More cute pictures!!

The complete story of our day is on our travel site but I couldn't put this many pictures there. We had too many cute ones today! And for the record...we aren't trying to leave Emily out of the pictures. But when we are hanging out, Sarah is the one sitting there making faces at us. Emily is beside her reading a book, completely oblivious to everyone around her...that just doesn't make for the best pictures. We will make her pose for a few tomorrow!!
Yep, she is little Shawn!!


Checking out the hotel room




Looking outside with Daddy



Mama and Anna at the medical center



What a sweet girl!

ANNA GRACE

How's that for a good day?? See below for pictures from Starfish!

STARFISH FOSTER HOME

Today was "Starfish Day." To read about it please visit our Story of You page. Enjoy all the pictures! Great strides with Anna and Daddy today...more on the Story of You!


Check out this beauty! Sarah held her for a while. Any takers???


This was the center of the living room. There are 2 babies in bouncy seats and one in the nanny's lap. These ladies work hard!


Look at the cribs along the wall. There are 4 cribs. Three of them have 3 babies EACH!


This was the upstairs apartment. The babies all lie side by side for naps.

We love this girl!

Today we have had some down time in the hotel. It has been great. We ate a late breakfast at the FABULOUS breakfast buffet then came back upstairs and let Anna play for while. As you see in the pictures, Daddy introduced Anna to bubbles. She thought they were funny and she seemed to wonder why she couldn't catch one. They kept disappearing! The pictures also prove what a smart girl we have. She figured those cups out quick!! okay, my baby just woke up....gotta go!

We've got our girl!

We received Anna into our family today at 4pm. For the complete story, go to our travel website. I'm trying to add pictures but blogger is giving me a hard time. I'll keep trying....

Today is the day!

It is Sunday morning here and Saturday night at home. We get Anna in just 6 hours! I've been trying to imagine what her morning has been like. And I am nervous!! I didn't think I would get nervous but I am! I just want to do things right for Anna. I want to give her the very best start possible with our family. We leave for the civil affairs office at 3:30pm, 2;30am EST. Thanks for your prayers. WE will get pictures posted ASAP. Love to all!

Friday

Well,our first day in Beijing was fun but we are beat! Sarah was up at 4:55,woke me at 5:20, and Emily at 5:30. By 6am we were all up! And of course, by 5pm we all were ready for bed. We visited the Temple of HEaven, a silk factory, and Summer Palace. Everything here is on a grand scale. I can't describe how big the Temple of HEaven and Summer Palace are! Angela, our guide, is amazing! She has been wonderful to have with us. She took us for Peking Roasted Duck for lunch. The duck wasn't our favorite but we all found something we liked. Shocker here....I enjoyed it the most. For those of you who know Shawn and the girls' eating habits, you aren't surprised. We got great pictures today but I don't have them to upload because we are having computer issues. I am using the lobby computer to update the blog and cannot do pictures here. We leave this hotel tomorrow and I am counting on the hotel in Xian working better with our computer. The computer works fine when plugged in but it won't charge. For this hotel we need it to charge so we can take it to the lobby to use. So, one more day without pics! Sorry! But seriously, you don't care all that much about our pictures...you just want this problem fixed by Sunday! And so do we! I am getting a cold so I don't feel the greatest. You can pr*y about that for me. I don't want to be sick when I meet my daughter! The girls are doing well. We learned today that BEijing just may be one of the coldest places we've ever been. When the wind blows it doesn't matter how many layers you have on....it goes right through you! We will be happy to move to a warmer place. Thanks for all the e-mails and "thoughts." They mean the world to us.

DELAYED IN CHICAGO!

