God is Awesome!!!

We had our AIT appointment today. Normally, people have to wait at least 2 hours before being interviewed, but we finished the whole process in less than 1 hour. Praise God! He is so awesome! Thank all of you for your wonderful prayers! Jing-Qi is officially our daughter now! Yea! We will post more pics tomorrow, but now we are very tired and going to sleep.

Gotcha Day!!!

Well, we survived the trip and are here in Taiwan with our daughter. Yea! It was a crazy busy day, with us landing in Taiwan at 5:30 in the morning and having appointments until we returned to the hotel for dinner. We are very tired, so I'm just going to post some pictures-the very first pictures posted of our daughter, now that she is officially ours.

We're Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Well, we are leaving in 34 minutes for the airport to finally travel to pick up our little girl from Taiwan. I am so excited and nervous all at the same time! I can't believe that it is finally here. We don't arrive in Taiwan until Tuesday morning at 5:30am Taiwan time. We will be seeing her that day, but I don't know if they release her to us then or the next day. We will post pictures as soon as we can. Thank all of you sooo very much for all your prayers. It means so much to know that we have the support of friends, family, and our wonderful church family. Thank you!

Not a Good Time to be in a Fog...or is it?

I apologize in advans if this blog makes absewlutely gno cents. (Just kidding.) I have a horrible cold and have pretty much been sleeping, as much as possible, the last five days. I had no idea I could sleep so much. I'm soaking it up like a sponge. Perhaps I need the rest for the days to come. My nose has been completely congested, although now it seems to have all moved to my ears. I can't hear a thing and driving up and down hills in the car makes my ears hurt. I'm hoping this clears up before our flight on Sunday, or I'm going to be in a world of hurt on the plane. I have a mildly irritating, dry, itchy cough as well. I'm not a good sick person. I'm pretty much a big baby. Sam has it as well, but not as bad, or he just handles it better. I'm not sure which. PLEASE PRAY. PLEASE PRAY. PLEASE PRAY that this cough goes away soon. (told you I'm a big baby) We leave in 6 days, and I'm hoping that I am remembering everything I need to do through this cold that has me in a brain fog. Thanks for listening to me grumble and for all the prayers. They are always so greatly appreciated.

A Very Slight Change of Plans...

We found out that AIT will be closing for Thanksgiving 11/24-11/27 and are even thinking of a half day on 11/23. 11/23 was supposed to be our AIT appointment, and we were originally hoping, but not guaranteed, to have our visa the same day to come home in time for Thanksgiving. We have decided that this is too much of a risk, and it is likely that we would not be able to come home until the following Monday. Therefore, upon our adoption coordinator's recommendation, we have changed our "gotcha day" to 11/29. We will leave 11/27 for Taiwan, and return with our Trina on 12/3. I suppose after this long wait, one more week should be bearable. I was also concerned because we were having a lot of family out for Thanksgiving, and I thought it might be overwhelming for her to come home to all that the very first day. I think this is for the best. I can't wait! It's not long now and I'll have my third precious jewel home and in my arms. Yea!

Visiting an Old Friend...

Little does my Trina know, but yesterday I was able to visit with an old friend of hers from her orphanage. This little girl, who we'll call JP, was just adopted last July and lives about 20 minutes away from our home and 5 minutes away from my daughters' school. Wow!

I went in to talk with our social worker the other day to get tips on travel and those first days home with our daughter. Our social worker is wonderful and always has a wealth of tips to get us going on the right track. Anyways, I will be homeschooling Trina for the rest of this school year, and Rhonda recommended I talk with this other mom who was homeschooling her little girl just brought home from Taiwan. It turns out that this little girl was at the same orphanage as Jing-Qi and that they know each other. She even has a picture of the two of them together! JP is just blossoming with her new family, and it was tremendously helpful to visit with them and glean from JP's mama's experience. I am so excited at the possibility of getting these two together again in the future and sharing their common background and experiences. Lord, you are awesome!

Please continue to pray for the rest of our process, that our travel will go smoothly, that there will be no hiccups with our AIT appointment, and that the Lord will prepare all of our family's hearts as well as Trina's heart to accept and love one another and become one united family. Thanks!