We're going to China!

We received confirmation of our consulate appointment this morning: November 6, just what we had asked for.  That means we will most likely have gotcha day on Sunday October 28.

Over the last three days we spent about 4 hours on the phone making our flight reservations.  We were able to use award miles for everything, and after all was said and done, after paying taxes and booking fees, we had only spent about $600 for four of us to go over and five of us to come back.  Isn't God good?  Thanks to my parents too, who helped us out with the last miles we needed.

Now we are just waiting for our final cost amount.  We are pretty sure we don't have all we need quite yet, but as is His way God has worked that out too.  Amazing.

We also got some new pictures over the weekend.

It looks like her hair is growing and looking better.  She is still too skinny though!

We fly out of Seattle on October 25.  Just 31 more sleeps.  I wonder if I will sleep at all for the next four weeks?

TA!

Two beautiful letters in my inbox this morning.  TA=travel approval; it means we are on our way to China!

We have decided to wait just a bit in order to avoid the holiday and trade fair in China in October.  If all goes well, our travel date is October 25.

We are excited to stop in Nanjing and see Sherry on our way in, and to take high-speed rail and be able to see more of the countryside.

We have started a countdown chart: 35 days and counting!

Here we come Maia girl!

Overwhelmed!

We are simply overwhelmed by the generosity shown to us.  I can't think of a better word to describe how we are feeling.

Cakes for Maia was an unbelievable success.  We went in needing about $5000, and our hope was to raise $1000 that night.  Well, I went to the bank last night to make a deposit, and after all was said and done I deposited $2800!!!!  That means we need only $2200 more to make this a reality!

None of this could have been done without the generosity of our family and friends.  I know I haven't adequately thanked each one who has donated to us, but please know how grateful we are.

Now we are working on airline tickets.  No, we don't have our travel approval yet, but we are tentatively planning on traveling to China on October 25 and returning on November 10.  We are hoping to purchase our tickets with air miles but have run into a little glitch--nothing big, just some "transferring miles" issues--so if you would pray that the airline would show us favor and bend the rules a little for the sake of bringing Maia home, we would appreciate it.

I have put in for my maternity leave so I sure hope our dates are accurate!  The timing is very good because I will only end up taking 22 days of leave without pay (due to all the holidays in that time period.)  So all that time we were upset that things weren't going as we had hoped, God had better plans for us!  ( I should have known!  How quickly I forget!)

We are planning one more yard sale, and we still have donations of things to sell on ebay/craigslist coming in.  Amazing!  We are OVERWHELMED!!!

We are getting close, really close now; we are hoping to travel around the last week of October.

Our article 5 letter (really, I have NO IDEA what that is, other than the next thing we are waiting for and the last step before travel approval) will be ready to be picked up on Thursday this week, and then we wait for them to tell us to come get our girl!

We are really getting excited as it gets closer, but when that wonderful call comes, it will be time to send our last amount that is needed to complete the adoption.  The estimate is about $10,500.  Yikes!  We have $5000 of that in the bank and ready to go right now.  I know what you are thinking: that means we are still short about $5500.

That amount doesn't include travel to and from China or any of our spending money while there.  We are hoping to save a little by taking rail while in country rather than flying, and we know we can eat really cheap. We are going to try to use air miles for our flights (Darryl has built up quite a few, what with all his trips for work, and some have been donated to us as well.)  We do have $1500 set aside for spending money, but that's probably cutting it a little close.

Do I sound worried? I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I wasn't.  I KNOW God is totally in control of this whole thing, but I wish He wasn't cutting it so close!

I know that He is the Father of adoption; after all, He came up with the whole concept!  He adopted me and every other soul who has ever chosen to accept His free gift of salvation, and He even placed His only Son in an adoptive family!  How cool is that?  As Christians we are admonished to "remember the orphans", and we have responded to that call the best we know how.

So now we really, really need Him to provide the last bit.

We do have a fundraiser coming up on Saturday the 8th, and I'd love to see lots and lots of people there, but really it's unlikely that we will raise all we need by auctioning 10 cakes, selling coffee drinks, and raffling a quilt.  But who knows?  It was unlikely that a crowd of 5000 could be fed with a few loaves and fish, but God chose to do it anyway!

Thanks for letting me tell you the truth of where we are financially right at this moment.  I'm excited for the day I'll be able to say "we are fully funded!"  Can't wait to share that with you when it comes.