Family pictures

We had some family pictures taken over the weekend to celebrate us as a family of three and for Daniel's third birthday (he turned 3 in February). I think they turned out pretty good. We have some more taken as a family of four when we return home.

The Final Countdown!

It is Thursday evening, technically Friday morning and I am exhausted. Daniel has been sick and has recovered, Brian has a fever tonight and I am recovering from my back "going out". I might be complaining a little bit but I am more concerned than anything. I have a long list to complete and it seems that I am adding more to it than I am accomplishing.

Tonight I cleaned out my car because I couldn't take the clutter anymore. It is amazing what I was driving around with all this week. If there was a disaster, I might have been able survive with what was in my car!

On a high note, we received our passports back with the Chinese Visas. I was very excited to see that envelope sitting on my island when I returned home today. I also finished booking our last hotel for the trip only a few minutes ago. That alone is a big relief! Our agency makes our hotel, travel and site seeing arrangements for us while we are in China. We have to make our own flight reservations to Chian and since we are staying in Hong Kong for a little bit, I had to make additional flight arrangements and hotel reservations. We are going to stay at Hollywood Disney for our first leg and visit HongKong Disney. I am so excited. Now that I have made the reservations, I can tell Daniel tomorrow.

One quick note about Daniel before I close for tonight. He was praying before our meal the other night and inaddition to praying for his mama, dad and friends he also prayed for Avatar! He has never seen Avatar except for pictures at the store or a commercial on TV. He claims that it is his favorite or atleast it was until he saw the Robin Hood Movie commercial tonight and now that is his favorite!

The "When" is here!

It seems like only a couple of days ago when I was complaining or whining about when we were going to get our TA. That day happened on a beautiful Wednesday last week. Then came the wait to see when we could actually leave for China (you have to plan your trip around an appointment with the US consulate). Our agency thought we would hear something on Friday or Tuesday (consulate is closed on Monday, holiday) but we were blessed to receive our answer on Thursday morning. Our appointment is set for May 26th.

After a lot of stress and hard work, I was able to purchase our plane tickets and we leave on Monday, May 10th and come home on Monday, May 31st. We will fly into Hong Kong via San Francisco and stay two nights and one day. We are planning on going to Disneyland. On May 13th we will fly to Beijing and spend a couple of days touring the Capital city. I can hardly wait to see the Great Wall!!! Then we will fly to Hohot where we will receive Evan. We will spend several days there before leaving for Guangzhou. While we are in Guangzhou, we will visit True Children's Home to see Daniel's former caretakers and hopefully get to meet his foster parents (I'm crossing my fingers that it will work out). When our trip is over we will take the train to Hong Kong and spend another day before leaving on the 31st. I'm exhausted writing this:)!

I have a lot of work to do before we can leave. I am making my list and checking it all the time. A special thanks to my good friend, Sue, who spent an hour on the phone with me to help find plane tickets. She has been a wealth of information and I am so grateful to her!

It's Here!

Our travel clearance came today! Our agency called this morning and told us the good news. We discussed some dates for travel and chose the earliest ones possible, now we wait to see if it can be scheduled with the consulate in Guangzhou. A friend told me that the dates we are requesting may be booked and will have to wait for a later time. It's just a big relief that it is here and we will go when the time is right. Hopefully we will hear on Friday or Tuesday at the latest, so we can finally make our plane reservations.

I was so excited this morning but now I am a little paralyzed with fear! There is so much to do to get ready to leave, atleast this will be more notice than the less than 24 hour notice we got the last time.

Thank you God, we are so close to meeting our little boy!

Our Visa Applications are in the mail

$556.00 later and our passports are on their way to Houston. We should have them back in about a week. Everything this time around is so much more expensive! I am trying not to complain but thank the Lord that we have the money to pay for it.

We are still waiting for our Travel Clearance from China to make our official plans for travel. I will admit that this truly has been the hardest part of this entire adoption. I am engaging in a lot of self talk and prayer to get through each day. I know we will travel to get Evan but WHEN???? I know it is out of my control and I need to focus on what I can control so we will be ready to travel as soon as possible.

I am currently working on all of the educational courses and books that we are required to read by our adoption agency. I thought I was doing great until I reviewed the list and realized that we hadn't completed any of the 6 online courses that are required for us to complete before we travel. Brian and I are going to split them up and I started the first one tonight. I already knew a lot of the information but did learn some new things.

The size of Evan

It seems like everyone I show a picture of Evan remarks about how big he appears to be (I think so too). When we were waiting for Daniel we would receive pictures of him and I would panic because he seemed so big in his pictures. I had convinced myself that they were not being truthful about his real age. When we arrived in China and met Daniel for the very first time, I couldn't believe how small and baby-like he was so, with Evan I have understood that he only appears large in the pictures. In fact, I have proof that he is not as big as he seems. Evan is 18-months-old and soon to be 19 months. At 18 months Daniel was 23lbs, 2.5oz and 31 1/2 inches long. Evan at the same age is 29inches tall and weighs 17lbs. Since he is living in an orphanage (even with excellent care) it is expected that he would be smaller in comparison to his big brother because by that age Daniel had been in our care for 6 months.

The cutest T-shirts ever!

I ordered t-shirts for Daniel and Evan to wear in China. I want them to feel like brothers so I have purchased matching pj's and these t-shirts. I custom created them at Mandysmoon.com. I got the idea from a family that we traveled with in China. They have three girls and they wore similar shirts while in China and thought they were adorable. I ordered these last week and they came in the mail today! I wish all things in life were this easy.