Our last Update on Meili

We are so blessed to receive one last update on our sweet Meili before we travel. I can't believe how much she has grown! Our precious girl is growing up....but it won't be long before we are on that plane to China! I can't wait to have her in my arms!!!! She weighs about the same but is now 29 in tall! Okay here are the pictures...I'm not sure what they have done to her hair...but she is just beautiful...

We Love you Meili!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mama and Baba are coming!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

Packing...

Today has been busy busy busy.....the day started off with coffee of course and then I headed to my room to start packing. Ian got started on a lego project. I got a lot done and then headed upstairs to check emails, and look over our itinerary. Then fed ex arrived with a very precious package.... our original Travel Approvals that we will need to take with us to China!! (in the bottom corner there is a cute little mug shot of our cutie) After making some copies of our TA  and sorting them with the rest of the paperwork we will need to take with us I got ready for our conference call with Holt. Holt does a conference call for families right before travel to help families prepare for their trip and is a great time to ask any last minute questions that you have right before you go. That involved looking over all the travel paperwork to see if there were any last minute questions. Karl came home early to take part as well. :-) On the phone with us was a couple of other families that will be traveling at the same time we are. During the call we learned that the first flight out is the most important and that is where we will do all the crazy security stuff for our international flight. Good thing we found that out or we would have been in big trouble! We thought we did that in Chicago...HA! We are suppose to be there 3 hours before take off which means for us being at the airport by 2:45am for a 5:45am flight out. We will have to leave our house by 1:30am. Wow! we aren't going to get any sleep! Thank you Holt for your conference call :-) In other fun news for today...I got to talk with one of my friends (who is from China) and lives in Branson about getting our kids together to play...her son speaks mandarin and so does Meili so we can't wait for them to talk to each other in Chinese!


Okay now I am trying to pack light seriously...this is as good as I can do :-D

Meili's Stuff :)

Hope I can fit all this in :-/

NO Judging People!

Ian's lego building while I packed...

He came to visit me while I was packing...

Now to pack our stuff....I'll think about that tomorrow....

Going to China!

Okay yesterday we made the biggest purchase of our lives and we now have plane tickets!!! For those of you who are wondering what the details of our trip will be I am happy to fill you in. Here is a picture of the type of plane we will be flying on. We are going on United Airlines and will be traveling on a Boeing 777. Here is a picture for you.

The Jet

 Our seats...

We will be flying over the North Pole

What we might see out the window :-) Lol

We will be landing at the Beijing airport...

Our Schedule looks like this...

Leave Springfield Thursday July 12th @ 5:45 AM  Arrive to Chicago @ 7:17 AM

Then we have 5 hours to go through security and customs to board our International Flight...

We leave Chicago @ 12:45 PM Arrive to Beijing China @ 2:45 PM the next day -Friday (a 13 hour flight)

 On Saturday we will be going to see the Great Wall

Then we will fly from Beijing to Guangzhou on Sunday and we will be there until July 27th.

Picture of the Guangzhou Airport

Guangzhou is where we get Meili!!!

Picture of the Hotel we will be staying at in Guangzhou

We get Meili on Monday morning sometime at the Civil Affairs Office!!!

Gotcha!!!!!!

Here is a picture of Guangzhou

Safari Park

We will take Meili to the Zoo here to see the Pandas! (Ian has requested pictures of them as well)

Coming home with our little one...

We will leave Guangzhou @ 9am and Arrive to Shanghai @ 11:20am

We will have 4 hours to reclaim our bags, go back through security, go through customs, find our gate etc....all with a 21 month old...before we board our International flight to Chicago...Whew! I'm tired already!

We leave Shanghai @ 3:55pm and Arrive to Chicago @ 4:33pm ( a 13 hour flight)

Then we have 4 hours to go through customs, hand over the sealed envelope to immigration and Meili becomes a U.S citizen!!! Yay!! Then we leave for Springfield...

Leave Chicago @ 8:15pm Arrive to Springfield @ 9:44 pm

Then we drive 45 min...

Then we are Home!!!!!!!!

Now any one who wants to meet us at the Airport is more than welcome BUT I can't promise you that we will be in our right minds when we arrive. We may be incoherent...HA! We are planning of doing a little celebration when we get home for those of you who are excited to meet Meili. I am working on the details of that and will keep you posted. As I get our exact Itinerary of what all we will be doing in China I will be sure to post. Love you all and thank you for traveling along with us through our blog. :) 

We have TA!!

