T - 4 Hours!

Well after 30+ hours of traveling and over a year of hoping, praying, and paper chasing, we Finally arrived at New Day around 1:00 a.m. on Friday morning (their time, Thursday afternoon ours).

The plane rides were long but uneventful. Luckily we were able to sleep here and there on the planes which has helped. Blake did GREAT and is so excited to finally be here. As we were getting ready to land in Beijing, Blake asked (jokingly) if he could yell out "touch down" once we finally hit the found. Obviously I told him "NO," but how funny would that have been.

We were greeted at the airport by Pete who is an employee of New Day. Pete, his wife, and their 5 kids moved to China last summer. How cool is that? Anyway, the ride from the airport to New Day was a little less than an hour and since it was so late we didn't encounter any traffic issues.

We are staying at the New Day Guesthouse and it is fantastic. Since we arrived late last night we didn't see anything so we are anxious to check things out today.

Unfortunatley I have no pictures for this post, but I can guarantee there will be plenty of pictures with the next post. We officially meet Drew in a little over 3 hours!!!!! We are excited, anxious, nervous, etc.

After a year climbing mountains, jumping hurdles, and busting through roadblocks, we are finally here and ready to meet our new son. Once again, THANK YOU to everyone. We could not have made it this far without your thoughts, your prayers, and your support. But, most importantly, we could not have made it this far without faith. Adoption is such a God thing, and He has been with us every step of the way. He has been there to reassure us, push us forward, and to remind us that we are on His path.

In Detroit

Well, we have finally began the last leg of our journey to bring our boys home. we are sitting in the Detroit Airport waiting for our flight (we have a 7 hour layover). Matt and I went to bed last night at 3:45 a.m. and had to get up at 5. So, we are literally running on adrenaline at this point.

From here we fly 13 hours to Narito, Japan and will have a 3 hour layover. Then, we finally board our last plane to Beijing (which is 4 hours). We don't arrive in Beijing until 10:30 p.m. on Thursday and will not arrive at New Day until closer to 1 in the morning. Hopefully we will be able to sleep on the plane.

Thank you again to those of you who have helped to get us to this point. We are so excited and cannot wait to meet our boys. Please continue to pray not only for us, but that both Drew and Jaxon are prepared for numerous changes they are about to endure.

Next post will be from Beijing!!!!!

WOW!!!!

WOW, I seriously can't think of anything else. I. Am. Speechless (which does not happen often). I am completely blown away. In less than 24 hours YOU all came through yet again. I am in awe of the generosity of complete strangers. Because of YOU, we can stop worrying about money. Because of YOU, we can take these next few days and enjoy our kids, pack, and make lists, stress free (sort of). Because of YOU, we can board the plane on Wednesday morning knowing that HE and YOU have provided.

To be honest, I felt extremely guilty putting the chipin back up. I have been e-mailing and talking with another adoptive mom (of an older child, soon to be 3) and opened up to her about my guilt and feeling like such a loser for having to ask for help once again. Her response, "Deep breath, deep breath. It's okay. God will help you, He is not going to leave you! Trust in Him and be happy you are going to get your boys!!!" So, that is what I have been doing. In fact, I have been reminding myself over and over that this has not been an easy journey and that with every roadblock, HE has been there. With every hurdle, He has been there to help us over it. With every mountain we climbed, He was there holding us, pushing us up.

God has and did provide and so did all of YOU. I know some of you could not help financially, but your prayers were just as important.

So, THANK YOU again for all the support, prayers, and financial help in bringing our boys home. I cannot believe we leave in 3 days!

Sunday Snapshot ~ So Close

Not only have I posted these pictures before, but I didn't even take them. For those of you who have been following for awhile know exactly who these two adorable and handsome boys are. For the newbies, meet Drew (4) and Jaxon (13). We have been working for over a year to bring Drew home and just recently (within the last month) started the process to bring Jaxon home. To read more about Drew's story go here, and for Jaxon's go here.




Faith has been a big, no, a HUGE part of our journey to bringing our boys home. This past year has really tested not only our commitment to Drew's adoption, but has strengthened out faith by leaps and bounds.

We just found out Friday that we are leaving Wednesday (April 14), and will meet Drew on the 16th. We will meet Jaxon on April 21st. We could not be more excited. We are completely head over heels in love with both boys and cannot wait to add them to our family.

