Settling In...

Well we've been home a little over a week. Jennifer and Taylor start school tomorrow. Emilee starts school Wednesday. Sara and Chuck are due in late Friday night, looking forward to seeing them soon. I just have to post a few pics to let everyone see how happily Jennifer is settling into being part of a family :) Taylor decided that they would be dancers and Jennifer happily complied.

Doing Fine in China

Hi, we are doing great but cannot access our blog. My daughter Sara is posting this for me. We got Jennifer yesterday, she is doing absolutely great. She knows lots and lots of English already, which obviously really helps. She is full of smiles and she and Taylor are having fun playing together. We will try to post later when we can, but may have to wait until we get back home to update with pictures and stories.

A few days to get ready...

We've got one more business week to finish up a couple of work projects that have to be delivered on Thursday. There's a list of errands to run, packing to be completed, bills to pay, etc.etc. This week will fly by.

We took a break this past week end and met Tom's family for a yearly get-together. It was 100 degrees but everyone was a good sport about it and it was nice to see all the familes and the kids who are growing up so fast, even though we were all melting. A picnic in this heat was pretty unbearable, we're thinking of moving to October?

Tom, Taylor and I went a day early and drove down to the beach for a few hours. It was sooo good to be in Sandbridge even for just a little while. Taylor decided she'd be a surfer babe.

OK, more lists to make, don't want to forget anything!

We finally have a travel plan. Plane tickets are very scarce right now, due to the World Expo in Shanghai. Our Chinese exchange student had written to me about this wonderful expo, and I thought it was really cool, til we had to fly right into the middle of the festivities lol. But we have tickets. We'll leave Dulles on 7/31, arriving in Beijing on August 1st, change planes and get into Guangzhou late that evening. Then we'll meet Jenni on Monday! Lots of stuff to get organized, we're working like crazy to get so much done for our business and personally to be able to leave, but it feels really good to have those tickets reserved, at least now we know we have a plane to get on. It is so hard to believe that in less than three weeks we'll actually have our little girl.

Taylor and I are going to Sara's this week end. I want to look at baby things, do a little Penny shopping :) Just think in three months, I'm going to be a grandmother. Busy, busy, year!

Got our CA, we're officially on our way :)

Our travel coordinator called, and things are moving along..we have our CA or consulate appointment set for August 9th. So now our travel plans are official, we leave on July 31st and will fly home on August 12th.

Our travel packet has been FedExed to us and flights are being scoped for us. We have decided to stay at the Holiday In in Guangzhou so I am making reservations this afternoon.

We ran a bunch of errands this afternoon and purchased all the medicine we'll take with us, Advil, Immodium, Pepto, Benedryl, etc. Tom had a cold the last time we were in China and our guide tried to talk him into going to some herbalist and getting some local Chinese medicines, he got well fast!

We have a lot to get done before we travel, the time will fly by as we get ready to go meet our Jennifer.

I got a call this morning from the head of the board of directors for a grant we'd applied for...she interviewed me for half hour. We are praying they give us a grant as plane ticket prices have sky rocketed this past month and we're hoping maybe a grant will help with this increase in expenses. Pray for us that we'll get this!

We are going to have to work like crazy these next few weeks, we'd better get busy!

We just got the call..at 2:15 p.m. on July 6th, 2010 we were notified that we have travel approval. It is official, we are going to China to pick up Jennifer and bring her home! Our agency is getting the all important CA or consulate appointment set up, as the trip kind of pivots around this important date, but we need to start working on plane tickets, hotel reservations, packing! We'll be leaving THIS MONTH!

TA's in the air..

OK, I just saw a post where an RQ member has been told that a new batch of TA's are being sent that could possibly arrive as early as Friday, definitely Monday. Our agency got TA's this week for the people with 6/03 A5's. There are some around the country who've gotten their TA with a 6/14 A5. So with a 6/10 Article 5, I'm thinking we HAVE to get ours by early next week at the latest. This process is so long and hard, you find yourself guarding your heart against excitement because you just get burned out with the pressure. Hard to explain unless you've lived it. Just picture if your 5 yr. old was half way around the world and you didn't know if she had a good dinner tonight, or if she is scared of the dark. I just read to Taylor, we said her prayers together, we giggled, and hugged and kissed. And I thought of Jennifer, waiting, waiting, needing her family. So to see this post about TA's on the way...well it just actually makes my heart beat faster. We WILL be traveling soon!! Stay tuned...my blog may finally have some real news!