We have our girl!

We picked up Hayley (right now we are calling her Yi Qing) less than 24 hours ago at the Civil Affairs office in Xian.  She scream, kicked, and punched us while we were there, and by the time we got to the car, I think she just gave up.  Poor baby - it was so difficult on her, and on her Nanny that appeared to be very attatched to her.  Once we came back to the hotel, we were able to get her to smile and even got some kisses!  She is a sweatheart. 

We found out that she was actually placed in an orphanage through Hope Haven, which is a mission-focused, Christian organization.  They took so much time in making a photo album of pictures from when she was a tiny baby.  This was such a special gift for her to have and for us!  It seems that they took very good care of her.  She seems overall healthy, and she smiles easily.  She even knew the sign for I love you...precious!  They celebrated her first and second birthdays with birthday cakes and party hats, and they celebrated Christmas too!

We are just so in love with this little girl already.  God has had His hand on her for the last 2 years of her life. On her schedule we were given, they told us that every night is "prayer and praise" time before bed, and her album has the verse Psalms 68:5-6 "A father to the fatherless, a defender of the widows, is God in His holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families..."  We are so blessed. She really is precious-this beautiful chiild of God.  I know the work is not over, and I am sure there will be difficult times and adjustments.  But I know that God will give us the grace to get through it.  She was given to our family for a reason. 

Believe it or not, she laid down next to me last night at 8:45, and she is still sleeping (it is 6:00am).  Nate and I are sitting here, anxiously waiting for her to wake up.:-)  I would love to post some pictures, but right now the internet is running slow!  So I will try to have pictures up, later today (tomorrow morning for you).  Keep the prayers coming!

Beijing

It's evening in Beijing right now...I am looking out the 18th floor window to this crazy and very dirty city.  There is a lot of things about Beijing that I am not fond of, but I do love experiencing my daughters culture and the people are wonderful.  We were blocked from our blog and facebook, but figured out a way to by- pass security by logging onto a computer in the U.S.  Yesterday was our first full day here, and we were able to see the Great Wall.  It was absolutely breath-taking...

After climbing the wall, there was several vendors, and I found this cool hand-painted bottle.  It is actually painted on the inside of the bottle, and they put Hayley's name in English and Manderin.  I love it!  And Aidan and Cameron - I got you both something too, but I am not posting a picture of that! :-) You will have to wait till I get home.

 

This afternoon we had orientation, and they had updated pictures for us!  Yay!  Tomorrow we fly to Xian, Shaanxi, and we will then, meet our little girl!  It's finally here!  I am hoping to post by Sunday with pics/video of her.  Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Here we go!

Sometimes the wait seemed so long over the last year, especially when I saw her very first picture.  It felt like it was going to be the longest 4-6 months of my life.  Even though some of the days were longer than others, I can't believe I am sitting here.  Bags are packed, and I am so ready to meet my daughter!  I must say for the first time, I feel nervous.  Mostly nervous about how she is going to react to us.  I am praying that she bonds and attaches to us both quickly, but I also know that it is sometimes not the case.  So those of you that have kept our family in your prayers, please pray that God is preparing her heart.

I will miss my boys terribly!  I will definitely be holding back tears when I say goodbye on Wednesday morning.  Leaving them for 2 weeks is not my first choice, but the best one for our family right now.  They will start school while we are gone.  Today they found out who their teachers will be, so I was glad to know that before I left.  I love you my sweet boys!

We leave on Wednesday, and on Sunday we will meet our little girl.  For those of you on the east coast, we will meet Hayley while you are sleeping (Saturday night into Sunday).  I hope to post something that night when she (hopefully) falls asleep...ha! :-)

God has been so good!  I know I have said that over and over in my posts, and I will continue to say it always.  He has blown me away with this whole adoption journey.  Financially He has blessed us with what we need, when we needed it.  Emotionally and Spiritually, I have grown so much.  I am starting to see that when we follow His will, and we are doing something to futher His Kingdom, He will bless that.

