One Week To Go!

Well, we are down to the one week mark! We have been so blessed by our family and friends during this emotional time! Both Mike and I are quite private people. We do not generally enjoy attention drawn to ourselves, but WOW! we have been humbled and amazed by the love and support of others. We are simply overwhelmed with the number of people who are rejoicing with us (and at times crying with me!), and who are just offering to be there when or if needed. Sara is going to be loved by SO many!

I will post our Travel Itinerary on the side with the pictures for those of you interested in our day to day whereabouts. We will be meeting Sara on October 6, commonly referred to as Gotcha Day! in adoption lingo. Be sure and note - we will be 13 hours ahead of Texas time, so most likely it will be October 5 here. You can follow us on our blog as we travel and email us as you normally would with any questions or comments.

Unfortunately, we did find out that we will not be going to Sara's hometown of Lianyungang. Instead, her orphanage director and a nanny will be driving her to Nanjing, the capitol of the Jiangsu Province (I circled it on the map below). We were really hoping to learn about Sara by being in the city where she has spent the last ten years, but it did not work out that way. Nanjing does look to have some beautiful places to visit and some great shopping too. It is a huge city of 7 million people (so yes, pray that we do not misplace Evan) and its history dates back to 427 BC! And we thought our 300 year old house was old!

Just a note - I did accidentally delete some old comments when I changed the map on the last post. Please know that I read All comments, and love that you take the time to write them. Keep them coming.

Where is Sara Now?

I thought a map would help us all picture exactly what part of China Sara is living in. I'll also throw in some interesting facts for those family members of mine who get excited by numbers!
Sara lives in Lianyungang, which is on the coast of the Yellow Sea, 273 miles north of Shanghai. Once we finish her paperwork there in her city, we will fly down 883 miles to Guangzhou. Here we will complete our appointments and get her visa to leave the country. From her hometown in Lianyungang to her new hometown in Texas is over 7400 miles. That is quite a big move for a litte girl!

Sentimental Moment

Since June when we accepted Hu Jia (Sara) as our daughter, many people have asked us, "Why a ten year old?" I did address this briefly in our opening post, but I'll mention it again. With the new referral system China has started, you have a very active say in the child you accept. While we were in China last summer helping older children get paper ready for adoption, we saw all these beautiful boys and girls needing a home. They were healthy, well-taken care of, and so eager to love someone, but their futures were bleak. We even tried for about 10 months to adopt a ten year old girl from that camp, but her case was complicated and it did not work out (but we have not given up!).

Our road to adoption has not been a straight one. We started out for a healthy baby girl just like the majority of those who applied for the China program did back in 2006 and before. But, because of changes in their program (which have benefited hundreds of orphans), and undoubtedly because of God's plan for our family, the path has been crooked, emotional, and full of frustration. But looking back we can already see it is THE path we were to take.

There are times we have wondered if we made the right decision. Should we have been opened to a baby?, should we have accepted the referral of the beautiful four year old whose picture we cannot get out of our head?, but somehow if you listen closely, you know what God is saying. We know that God meant for Sara to join our family. We can not wait to meet her. God's timing IS perfect.

We received this today from Hu Jia's orphanage director (and with the help of a translator*)

"Hu Jia likes sweet foods very much, especially chocolate and cakes. She is smart and cute. She is gentle and friendly. She likes dolls and pretty clothes. She is a little girl who loves to be beautiful. Jia Jia has been longing for the love and warmth of a family very much. She has been looking forward to being adopted for a long time"

Just to note - she was abandoned at the orphanage at 7 months old!

*Blessedkids.com has helped get our information and pictures from the orphanage.

The Verdict Is In!

We are to leave for China on Thursday Oct 2nd!

October has always been a special month for our family. Besides looking forward to the start of cooler weather, three of us have birthdays this month! We depart the day after Mike's 4oth - I hope his old bones hold up ok on the long flight! Sean looks forward to celebrating his 9th birthday while in China. And unfortunately, mine is the weekend we return, which means we will pretty much sleep through my day - but won't we be glad to be home with Sara!!!!!

Sadly, we will miss my cousin Carlie's wedding on the 4th, but I know she will forgive me for this one!

Every Little Bit Helps

The wait continues for the last piece of paperwork. This paper will allow us to make our appointment for her final adoption paperwork at the Consulate in Guangzhou - our last stop before we fly home. The group we were hoping to travel with, mainly because one very nice family we have gotten to know is also adopting a ten year daughter, leaves on the 11th of this month. But we have no control over the paperwork, so our wait continues.

The best news is, as I was hoping so much for the phone call this past Friday that our paperwork arrived and we could get our travel dates, I checked our email to find that we had received new pictures of Sara! A new peace came over me to see her smile. By now, we know that she has received our package and information about us. She knows that she is being adopted and she knows all about us. We send her small letters and drawings in the mail almost every other day. She knows...and she is still smiling. There were also pictures of some of her friends from the orphanage, which we will not post for privacy reasons, but it helps us to feel as if we know her better.

Please pray for our family as the wait is hard. We want to enjoy every minute we have with the boys before things change and not let the frustration of the wait affect us. Pray for Sara, as she knows we are coming, but like us, has no idea when.