Where are we going?

Doug & I have been doing alot of reading about where Alex is from.  We want to know as much as we can about his city and province, so when he gets older we can answer all his questions!   Here's a little about what we have learned so far.   The city he is from is named Qingyang and is the province of Gansu.   Gansu is located in the northwestern part of the country, and the Yellow River passes through the southern part of the province.   The entire province of Gansu has a population of 26 million.  The capital of Gansu is Lanzhou.  This is where we will be traveling to get Alex.  The orphanage director (and maybe his nanny) will be bringing Alex on the 8 hour drive from where is orphanage is located to our hotel on "gotcha day."   Doug and I constantly talk about all the firsts that Alex will experience in such a short time.   This will probably be his first time ever outside of the orphanage gates.   We pray that we will be able to comfort him while he morns the loss of his caregivers and gets use to his new mommy and daddy.    We will be staying in Lanzhou for 5 nights.  We've read that Lanzhou is one of the most polluted cities in the world.  While we are there, we will have our civil affairs appointment, fill out lots of paperwork and do some sightseeing.  Then, off to Guangzhou, where we will finish up the last portion of our trip.

Our bags are packed.....

Well - not yet!   But we booked our flights today.  Non-stop both ways.  We are one step closer to our little boy.

Change in Plans

Well, we found on today that they weren't able to confirm our consulate appointment during the Jan 6 - Jan 22 trip - so our trip has been moved back one week.   Our now confirmed travel dates are Jan 13-Jan27th.   I have to admit that I am disappointed.  I know a week isn't that long, but when you have been waiting 3 years and we were only 10 days away - that week seems like forever.   I was encouraged by a friend of mine however that made me think of it in a different way.   She said maybe this was an answered prayer by Alex's caregiver for her to have one more week to say good-bye to our precious boy.  It's not so bad when I think of it like that (thanks Rox)!  On Jan 17th I will be holding "baby Alex" in my arms for the first time.

Our TA has arrived!

Our TA is here.  We got it about 10 days earlier than expected.  I am SO excited.  I haven't stopped smiling since I got off the phone with our adoption agency.  We tentatively leave Jan 6th and return on the 22nd.   We have to wait for confirmed consulate appointments before they start booking our flights and in country arrangements.  I can't believe that the time is finally here.  I could be holding our sweet son for the first time on Jan 10th! 

Alex's Room is almost done

Alex's room is almost ready!  We sent Sam out to his grandparents house for the weekend just before Thanksgiving and Doug and I worked around the house preparing for Alex's arrival. I spent the time painting his room, while Doug worked in the basement (with the help of a few great friends).  We are working on finishing our basement to create a playroom for the boys (I love to say that phrase.....the boys)!   After a very long weekend of alot of hard work, the basement is all framed up.   We had bought the wood about 15 months ago...and just now used it for the framing.  We will start saving up for the next steps now.  
Alex's room turned out great.  I am so thrilled with it.  His room is a nautical theme in reds and browns.  We were able to find some great used nursery furniture from Craig's list.  With the room painted and the furniture up - it makes it seem like the time is getting closer.   Sam now walks by his room and says "Baby Alex".   So cute!   I hope he is that excited about him when Alex comes home!

So Thankful

What awesome family and friends we have!  We held an adoption fundraiser party for Alex at the Pioneer Bowling Alley last weekend and had a great turnout.  We are so grateful that God has placed all of you in our lives.  We were able to raise a substantial amount of money to help with the adoption expenses.  Thank-you so much to everyone who supported us.  I just told Doug earlier in the week how God has recently made me so aware of how blessed we are with our family and friends.  We read alot of adoption magazines and books, and I am always amazed at how many articles have to deal with couples trying to get their family and loved ones "on board" with their adoption plans.  We have never found ourselves in that position.  In fact, it's always been just the opposite.  Our families and friends are just as excited about Alex as we are.  We can't wait to travel in just over a month to bring him home and have him join our family.

Alex's Birthday!

It's been awhile since I posted anything and alot of exciting things have happened!  Most importantly - our son had his first birthday!   Alex turned one on October 14th.   It was such a bittersweet day.  I hated not being able to be there on his big day.  God-willing, this will be the last birthday that Alex will have to spend as a child without his mommy and daddy.  Doug & I didn't know how to celebrate without having him here with us - so we did the next best thing and went out for Chinese for dinner!   We had fun and so did big brother Samuel.   My fortune cookie actually read that night "Your ability to love, will help a child in need."   It brought me to tears and Doug wondered if God wrote those things! 

In the past few weeks we've gotten our I800 paperwork in and also got all our paperwork in to get our visa's to be able to travel.   So, it's just a waiting game now.  We're waiting for our travel approval - which will give us our actual travel dates.  We're still hoping and praying that it will be before the end of the year.   It's funny - because I've been so busy with paperwork since all of this started that I have been wishing for this break to come when I didn't have any to fill out....and now that it is here...I don't know what to do!   I feel like I am missing something and there should be something that I need to fill out.   I'm trying to take this time to get ready for Alex's arrival since I know the paperwork will start back up again soon.  I'm working on cleaning out his room and getting it ready for him.  I'm also trying to sort through Sam's clothes and old bottles and stuff like that.   It's challenging with an energetic 2 year old in the house who desparately want to help also!

We're thankful for the blessing of Alex and can't wait to get him home.   We pray that God will keep him safe and healthy while we all wait for his perfect timing.

We got updated measurements

I'm so excited!   I woke up this morning to an email that had Alex's updated measurements in it.  Alex's birthday is Thursday this week (Oct 14th) so a few weeks ago I hunted down a company in China that will deliver care packages to children in orphanges.   We wanted to send him some things that he could keep and bring home with him.  Hopefully this will ease his transition as he will have something familiar to hang onto.  So, we had the company send him pj's, a blanket, a stuffed animal and some toys.  They also sent a letter that we wrote to Alex (translated in Chinese so the orphange workers could read it to him) and a soft photo album that had pictures of Doug, Sam and I.  I am thrilled with the way it turned out.
Well, when the company sent this care package to him, they also asked the orphange for updated measurements on Alex.  We were told originally that they weren't able to get them because the province office wouldn't allow this information to be shared until we were there to pick Alex up.   However, today I received an email with an update.   At one year old he is 19.1 pounds (15% on US growth charts for weight), and 26.4 inches tall (3% for height).   Looks like we're going to have another "vertically challenged" son.   I'm so happy to have received this information this morning and thank God for all his blessings!

Paperwork, Paperwork, and more Paperwork

That pretty much sums up how I am feeling today.   We finally got our I800 sent out on Saturday after waiting a few weeks to get approval from the state on our updated home study.   We needed to update it because we were previously approved for a healthy girl, but we are bringing home our Alex (special needs boy) instead.   Today I got an email from our adoption agency with the next step....which is travel.   I am now working on the paperwork to get our visa's.  This is a long, tedious process - but when I think about having Alex home - all I feel is excitement and joy.