Well, the china adventure is having a slow start. we arrived in chicago this morning 9:15am. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 12:33pm. That was delayed to 4pm.....now its been delayed to 6pm. Please pray that we actually do get to leave at 6pm. We are ready to get on our way. I do have to share something with you. My sister has a flip calendar that has something about parenting everyday. She e-mailed today's calendar page to me... "February 18: Lord, I come to You in Jesus' name and give my child to you. I'm convinced that You alone know what is best for her. You alone know what she needs. I release her to You to care for and protect, and I commit myself to pray for everything concerning her that I can think of or that You put upon my heart." ....So, how good is God? He is reminding me that He alone can care for Lauren while I am gone. He alone is the One who really cares for Lauren each and every day anyway! And she is going to be great while we are gone. Thank you for your prayers for me regarding leaving her. I did not fall apart as I kissed her goodbye while she slept this morning. Now, back to the calendar. Just wait until I share Sunday's page. That one is equally amazing and applicable! Thank you Father, for reminding us that Your hand is upon this trip. Hopefully when I update again we will be in Beijing! Now i have to get over to our gate....Shawn says he thinks there are other adoptive families over there. I need to go talk to them! : ) Love to you all!

We are outta here!

So its now 10:00pm and we are leaving in 6 1/2 hours for the airport. As my nephew would say "hody mody!" We will update you on our trip when we get to Beijing. Thursday AM should show up on the travel website! Thank you for your prayers.
5 days to Anna! WOW!

Packing has begun!!!!!!

Shawn's excel spreadsheet of our packing list...everyone needs a Marine when you go to China!



Well, the packing has begun!! And boy, is it a job!! We have to prepare for 33 degrees in Beijing, 50 in Xian, and 75 in Guangzhou....and it all has to go in bags that weigh 44lbs or less! That is a challenge! Especially when you have to take 3/4 of CVS with you as well! We are trying to finish packing by tomorrow so Monday we can play with Lauren and Tuesday we can clean house while she is at school. We leave EARLY Wednesday morning. Our itinerary is below. Please remember that while we are in China most posts will be through our travel website, not this blog. You can find a link to our travel site on the top left corner of this blog. You will be able to e-mail us from a link on the travel site....please do! I have heard those e-mails are what get you through when the homesickness hits. Please keep praying for us all. For Lauren and Mimi while we are gone and for God to continue to prepare Anna's heart. Thanks for all your prayers!

Itinerary:
Wednesday, February 18
Depart Dulles- to Chicago
Depart Chicago at lunchtime- to Beijing
Arrive in Beijing on THURSDAY afternoon! Holy Cow, that is a LONG flight!(14 hours to be exact!)

Spend Thursday and Friday night in Beijing.
We will tour Summer Palace and the Great Wall as well as a few other places.

Depart Beijing at dinnertime on Saturday.
Arrive in Xian
We will be staying in Xian from Saturday(2/21) to Friday(2/27)

Here is the most important thing!!
**WE GET ANNA ON SUNDAY, FEB. 22 IN THE AFTERNOON. THAT MEANS WHEN YOU WAKE UP FOR CHURCH ON SUNDAY WE WILL HAVE HER!**

Spend the week in Xian doing various paperwork, waiting on her visa, and seeing the sites of Xian.

Depart Xian on Friday, Feb. 27 and fly to Guangzhou
We will spend 4 nights in Guangzhou and complete the US portion of her adoption.

Depart Guangzhou by train on the evening of March 3rd to Hong Kong.
Depart Hong Kong March 4th for HOME!! We will go through San Fran on the way home and arrive at Dulles sometime the night of the 4th.

Thanks for following along on this trip of a lifetime!

Consulate Appointment Confirmed!

Well, it is official. We leave at 7:44AM on Wednesday, FEBRUARY 18. WOW! That is really soon! We will have sweet AnnaGrace in our arms two weeks from right now!
We are so excited. Please pray with us that God will prepare her heart for her family. We have been looking at her face since October 25th; we love her already. But we will be strangers to her. Pray that she will not be scared and that she will supernaturally know that she is safe in our arms. It makes me so sad to think of how scared she will probably be. Please pray for us all as we make this transition to a family of 6. Pray also for me as I prepare things to leave Lauren. That is a source of anxiety for me as the longest I have ever been away from her is 4 days! I know she will be just fine. She will be with Mimi and have a great time. It is me that is going to have a hard time. Thanks for all your prayers as we prepare for our trip to China! We are so thankful that God has brought us to this place and we can't wait to meet our precious Anna!