The down side of all of this is that with such short notice, our travel expenses have gone up significantly. I spent pretty much ALL day Friday looking for tickets that were affordable or at least reasonable. Once I found tickets, then there were issues with booking our return flights because for some reason most were booked up or were going to cost us $8000 a piece. Yes, you read that right. So, I finally found some that would work, but we are having to stay in Hong Kong for two nights. This is not really a big deal, but it is two more days away from Emma, Gabe and Mylee.

As excited as I am to be leaving to meet our boys, I am equally stressing out with everything that needs to be done and with the fact that we may not have enough money now with the extra costs of travel. Oh, and our in China arrangements haven't even been made yet and won't be until Monday (I hope).

So, as you can see, the Chip In is back up. I so did not want to do this, but at this point I really have no choice. I have spoken to a couple of other adoptive parents and friends and they have all encouraged me to "suck it up" and ask for help, once again.

I CANNOT wait until we are home with our boys and I can really start paying it forward.

It's Official

We finally have travel dates. What we don't have is a confirmed CA (Consulate Appointment), or the boys' TA's (Travel Approvals). But hey, as long as we have the flights booked, confirmed and paid for, the other stuff will come as well (I hope).

So, you wanna know when we leave? How does April 14th sound? Yes, as in this coming Wednesday. As in 5 days from now!

For the past couple of weeks I have been saying that we were hoping to leave the 14th, but the closer it got, the more I was beginning to realize that we would more than likely leave the following Wednesday, the 22nd. As a matter of fact, when I spoke with our agency last Friday, she told me that leaving on the 14th would really be pushing it and that the 22nd would definitely be more realistic.

So, Monday I was at least able to let my daycare people know to start planning on me leaving the 22nd. I was actually getting used to the idea of leaving on the 22nd because it would give me so much more time to get everything done. And then on Wednesday I get an e-mail from our agency saying that we many need to start the process for Drew on April 18 or 19. However, when I actually spoke to her on the phone she said don't book flights, just put them on hold until we can make sure the dates are going to work. Okay, no problem. I literally hung up the phone and began calling travel agents, airlines, and whoever else I could think of to shop for tickets.

What I was hearing was NOT what I wanted to hear. The tickets have literally doubled in price since the last time I checked. DOUBLED! By this point I am freaking out because we barely had enough money as it was and now we are looking at more in flights than we had planned. So, I found some and reluctantly put them on hold.

I called my agency as soon as they opened to make sure we could actually book flights today and was told "we don't know yet, I will have to check on some things and call you back." No biggy (yeah right). So, I literally watched the minutes pass, then the hours until I could not take it any longer, so I called them back.

We were finally given the go ahead to officially book our flights, but were also told that we did not have our TA's or CA. Like I said earlier, not worried about it, they will come.

So, finally after over a year of waiting, we will meet Drew and I will most definitely be smooching those oh so kissable cheeks. We will be meeting him a week from today.
Oh I cannot wait. Then, the following Wednesday we will fly to Nanjing to meet Jaxon.

Am I ready? Yes and no. I cannot wait to meet my boys, but we have SO much to do before next Wednesday. My mind is running wild with all the things I need to. Last minute items need to be purchased. Lists for the kids to be made. Notes to teachers need to be written. Oh, and I have not been able to get ahold of my professor to let him know what is going on. Luckily I told him I would be going to China in the spring and he seemed pretty easy going about it. My only concern is that I have two scheduled tests to take while we are gone and the semester will be over by the time we get back.

So, please pray that I don't lose my mind trying to get everything together before next Wednesday. Nothing like scrambling at the last minute.

BOY OH BOY

These pictures were sent to me from one of the interns at New Day. Apparently our little guy does not mind getting down and dirty. Lucky for me we DO NOT have a sandbox. He is going to fit in perfectly with our family. I cannot wait! By the way, I will be posting some adoption updates tomorrow. I am just waiting on more concrete information.

Easter In Pictures...

Rather than going through and sorting through the pictures I took over the weekend, I just put them in a slideshow today. Easter was pretty uneventful here this year. We were supposed to spend the weekend with my family in Southern Indiana but my van is making some weird noises and were advised by our mechanic not to go out of town until we get it fixed (yeah). So, it was just us this Easter and I will say, that it was kind of nice. The kids kept asking who was coming or where we were going but just couldn't come to the realization that it was just going to be us this year. Matt is working 3rd shift right now so he came home, watched the kids hunt eggs and go through their baskets and then he was off to bed until dinner. The kids and I watched movies played games and played outside. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day.

Enjoy the pictures