The count down...One more week!!

One more week until we leave Orlando for China!  We have all of our travel booked, from Indy to Orlando (Aug 3rd) and from Orlando to China (Aug 6th).  Our bedroom is beginning to resemble the lost baggage department at the airport.  The evidence of this was when I thought I had moved everything out of the walk ways in our bedroom and managed to trip over an open suitcase anyway. The airlines allow 2, 50 pound bags and 2 carry ons and we are definitely maximizing that option!! I'm packed, Hadley's packed, Wyatt's packed and Brandon is my mission tomorrow. We're slowly but surely getting our documents together...Have you ever done that thing where you think you may have left the iron on...You're pretty sure you've turned it off but you go back and check and cross check?  Well that's me with our documents.  I keep going through them making sure they are in order, printing extra copies, just in case...One for each bag, purse, carry on...You name it.  An extra set for my parents to have, "just in case".  Over kill???  YEP! :)  You betcha!  We also received confirmation that we will meet Hadley on August 8th (it will likely be late August 7th in the U.S.), the morning after we arrive in Nanchang!! YAYY!!!  On top of that we had requested to visit Hadley's orphanage in Poyang county and we were granted our request!!!!!  We are beyond thankful for this opportunity because its our one chance to see where Hadley has lived for the first 17 months of her life.  It's a 3-3 1/2 hour van ride one way,  in rural China so we'll see alot of the countryside and hope to get lots of pictures to share with everyone.  Can hardly believe we are a week away!!!


Last but not least...Our trip to the beach in July!  Looking back...Had we known we were going to get TA in July, we very likely wouldn't have gone on our annual trip to the beach.  It ended up being one of our best trips yet!  So happy things played out just as they did!!  God is good!! :)

Consulate Appointment

Just a quick note that we got word this evening that we received the Consulate Appointment we were hoping for! We now will officially be leaving for China, from Orlando, on August 6th. Our plan is for me to take our little man down early next week to get him settled in with grandma and grandpa in FL before we leave. Right now we're just scurrying around tying up all the loose ends. Wyatt is helping me pack (I mean UN-pack). For every pair of shorts I put in my suitcase, he takes two out :) We'll continue to keep you posted!

Thanks so, very much for all of the very loving and encouraging emails and phone calls we've received over the last few days!! They mean so much to us!

Hugs,
Robin

WE HAVE NEWS!!!! TA! TA! TA!!!!

Praise God for the news we received today!  To HIM goes the GLORY and honor!!!!!  This will be a long one  :)  Some straight talk....We had been hoping and praying we would receive our TA (Travel approval from China) this week, knowing it wasn't "likely".  Tuesday of this week, a bunch of TA's came in and ours was not included.  Yesterday, I was somewhat hopeful, but no TA.  Then yesterday when we didn't get a phone call from our agency, I called and was talking to one of my friends sharing my disappointment and she gave me some very candid advice.  She said, "Robin, if you WANT your TA, why not just pray specifically, "God, if it does not go against you or affect your ultimate plan, I pray that we receive TA on Friday"...I never thought of it that way! Ultimately, we just want to be in line with Gods plan so I decided, that's how I'm going to pray!!  And I did.  Well TA's typically come in early in the morning and the Tuesday TA's that came in this week were posted very early (around 10A.M)...So, 10:45 today came and went and I was beginning to lose hope.  12:00 came and went and I had given up completely and thought to myself, well today is not our day and that's ok.  Then (12:15), Brandon pops in for 5 minutes during the day, my phone rings and I see, "MADISON ADOPTION ASSOCIATES" across the screen.  I looked at it for a second and paused...It was our TA!  I answered the phone to hear a very kind voice on the end say..."I have good news for you, Robin, you received your TA".  PRAISE GOD!  He had answered our prayer!!!!!  At this point, Brandon who popped in from his day at work is dancing around the living room.  As if news of TA was not good enough...There's more!  I'm going to go backwards a little bit so that I don't leave any of this out....(keeping it real) Early this morning, before we received TA, I was going through a guilty period of thinking to myself and talking to God saying, "are we doing the right thing, is this fair to Wyatt, is this going to affect him negatively in any way?"  I was playing the doubt game, which is never good.  I asked God for confirmation, even though he has given that to us throughout the process time and time again!  So ashamed to share my doubtful heart but it's real.  So now back to the present...Not only do we get TA on the day we ask God for it BUT, you may remember that it was very important for us to travel before my mom went back to work.  For various reasons...My fathers health has not been perfection over the last 2 years (battling cancer, still and having a heart attack).  If we traveled to China and were not back by August 22nd my mom would be back at work and my father would be at home caring for Wyatt, primarily by himself.  I had been asking God over and over for mercy on my family as they were so willing to help us and support us by taking care of Wyatt during this time.  Well we were beginning to run out of time.  Now back to my conversation with our agency...So after the good news is shared with me that we have our TA (travel approval), I say..."So what's next, what do we need to do now?"  The person on the other end says, well we are looking at possible CA (Consulate appointments in China) dates and we are thinking the 23rd of August...Would that work for you?  I pause for a minute and am thinking, uh-oh.  I start to stutter out a pitiful, frazzled story trying to put all of this together and explain that if at all possible could we get a date any sooner, it would be HUGE for us and for my family.  She says, "tell me what's up"...So, I proceed to explain what you all, already know (the situation about my mom going back to work and my father home with Wyatt).  She says, "well, let me see, we can request it but that means you'd have to leave very quickly.  I explain that that's ok we'll figure it out.  So she says, well let me look at something....Then I hear, "oh wow, this is good news, there is another family traveling to YOUR province (Nanchang) requesting the same dates you all would like to travel, so that would make it easy on the people scheduling travel!"...I'm thinking, WOW!  Not only is there another family going to the same Province but they want the same dates!!!??  Then she says, but we'll have to see if her (Hadley's) TB test results will be back in time for you all to have the same Consulate appt date....Then I hear, "oh wait, this is great, because Hadley is under 2, you don't have to wait for the TB results and you should be able to get the same Consulate appt date!"  By now, I'm getting chills over and over!  The icing on the cake of this story is....As of right now, we have a tentative ticket booked to leave to go to China on August 6th and return on August 18th!  That means that not only will my mother and father be able to watch Wyatt together but they will have time to fly Wyatt back to Indianapolis (from FL) over the weekend we return home. meet Hadley and make it back to Orlando in time for my mom to go to work on Monday!!!!  ONLY GOD!  AMAZING!  Could the timing have been any more perfect!?  The reason our tickets are on hold and not formally booked is because our Consulate appt needs to be confirmed late Sunday night, early Monday morning in China (they are 12 hours ahead of us).  Our agency is pretty sure the Consulate appt will work out and we will continue to pray that everything falls into place.  I believe God will finish what HE has started!  We'll keep you posted!

