ITINERARY

August 17th - Embark on another journey of a lifetime...flight leaves at noon

August 18th - Arrive in Beijing at 1:45 PM (China Time)

August 19th - Tour the Great Wall and Hutong Lane

August 20th - Orientation meeting and tour Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and visit a Silk Factory

August 21st - Fly to Changchun

August 22nd - GOTCHA DAY!!!

August 23rd - Official Adoption Day and apply for Ava's passport

August 24th - Free Day - Touring will be scheduled at a later time

August 25th - Free Day - Touring will be scheduled at a later time

August 26th - Fly to Guangzhou

August 27th - Visa paperwork check and medical exam

August 28th - Free Day - Touring will be scheduled at a later time

August 29th - Free Day - Touring will be scheduled at a later time

August 30th - Visa appointment and Oath-taking ceremony

August 31st - Visa pick up and taking a train to Hong Kong

September 1st - Flight back home leaving China at 10:25 AM (China time) and arriving home 1:55 PM (our time)

I cannot believe we leave in a few short days. I am nervous and extremely excited. I have so much to do but have accomplished so much as well.

I feel like this trip should be a breeze since we have been through it before. But it is anything but a breeze.

But soon it will all be worth it once I have my baby girl in my arms!!!

FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED

Let the countdown begin.

We leave on August 17th and return home on September 1st.

I will post more as I know more.

I am so excited and a little nervous too!!!

TA

Travel Approval has arrived....YAY!! Wow that was quick...it actually arrived on Wednesday night.

So...where does that leave us in terms of dates?

Well...we cannot leave the US any earlier than August 13th due to Tony's job. And we absolutely want to tour The Great Wall since we missed it when we adopted Halainah. And who knows when we will return to China.

So...that puts us around August 16th or 17th as a departure date. I will have exact dates by Monday.

So...we are so close...I have so much to do...and I can't wait to hold our beautiful daughter in my arms forever!!

ARTICLE 5

Woooo Hoooo!

Our Article 5 arrived on Friday just in time to celebrate during our long holiday weekend.

So now we are waiting for our Travel Approval. Current time frames will put us in China just about 6 weeks from now. So we are looking at the middle of August.

We are so close and the nesting instinct has kicked in full force. I want to throw everything out that we haven't used in a year or so...why keep it? Our first job is the kitchen...than the closets.

I still can't believe that we are going back to China! Oh my....I can't wait to hold my baby girl!!

We also received some more photos of our beautiful daughter!! And I can't wait to see her smile!

BE STILL MY HEART!

Look what arrived in my inbox yesterday!

Oh my....I just want to kiss those adorable cheeks.

I am still waiting for measurements. I am so torn between bringing 18 month clothes and 24 month clothes. I don't want her clothes to be too big because it's going to be so hot there. And I want her to be comfortable.

And I want to bring at least 1 pair of shoes with me. I wish I knew what size she was wearing in the picture below because clearly they are the wrong size. I am thinking about packing a size 5 based on what size Halainah was at her age. But Halainah has such a small foot. At 14 months old she was wearing a shoe size of a 3-6 month old. And almost at the age of 4 she is wearing only one size larger than her 2 year old cousin Vincent.

In the first pic she looks like such a little peanut. In the second pic. she looks like such a big girl.

What do you think? She is currently 21 months old.

Hopefully I will receive updated measurements but there is no guarantee.

Come on Article 5...what the heck is taking you so long!!

My baby girl needs us!!

UPDATE - I 800 APPROVAL

Things are moving along for our next miracle daughter. On June 6th we received our I 800 approval. On June 11th, our approval was cabled to China. We are now waiting for our Article 5 which should arrive in 2 weeks. Than we wait for China to issue our Travel approval. So many steps left and my arms and heart are aching for our baby girl. We should travel in August....but wish it were so much sooner. I requested an update so hopefully we get a much needed surprise this week.

We are trying to keep busy to keep our minds off of waiting. We were finally able to make a trip to the beach today. It was a gorgeous day and Halainah was in all her glory. We gave her a choice between Sesame Place and the Beach...she chose the beach...she's such a beach bunny.

And since I haven't posted any pics. in a while of our beautiful Lainey...here you go:






We enjoyed a special family day today. But there was someone who is VERY special and VERY loved that was missing!!

Soon baby girl...I promise...soon!!

LOA - MAY 4th

Boy am I behind on blogging. I need to step it up because I am missing so many milestones in our adoption of our newest most beautiful miracle. And I really need to change my blog layout. How long ago was Christmas?

Ok...so our LOA (Letter Of Approval) from China was received on May 4th. It only took 34 days to receive it which shocked us to say the least. We waited an excruciating 92 days for Halainah's LOA. We are so excited and was shocked to hear that because of this we should be traveling in August instead of September.

We are currently waiting for our I-800 Approval. Which took a lot of extra work to get to this point. A new Home Study had to be done so that it included the age and specific special need our daughter has. Once we received our new Home Study we had to file a I-797 Supplement 3 to reflect the changes as well. Then we filed our I-800. It was certainly a different process than it was for Halainah and a lot of extra paperwork.

On March 28th, 2 1/2 years after Halainah initially saw her Cardiologist, he gave her a clean bill of health. All the tests he performed proved that Halainah's heart was healed and her small hole in her heart (PFO - Patent Foramen Ovale) had closed on it's own. She was released from his care and was now termed "100% healthy" instead of "special needs."

2 hours after we returned from her appointment we received the phone call that we had been praying for. We were matched with a beautiful little girl whose special need happened to be PFO, the same heart condition as Halainah. It was a sign straight from our Lord above. He found our daughter and brought her to us. He healed Halainah and certainly chose our daughter knowing that we could fully handle her special need. It truly is amazing and no words can truly describe it.

Halainah is very excited to be a big sister. She asks about her sister often and carries a picture of her in her little purse. She tells us that she will share her Mommy and her Daddy and her Grandma and Opa with her sister. Sometimes she says she will share her toys but she makes it clear that she will not share her Tinkerbelle bed with her sister..."my sister can have my crib."

We cannot wait to make the trip to the other side of the world once again to witness our next miracle. The one thing that I am not looking forward to is the heat. We hear it is going to be very hot in China in August.

Here are some updated pictures of our daughter. She is getting so big without us and I just want to hold her and love her forever.