This week has been a whirlwind it seems. We got travel approval on Friday and confirmed travel dates today. My heart has been so happy this week that I thought it might explode! It doesn't even seem real that she will be in our arms in just 33days. To know that on Monday July 16th our precious daughter who we have only known through pictures and updates will be face to face with us! It is truly a miracle of God. I have been thinking a lot about how our lives are going to change in some amazing ways and also the coming realities of having a 2 year old in the house....(We have been doing some baby proofing and I think after it took Karl 2 hours to put tot lok magnets on the cabinets and drawers he decided that you must be a rocket scientist to have babies. lol ) I have also been thinking about how life will change for Ian from going to an only child for the most part to having a new sister. I have been trying to just spend a lot of one on one time with him before she comes. I know it will be a huge change for him and I am sure he will have his moments but I have been trying to help him feel like he is an awesome part of the team to help get Meili adjusted to her new life with us. And out of all the brothers in the world God chose him to be Meili's big brother and that is a very special thing.

I love getting real life examples and learning from other adoptive families about what travel to China is like and about Gotcha Day and then the adjustments that follow after returning home with their children. Reading other peoples blogs seems to be a new hobby of mine. I can't seem to get enough soaking up every word and some are so moving that I find myself in tears and praying for the children that are home but have very serious medical conditions and are trying hard just to survive. I am amazed by the people who have adopted like 6 kids from China and then I secretly wish I could do that too. I always find myself asking the question how do they do it? They inspire me to say the least and I have so enjoyed reading all the blogs I can get my hands on.

So today since we got our confirmed travel dates the next step for me was to purchase our international airfare. They are a lot more than what we thought they were going to be. Our in country travel has gone up too since July is one of the peak travel times in China. We were not really prepared for the costs of all of that as we initially thought the cost for travel would be around $10,000 and it is now going to be more like $14,000. I don't really know why I am not freaking out about it right now but I truly feel that the Lord will either help me to get really creative in coming up with the extra $4,000 or provide it in some other way....maybe American Express...HA! I'm not really sure. We are waiting to find out if we will get another grant too and we find that out on this Friday (please pray)   At the time we filled out the grant application we had no idea that the costs were going to be this much higher and so...we are praying that we definitely get that grant and that God would somehow provide the rest. On the other hand I am really excited as I look at our plane tickets with a return ticket with Meili's Chinese name on it! It hit me when I looked at that wow she is really coming home with us!!

Our travel itinerary will be that we will fly out on Thursday July 12th from Springfield to Chicago and then fly from Chicago to Beijing a 13 hour flight :-/ We will get to Beijing on Friday and then see the Great Wall on Saturday. Then on Sunday we will fly to Guangzhou and then Monday is Gotcha Day!!! I think Monday morning. :-D Then on the 25th we have our consulate appointment and finally on the 26th we will get her Visa so we can come home on the 27th. Most families travel to Beijing then to the province and then finally Guangzhou to finish up and get their child's visa. Since Meili is from Guangdong province we will be staying in Guangzhou our entire trip. Meili will be taking a 9 hour bus ride from her orphanage city to Guangzhou so please pray for her as she makes a very long trip as well.

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare for travel. That the Lord would have his hand on us and give us a peace even though we are a bit stressed out about the money. Also for safe travels to China and while we are in China. Please also pray that God would be preparing the hearts of those he would have us share his precious word with and that I would use caution when telling others about Jesus so that we don't find ourselves getting thrown into prison and our passports being taken away. ( I get a little crazy excited sometimes about sharing the gospel and it's hard for me to contain myself at times.) It is really hard for me to understand the realities that over in other countries it is a serious offense to talk about Jesus Christ. I want to be like Paul and boldly tell others about the Lord but in reality I'm a little bit more like Peter and do some not so smart things at times (no offense to Peter he is awesome) Anyway I need to be smart about sharing the Lord and developing friendships. And most of all please pray for our sweet Meili. She will be scared out of her mind....heartbroken....to be taken away from her foster family...the only family she has ever known. Please pray that even though she is little that God would give her a peace in her heart and an understanding to know that we are her forever family and that we love her so much. That we are Mama and Baba and she can feel safe and comfortable with us. Please pray for all of our health and that the Lord would give us tons of energy. Please pray that everything would go smoothly while we are over in China with our appointments and things. Please pray that we are able to soak up the culture, the smells, the food, the people, everything around us so that we can be able to share it with Meili as she grows. Please pray that above all else we would share the love of Jesus and shine for him everywhere we go.