We plan to blog while we are in China and we invite you all to follow along as we go to get our daughter; Wyatt's sister!!!!  Here we come Hadley!!!!!!

Hugs and lots of love!
Robin, Brandon and Wyatt

Thoughts as we wait for TA any day!

The wait is coming down to the wire and as the time for possible travel gets closer, my mind has been racing.  There are a litany of things that have run through my head as we prepare to leave the country to go get our little girl that is waiting for us 7,000 miles away.  Probably the most difficult part of this process by far, will be leaving Wyatt for 2 weeks.  The reality of that is beginning to sink in and since we haven't left him for as much as an overnight, the thought has been burdening me lately.  As crazy as this might sound, I'm going to be brutally honest...I keep thinking to myself, is he going to think we've abandoned him?  2 weeks is a long time when you are 13 months and all you do is play, eat and sleep :)  Lots of praying surrounding saying bye-bye to our little man for 14 days.

When I think of Hadley right now, I can't help but walk through what her life has been like for the last 16 months...our little girl, an ocean away, has never known or understood what it's like to have a mommy and daddy...Those are words that are very likely foreign to her.  She doesn't know what it's like to have someone tuck her in at night, hug her or hold her when she's scared, protect her and look out for her, comfort her when she's sad and lonely, greet her in the morning with a smile when she wakes up, have a brother to play with, a full tummy all of the time, unconditional love and affection, family, parents and most importantly the opportunity to know Jesus Christ!  Wow!  All of these things I am ashamed to say and I dare say, I have grown so accustomed to.  All of these blessings many of us have known since birth....All of these things she has likely never experienced.  All of those things that she has never known or experienced have been HER NORMAL for the last 16 months. Boy is life about to change!  She is about to have a FAMILY and doesn't even realize it yet!  God bless and prepare her little heart and mind as she waits these remaining few weeks for us to get there!

Hugs and love,
Robin

Getting closer!

I'm a little delayed in posting because we were fortunate to take a trip to FL (the beach) for the last week with my family. I was really hesitant on going, thinking it was too much with China around the corner. Brandon put his foot down, thankfully and made an executive decision and we went anyway :) Turns out it was a good choice for multiple reasons and we are all very glad we went. We actually had a momentary laps in sanity and decided to drive, thinking we'd bring Wy's things down and leave them at my parents for when we go to China. Wyatt was such a trooper driving down...I honestly can't believe how easy going he was! We are now in the car driving home, 3 hours in and so far so good. He's reading B and I books in what sounds like Chinese in the back seat.

So I talked to our agency (Madison) yesterday and got a better idea of where we are in process. Our Article 5 was picked up on time, as planned so we are about a week after Article 5 waiting for TA. Our agency is "cautiously optimistic" that TA may come before the end of the month! IF that happens then we could be on a plane for China the 2nd week in August!! B and I are throwing around alot of different thoughts and ideas that I'll explain later when I'm not typing on a 3 inch keyboard :) But my point in sharing that is to ask for prayer as we make decisions...That they be God honoring. Also asking for prayer surrounding our upcoming trip.

Can't wait to share beach photos and more...

Hugs,
Rob

Water baby and China update

This was Wyatt's 1st time taking a swim with his daddy a few weeks ago.  He loves his baths so we just assumed going in the pool would be more of the same and it turns out that it was...The two boys were too cute together, having their male bonding moment in the pool.

CHINA UPDATE:

Nothing terribly eventful to share on our upcoming trip to China.  We should be receiving Article 5 tomorrow and from their we will wait for our TA (Travel approval).  Once TA is issued, our agency then books our CA appt (Consulate appt) in China.  All travel is scheduled around the CA appts because they are at the very end of our 2 week stay in China.  When the CA appt is booked by Madison, we will then book our outbound flight from the U.S. to China.  We were told that all July CA appts are booked so even if we receive our travel approval right away...We will have to wait for an August CA appt.  We are hoping for an early August CA appt but we'll keep everyone posted.  

Hugs and love,

Robin