Our confirmation for Anna's return ticket!!
Itinerary
MISS QIU YUN QIN
Sabre Reservation code: NNOLCJ

Wed, Mar 4Flights: UNITED AIRLINES, UA 0862

From: HONG KONG, HONG KONG S A R (HKG) Departs: 12:50pm
To: SAN FRANCISCO, CA (SFO) Arrives: 8:28am
Departure Terminal: TERMINAL 1 Duration: 11 hour(s) and 38 minute(s)
Arrival Terminal: INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL Class: Economy
Seat(s): Check-In Required Status: Infant/No Seat

More soon..... Thanks for your prayers~

TA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our TA came today and I cannot believe I am writing those letters! Holy Cow! We are tentatively leaving on February 18! Yes, just 12 days from now! If all goes as planned, this sweet girl


will be with her mama and daddy on February 22 or 23rd. I cannot begin to tell you everything that I have got to do before then. Please pray for us as we finalize all the details and especially as we prepare to leave Lauren for 2 weeks. I have not left her for more than 4 days EVER! This mama's heart is going to be torn the day we leave! So that is definitely a matter of prayer.

We will have travel plans set by Tuesday so I'll update again then!

Standby........

....could a certain piece of paper be making its way from China to Alabama? Perhaps by Monday??? Standby!

Anna Update

Our sweet Anna Grace Qiu

Well, it has now been one month and 2 days since we received our letter of approval from China. We have been officially approved to adopt Anna. Now we wait for Travel Approval(TA). Typically, TA will come in 3-4 weeks but we had Chinese New Year thrown in there so there has been a delay. We are hoping to get TA by next week. Lauren has an appointment with an ENT on March 20 and we really want to be home so we can make that appointment. We made it in early January so to reschedule would be bad. So, there is one thing you can pray for; that we would be home by March 18 so we can keep that appointment.

While we have been waiting for TA we have seen God work in an amazing way and I have to share it with you. After receiving LOA we were talking to our agency and found out that we would need to wire $10,000 cash to China when we received TA. Wow! We were thinking it would be about $6,000 cash. So that sent me into a tailspin about money. We had $6,000, but not 10! Shawn, of course, doesn't stress over things like that. He simply said, "God has led us down this path of adoption and He is going to provide." The following week I got a phone call from a friend who recently returned to VA after moving away for a time. We have not talked all that much since she returned, simply because we both have busy schedules. But she called and we were catching up when I mentioned China. She had never heard a word about China! Huh?? I thought everyone knew we were going to China! I've been talking about it for 3 years now! So I back up and catch her up with the whole adoption thing. She is excited when I tell her that Anna has cleft lip/palate. My friend has had experience with cl/cp. She begins telling me what to expect and how manageable that will be. Then, out of the blue, she says, "Do you need money?" What?? Where did that come from? Again, she says, "Do you have all the money you need?" "Well no, actually we do not." And then I said, "Did I bring up money to you?" I was horrified. We have prayed for God to provide but felt strongly that we were not to start asking a bunch of people to give us money to pay for this adoption.
She then says, "Now I know why the Holy Spirit has been prompting me to call you! Last week I felt like I was supposed to call but I wasn't sure why. My husband and I have been talking about what we are supposed to do with some money that we have. We haven't known the right place to send it. Now I know! Send me a picture of Anna and a little information so I can share it with him." HOLY COW! I have read stories like this from other adoption blogs but never, ever expected God to provide in this way! So, 2 days later I get a call from her saying come pick up this check so you will have it when you need it! $2500 for our precious Anna! Praise the Lord! He does answer prayer and provide for His people when they are obedient to Him. Money-wise, we are almost where we need to be and more importantly, God has reminded us to trust in Him because He will take care of our every need!
How cool is that? I can't wait to share it with Anna one day when she is older so she can see how God worked to bring her home. Thank you for your prayers. We will keep you posted on TA news!