We are getting closer to TA!

Ok, we have so much to share this evening. First, we had a small birthday dinner in honor of Adam Longji's birthday. We went out for Chinese, Jennifer made an awesome cake, both sets of grandparents were able to attend and we had a fantastic time together. We are going to wait for Adam to open his birthday gifts when he gets here. Hopefully we can post pictures tomorrow if Ann is able to get any from his party.

Next, we received a very unexpected e-mail this morning from our agency. Our TA was issued yesterday, China time, and will be mailed out Friday. Our agency should receive it on Monday! Our travel advisor said they are going to have the agency China staff request our adoption appointment and she will have travel dates for us tomorrow. Our consulate appointment cannot be requested until Monday, but we will at least have dates of travel. We are getting so close I can hear the planes taking off! We are coming Adam...

Happy Birthday!

Happy 6th Birthday Adam! We hope you are having a fantastic day and we can't wait to see pictures of you and your birthday cake. We love you so much and we are so sorry we could not get there in enough time. We promise we will never miss another birthday!! We are praying for you and for your birth parents. We know they are thinking about you today. You are a beautiful gift from God and we will be celebrating your birthday with you...just thousands of miles away. Love, Mom and Dad.

Article 5 Update

According to our agency, the CCAA received our Article 5 on March 22 which means we are expecting our TA next week. Of course, this is after their Tomb Sweeping Holiday...we will let everyone know once we hear!!

I couldn't resist...grab a tissue!

When Love Takes You In - Steven Curtis Chapman


I know you’ve heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You’ve heard about a place called home
But there doesn’t seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream

Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in

And somewhere while you’re sleeping
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment what has been is lost in what will be

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart

And this love will never let you go
There is nothing that could ever
cause this love to lose its hold

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in it takes you in for good
When love takes you in

-Steven Curtis Chapman


I warned you about the tissue...

Article 5

Well, we got an e-mail from our agency and it looks like things are moving again. Our Article 5 was picked up on the 18th and it will be express mailed to Beijing and then hand carried to the CCAA some time next week. From that point we wait about two weeks to get our TA, so they say. This puts us at the week of April 5th. Once we get TA it should be somewhere from 2-3 weeks when we travel. Meanwhile, Longji turns 6 on March 31st. We ordered a birthday care package for him today. I will post pictures as soon as Ann e-mails them to us. This package does include a birthday cake so we are excited to get pictures from his party with the cake. While we were disappointed about not traveling before Longji's birthday (and with our friends, the Ferlands) we know that we will meet him at the exact moment we are supposed to. This is the very moment that God has planned out for us and we know it will be perfect. I will keep everyone updated as things move along.

We are still waiting!

Well, we are not leaving this month and it doesn't look like April will be our month either. This is not the news we wanted to hear, but we are reminded once again that our God has a plan for us. Adam will receive a birthday care package and in honor of his 6th birthday we plan on having Chinese food and a small birthday cake for him. I want him to know that we still celebrated his birthday here at home. We are probably looking at a May travel date at this point which has it's pros and cons, but again, John and I take comfort in knowing that this is all in God's plan for our family.

This last week John's team at his school threw us a shower and we had a fantastic time! Everyone was so sweet and Adam has more things to fill up his room. These include books, toys, golf clubs, clothes, baseball equipment, etc. This weekend we took some time to watch my niece play soccer and we had time to swing by Guadalupe State Park. We are hoping these next few weeks we can keep ourselves busy and time will fly by.

Care Package #2

Well, since our travel date is pushed back once again, John and I decided to send Longji another care package. This time we went through Ann at Red Thread China. We pick out a package and send her the necessary information and she pretty much takes care of everything else. She puts the package together and gets it to the orphanage. One reason we chose to go this route this time was the fact that all of her packages include a translated letter which we really felt strongly about. Looking at Longji's last set of pictures, I feel like he knows who we are and I pray he is smiling because he can't wait to meet us. I already have so much to tell him and I felt like a letter was necessary at this point. It was hard to write a letter for a five year old, but I think I did okay. Ann translated the letter and it is in the picture I am posting (in Chinese of course). Oh, I cannot wait to meet him. It is more difficult every day to not know when we are leaving. Ann e-mailed me earlier today and said she would deliver the package in the next two days. He is getting a set of pajamas, a panda bear, blanket, his translated letter and she is including some candies for the nannies and a camera. We have already sent two cameras in his first care package so I am looking forward to all kinds of pictures.

For all of you following our journey, please pray for our travel approval. We are getting close to Longji's birthday and I hate the idea of missing it. As adults, we typically take birthdays for granted...we actually avoid them, but this birthday is not just any day to John and I. This is a celebration of the day Longji was born. His mother has no idea what kind of gift she has given us. There are no words to thank her, but I can love him as any mother loves their son.