Super News!

We got our TA today!!
  In our world of adoption lingo, that means travel approval.  China has formally approved our coming there to pick up our daughter!  Now our appointment at the consulate in China has been requested and we should hear by the end of this week our exact travel time. 

For planning purposes, we will be heading over there in a couple of weeks.  Yup, you read that right - a couple of weeks. To say we are excited is an understatement!

So glad we finished the little one's precious bedroom over the holidays.  Here's a peek into her very first bedroom.

Now all the room needs is her.  We can't wait to be in there playing with her and snuggling and reading.  Just so much to look forward to for all of us.  Our hearts are so full of joy right now, we can't possibly imagine the feeling of  meeting her for the first time. 

I saw this the other day and knew it belonged here on our blog.

Lily is very soon going to know her Mommy and Daddy! 

Finishing Touches

We are down to the last few things as we wait to hear of our travel date.  We had our "travel" conference call so we have a better idea what to expect when we go to China.

All comfy as we listen to the call on speaker...

Gracie was quite interested as well!

 

 Two weeks off from work is just what was needed to finish redoing furniture.

 

Books, books and more books to sort.  Yes, she will be that student who has already heard the stories her teachers will read to her.  That's a teacher's daughter!

Stroller is ready for our trip!

We hope to hear soon about a travel date!  Keeping fingers crossed it's soon.

Merry Christmas!

Michael and I received the best Christmas present earlier this year...we learned that we get to be Lily's Mommy and Daddy!  We are so happy that Lily made us parents and we are ready to go bring her home shortly.

Thank you to family who have things under their tree for our sweet little one.  Just wait until next year Lily Grace!

Merry Christmas to all of you and of course, Lily.  We love you.

Lately

Lately we've been getting a lot of good news!  Good news because while we don't have a travel date yet, we can at least see that light at the end of the tunnel.

Here's where we stand with the process:  

• We got our 1800 approval notice which let us then proceed with the National Visa Center to be able to send our necessary information to the US Embassy in Guangzhou. 
•  All of our approval notices have been sent to our representative in Guangzhou and now they will request our Article 5 letter - this is a confirmation step letting China know that all our paperwork is ready at the consulate for our consulate appointment.  
• Once the Article 5 letter is ready, we'll be in the homestretch for traveling!

While all that paperwork stuff is happening, we've been shopping! And who wants to brave the stores and mall around this time?  We stayed home and shopped...

Go figure! Who made that rule anyway?

 We should have some goodies being delivered this week:

Car seat - check
Cabinet/plug safety devices - check
Booster Seat - check
Umbrella stroller for China trip - check
Grandma's new SUV so she has room for a car seat too - check!

Not hardly a conversation can go by nowadays without talking and planning about Lily.  Everyday things we do now we always mention that in just a short amount of time we'll be doing all these things with Lily.  Our hearts are just so full and happy right now!  We just can't hardly stand the wait until we can hold her and begin our lives with her.

Tired from shopping, we did manage a bit of time at the park with the puppies!

Of course our conversation revolved around bringing Lily there in the spring to play.