We are in China!!!

Ni Hao!!!! I have been trying to blog for a long time but haven't been able to because in China they are restrictive about some websites like blogging and facebook but thanks to some friends who showed us how to get around it we are now up and running!!! Praise the Lord!! Okay so we flew out on Thursday morning and we got to Beijing on Friday afternoon our plane ride was delayed so we waited what seemed forever in the Chicago airport...and it was a VERY long plane ride but there was fun stuff to do on the plane like watch movies..and it was interesting to see where we were at on the route map. Out our window we could see the Siberian mountains and it was very cool! On Friday we arrived to Beijing and we were so tired that we just skipped dinner and went straight to bed! The next morning we got up and had a nice breakfast and then it was off to the great wall of China! Climbing the great wall was quite a challange...but very awesome!! We were slow going up because of all the people and everyone wanted to take a picture with me! I felt pretty special!! After climbing the great wall it was off to lunch and then Hutang Lane which is a really cool older neighborhood in Beijing where several families around 7 live in the same area sharing a courtyard. We got to visit a family and talk with them. On Sunday we flew to Guangzhou and settled into the China Hotel which is amazing and huge! Holt knows how to take care of you! Holt has been amazing!!! They take of everything they even took us grocery shopping...Here are some pictures from the first few days...

Or maybe not...still having difficulty with uploading pictures...I will work more on it tomorrow...s

Be Still

It's Sunday afternoon and I can't believe it's only 3 days until we journey across the world to meet our sweet daughter for the first time. A flood of emotions comes to mind when I think about the coming days and all that will transpire. Karl has been entertained by me to say the least as I try to keep a perfect house, keep up with the laundry, and just wonder around not knowing what to do with myself as I am anxiously awaiting Wednesday night. Every time someone asks me if I'm ready to go I get a surge of adrenaline/ panic  run through my body as I start to think am I forgetting anything???  I then usually run over to my file of paperwork that we need to take with us making sure it is all there and I'm not missing anything....even though I've checked it like 15 times. Ha! Then there is Karl who hasn't packed one thing yet! He is planning on getting his stuff together tonight. We are happy and blessed to say that my wonderful parents-in-law are letting us borrow their computer for the trip!!! So I will be able to keep up with my blog when we are in China and keep you all posted as we go along on all of our adventures and of course meeting Meili for the first time.

These past few weeks our family has taken the time to just enjoy our last few moments as a family of 3. There's been dates, movies, trips to SDC, the pool, and hanging out with friends. We also as a family ran the 4th of July 5k race at the landing and Karl got 3rd place!  We know that it will be a little more difficult to do those things when Meili gets here..... Okay.... really we are just trying to keep as busy as possible because we are down to counting the hours until she is officially ours. :-) 

These past few weeks have been a little stressful too... we almost thought that Karl would not be able to travel to China (yeah that was scary) but Jesus my Lord and Savior is amazing!!! We prayed and we asked Him for help and you know what he did??  He moved mountains for us and made it possible for Karl to be able to travel!! Jesus is REAL he hears us!!! He cares for us! (If you are reading this and you don't know Jesus....I tell you he is alive and more real than you can imagine) Then on Thursday I wasn't feeling the best and that continued on through Saturday and I started praying asking the Lord to help me get better for our trip and praise God I feel so much better today. I would love for you all to continue to pray for our health as we get ready to travel and as we travel. It's easy for me to start to worry as we get closer and closer to leaving so I am praying for peace and that the Lord would calm my nerves and help me to relax and just trust Him. 

Isiah 26: 3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. 

Verse 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, is the Rock eternal. 

V 12  Lord you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

While we are in China I am praying that even though we have to be careful about sharing our faith that the people there would see and know, consider and understand that the hand of the Lord has done this. He has placed Meili in our family because he cares for her...and not only for her but for them as well. 

So before we go I am just going to try to take some time and "Be Still" before the Lord in prayer and reading  His word so that he can prepare my heart for all the things to come. Whatever they may be.... Please continue to keep us all in your prayers as we travel. I'm not sure if I will do a final blog post before we leave or not...that all depends on time...but  I will try to post while we are in China for sure. Thank you so much for all of your prayers.

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.

The Joy of the Update!

Today I have been jumping up and down for joy because we received another update about our little angel. The photos are just precious to us and we stare at them for hours... it's as close to our little girl as we can get for now. We live for the updates and for paperwork milestones. We are happy to say that we have received our LOA and our I-800 approval notice for Meili. Now we just need our NVC letter and our Article 5 letter. Then  we just wait for our TA (travel approval) I talked with Holt today and they think we will be traveling around July 13th! So close yet seems so far away as I stare at her precious photo.

Things have been busy around here to say the least and at times I feel like I want to pull my hair out, but the Lord just reminds me to let him take care of things and so I learn more to ever depend on Him for my every need. He seems to have a pretty good track record of taking care of things and always working everything out for my good and his glory. Speaking of his glory...today I just sang to the Lord from my heart giving him praise for taking care of Meili for his provision for this adoption and for loving me even when I was "stubborn" and seemed "unlovable" at times during these last few years. To think when I was mad at God for not allowing me to be pregnant he was doing things more wonderful for me than I could ever imagine. To think that when I had refused to read my Bible because I was upset with Him that he was forming the most precious child in the womb just for us. It grieves my heart that I had acted that way, but the Lord has taught me so many valuable lessons through it all. God is faithful even when we are not, He is not like us... He is far greater, far more loving, merciful, just, kind and patient than we are. Praising God for who He is! Thank you Jesus for forgiving me of my sin and restoring me to a right relationship with you.

God is so awesome and He gave us some great news today! Meili is doing well. She is still in her foster home with 2 parents and another little girl. She has been looking at our pictures and calls Karl Baba, Me Mama, and Ian Gege. Her foster mom says she is very smart and knows many words already! She speaks the local dialect not Mandarin or Cantonese. We learned she sleeps in a crib and sleeps through the night and also takes a 2 hour nap during the day! She eats congee, milk and bread only. She is still small but seems to be doing just fine. I can't wait to introduce her to some American foods :) I can see from the pictures that she already has a great little personality and I can't wait to experience it and to hear how her voice sounds and watch her play. It also looks like her foster mom enjoys dressing her up as well...she will be a cute little fashionista when I get my hands on her ;-) We are dying to go get her and can't believe how much God has blessed us!

Until then we have much to do...I have been working hard on setting up the garage sale and getting everything priced and plan to have it next weekend! I hope many of you will come and check it out. I am selling all of Ian's old baby clothes and toys...along with so much more so I hope to see you all there and if you could spread the word for me that would be great too. We also got a phone call today that her crib has arrived so we will be picking that up tomorrow and getting it set up. Yay!! Next month I plan to focus on packing and getting ready to go because well July will be here soon and boy are we so glad!

Well enough talk...here are her pictures...enjoy!