The Official Countdown Begins!!!

We received new that our Travel Approval arrived on Monday, December 13th. I wasn't even expecting the TA announcement to come via e-mail because when it arrived for Isaac the agency we were using at the time called us. I remember that I had just at Target and stepped over to the benches to talk and give a few dates that would be good for CA (our consulate appointment) so that we could continue to set up our trip and hurry to China to get our boy. This time it wasn't as exciting at all, I mean the delivery.

Our desktop computer has gone on the fritz and I had posted a question to facebook to see if some friends could help offer some advice. I was going to check responses when I decided to check my e-mail first and THERE IT WAS!! We only waited 14 days from the time our Article 5 was issued until we received TA!!What a total surprise because we had been told 3-5 weeks and everyone that was just ahead of us had been waiting at least a month. Craig said he KNEW it would come, I wasn't confident. I wasn't even hoping for it until after Christmas. I had hoped it might arrive in time for New Years Eve so that I could celebrate the New Year knowing when we would hold Aryn Rachel in our arms.

We received this picture about 10 days ago. (Sorry blog, I just hadn't made it to the blog with the computer issues.) I joked that Aryn was on the phone, "Hello government people? I want to meet my new family!!" Well they got the message and yesterday we were able to book our flights to China. My mother and Isaac will be coming with me. Craig will be staying home to hold down the fort and to help us save money on our expenses.All day on Tuesday and Wednesday I keep checking my e-mail because we were told that we would be receiving our itenerary with the travel dates by e-mail. Nothing... Thursday afternoon I had just checked my e-mail at the start of 5th period, nothing... A few minutes later this boy asked if I had heard when I was going to go yet. I walked back over to the computer, and WOW!!! There it was!! "It's HERE!"

They cheered, "YEAH!!!!"

I opened the e-mail and said, "I meet her exactly one month from today!"

More cheers, I almost started to cry right there in front of my students! It was so exciting!!

So here it is. Our schedule, as we know it.

Thursday, January 13th - We will leave Orlando at 8:20 am and head to China via Seattle, Washington.

Friday, January 14th - We will arrive in Beijing, China at 9:00 pm. No sight seeing on this day, what a bummer! We plan to stay the night with our wonderful friends who moved to Beijing last year.

Sunday, January 16th - We will fly into Fuzhou, Fujian province and will meet Liu, Rong Jie soon to be Miss Aryn Rachel Liu-RongJie. Please continue to pray for her transition into our family. Also pray that Isaac will not be jealous of his sister and that they will develop a strong loving bond. Before we leave Fuzhou we will have completed the Chinese portion of our adoption paperwork and Aryn Rachel will officially be our daughter in the eyes of the People's Republic of China. We already know that she is ours in the eyes of our Heavenly Father!!

Friday, January, 21st - We will arrive in Guangzhou, Guangdong province to complete the American side of our adoption paperwork. This is the city where we spent our entire trip with Isaac as he was born in Guangdong province. I wonder about how feasible it would be to visit his orphanage and allow them to see how much he has grown and what a wonderful boy he is. I would like to do that, but I don't know if it will work out. I guess you could pray that if it would be a good thing, that God would open that door for us both with permissions and financially. I really don't know how expensive it would be to hire a car or what the expense would be to have a personal guide for the day.

Sunday, January 23rd - Nothing adoption related that I know of, but it is my wonderful Mom's birthday and I am thinking about something nice to do. We ate at several great restaurants while in Guangzhou the first time around. Does anyone have a good recommendation for celebrating adopting a granddaughter and your birthday? I would like it to be a special birthday dinner for Mom. (This one is green because green is Mom's favorite color.)

Tuesday, January 25th - U.S. Consulate Visa Appointment. The final step in our adoption process but the first appointment that had to be cemented before we could make any other plans. This is a pretty cool experience, unfortunately we are not able to take pictures and there is so much going on that I don't really remember. I sort of liken it to the Church welcoming a child into the Body of Christ through a baby dedication or baptism. To me, it's sort of like America welcoming the child into her arms. Maybe I'm a little looney, but without this meeting we don't get a visa and our child can not come into the country. It was so AMAZING to see men and women from all over our country, service men and women who give their lives to serve and protect our country who were stationed around the world, all with children coming home to become part of us, part of the American family. Most importantly, a room full of children no longer orphans. A son!! A daughter!! My child!! You can not immagine the emotion if you stop to think about it. God moved on the hearts of each of these families. He provided a way for each of these families to go and bring this child home. He is doing this same thing around the world and in our own country. Adoption really is the greatest thing in the world. It helps you better know and understand the heart of God. (I could go on and I think I will in another post. This post is to share our dates and is getting a little long...)

Thursday, January 27th - Aryn Rachel's visa will be issued at some point... It only took a day to receive Isaac's visa, I wonder why it's two days? I wonder if we'll get it in the morning? At some point on Thursday we will board a train and take a two hour train ride to Hong Kong.

Friday, January 28th - We will board a plane and head HOME! Because we are crossing over the international date line it doesn't look like we are traveling very long. We will leave Hong Kong at 10:35 am and arrive in Detriot, Michigan only two hours later at 12:10 pm according to clocks, but it's actually about a 14 hour flight or something like that. We will get to fly over the North Pole! We will make it into Orlando at 8:43 pm the night of Friday, January 28th. Actually when we leave Hong Kong it will be 9:35 pm on Thursday, January 27th for those of you in the EST in the United States so the travel time will be about 25 hours.