (Letter of Approval from China) today!!  I've been doing a happy dance for about an hour now... should be burning some major calories.

Though this is but one more step on our way to Lorelei, here is the particularly awesome part of the story.  My friends from college, Julia and Andy, are also on their way to China to adopt a precious little girl.  A few weeks ago, I heard from her that they received LOA in 5 weeks, 3 days.  (The average time to wait is about two months, so that sounded pretty good to me.)  I hoped (and prayed) that ours would come quickly too.....but exactly 5 weeks, 3 days?  WOW!

"But God has surely listened and has heard my prayer."  Psalm 66:19 

PS For those of you who are going to pull out a calendar and check, our LOA would have arrived yesterday if it hadn't been a federal holiday! 

Long overdue update!

What a wonderful month May has been!  We have received lots of updates and pictures about our darling girl.  We are now hoping to travel by the end of August (see the timeline to the right of what steps are left in the process), which does drive us a bit crazy some days!   Somehow the days are flying by and we will be on a long plane ride to China before we know it. 

We are so blessed to have connected with another family who just traveled to China to adopt one of Lorelei's friends, Gianna.  Her mom, Brycie, delivered a few gifts from us to Lorelei and took lots of pictures.  We also now know that.... her favorite color is green (just like her mom!)....she likes to eat McDonald's hamburgers....  is happy when she gets a compliment.... and loves to draw, paint, and dance.  We're counting the days, sweet girl!

Lorelei & Gianna

Lorelei & Brycie (Gianna's mom)

A recordable book--Guess How Much I Love You--read by mom & dad

Thanks to Linda and Brycie for this suggestion!

We also got an update from our agency, CCAI, with this great picture--she is a dancer for certain!

This one may be my favorite, though.  We had sent a photo album a while back in a care package that we weren't sure actually got delivered.   We really wanted to know that she knew she has a family.  Then we saw this! 

The excitement and encouragement that we've experienced from friends and family has been amazing!  We are so grateful to you all and would love for you to pray for our daughter, especially that she continues to feel hope, happiness, and peace as she waits for us to get there.

A beautiful day

The day is finally here... the day to introduce our daughter, Lorelei Anxiang. It will be several months before we are with her in China, but her presence in our family is already very much felt. She is amazing.... brave... kind... creative... all of this we know from the people who have met her. We are incredibly blessed to be her family.

(In case you haven't noticed, this is my first blog post and it's harder than I thought it would be to put all of this into words!)

Those of you who have walked with us on our adoption journey for the past five years know about the child we thought we were waiting for. A daughter, "as young as possible," no significant special needs. But there are some big truths to be found in the waiting process... we learned that there are more "waiting children" (older or with special needs) in orphanages there now. We learned that our idea of who our daughter is much more open than we originally thought. We learned that God definitely has a plan for how this story would unfold.

Last fall we let our adoption agency know that we wanted to be considered for a child with special needs, and then we started looking at children's profiles. Those of you who have been through this know that it is a roller-coaster emotional experience. We asked about a few children, but each time they had already been chosen by another family. Chris said it was a little bit of heartbreak each time... letting our hearts open to the possibility of finding HER (all the while having to say "no" to children whose needs were too great for our family).

A few weeks after Christmas, I found her picture on the blog of an organization--Love Without Boundaries--which supports orphan care and medical treatments in China. There was just something about her that touched my heart. When Chris saw her picture, he immediately said we needed to find out more about her. I think he knew right then that she was our daughter.

Since that day, there have been moments of joy... questions... concerns... excitement... uncertainty... and finally, the very certain knowledge that we are her family. We enter into this new part of our journey knowing that there will be both incredible mountaintops and challenging valleys ahead, but we can't wait to see what amazing things HE has in store for all of us.

Now for the details.... She is 10 years old and in Guangdong province in southern China, not far from Hong Kong. We are currently waiting for our immigration paperwork (here in the US) to be completed, which hopefully will be done by April. Then China will give us TA (travel approval) to come there and our adoption agency will plan the trip, which should take 10-14 days. We hope to travel by early summer.

I will update here as we hear more news! Thank you for your friendship, love, support, and prayers as we continue on this journey.