We will be in four different cities, while we are in China.   I am sure the trip will be exhausting, but also so exciting to see the culture and experience the country that our daughter is from.   I hear that driving over there is an experience, and that the Chinese food there is nothing like the Chinese food here.  I am very excited see what "squeak" shoes are all about, and plan on getting Hayley a pair.  I am most certainly not looking forward to the "bathrooms"  that are just a hole in the ground (hmmmm...), or the intense heat that we were told to expect. But we are really looking forward to seeing the Great Wall, and we are hoping to toboggan down.   I never knew you could do that!

So I thought I would post a few pictures of her room here, and the next time I post we will be in China!!! Yay! 

Travel Approval!!!!!!!!!!!

Woohoo!  I am beyond excited!  We get to meet our daughter for the first time in a little over 2 weeks!  I know the next two weeks are going to be crazy, but a good kind of crazy.  I am full of so many emotions right now.  Just knowing that I will get to meet our little Hayley so soon...wow...my eyes are filled with tears just thinking about it.  The other part of me is a little sad to say goodbye to my boys for 2 1/2 weeks, and miss their first day of school.  I am so thankful to have such an amazing family here that I know will take care of them, like I would!

Thank you to all of our family and friends that have been so supportive of our adoption.  There is so many of you that are now a part of bringing this little girl home through prayer and financial support.  We are so thankful for that.  God has blown me away over the last year.  We knew that he was calling us to adopt, but did not see any humanly possible way that could happen.  He has blessed us over and over in ways that no one could ever explain.  Someday soon, I plan to put the whole story here! 

Please check in while we are in China, as I plan to post pictures and video of our adventure!  At this point, we are scheduled to leave on August 16th, and that will be confirmed early this week coming. 

Here we come Hayley Grace!!!!

Trying to be patient!

We are getting closer!  We should have a travel date in the next 2-3 weeks, and then leave approximately two weeks later.  I am so ready!  I must check my phone and email a hunderd times a day.  It looks like Nate and I will most likely miss school starting.  That was definitely a struggle for me because Cameron is starting Kindergarten.  I am not too excited about missing that milestone for him, but I know God's timing is perfect.  We will set up skype, so I can at least talk to them that morning.  On the other hand, if we leave any later, we may miss his birthday.  He was not thrilled about that option, so if they give us the option, we will choose to miss the first day of school. 

Hayley's room is all ready!  It is so girly!!!  Something that I am really not used to with this house full of boys.  I have definitely been out-numbered here for a while!  So I am ready to have another girl in this house! 

For those of you that have been praying for our family, thank you!  Please continue to pray for a quick TA(Travel Approval), and that God would prepare Hayley's heart for the difficult transition that she is about to face.  Poor thing is going to go through so much in such a short period of time.  Pray that she adjusts and bonds to us quickly. 

Next time you hear from me, I plan to announce our travel date! Thank you to those that have been followng along.  We plan to blog from China, and hopefully post pictures and videos, as well.   Hope to have a reason to be back on here really soon! 

Here is another picture for you...:)

Update!!!

Today we received an update on our little Hayley Grace!  They say she is doing well, and her speech has improved a little since our last update in April.  You have no idea how badly I want to get on a plane and bring my baby home! 

LOA!!!

Yesterday, we received our LOA(Letter Of Acceptance) from China!  This is the paper we have been waiting for.  It basically says that they have officially been approved as Hayley's parents!  We needed this paper in order to get our Travel Approval.  There is a few steps of paper work in between now and then, but I will not bore you with all of that! :-)  At this point, my agency feels we will travel before the end of August. 

Our case worker agreed to request another update for us, so I am hopeful that by the end of next week, we will have new pictures!  I finally see an end in sight, and am beyond anxious to meet my daughter!  Even if she does scream at me!  :-)

God has been so good, and provided everything we have needed throughout this process.  As some of you may know, adoption is expensive.  Through fundraisers and some very generous souls, we have raised about $18,000, so far.   At this point, the remainder of the money that we need to raise, is for our travel expenses.  I have just been in awe!  We have the money exactly when we need it, and sometimes down to the penny!  There is no doubt that God wants Hayley Grace here!