Counting down the days

We leave in 16 days to go get our monkey :) Seem like the time is flying by. We still haven't decided on his name, still have to finish paperwork that we need to have while we travel, Still need to make appointments with the school principal for evaluations, and Still need to make appointment with social worker. The Elders Quorum are helping to gather donations for the orphanage for us to take with us: Cloth diapers 14.2inX 20.5 in, Rubber nipples 3-holes/cross cut- Gerber, Plastic bottles 150cc and 240 cc- Gerber, Sleeper M, L (cotton/rich), Underwear (onies) M,L, Gerber, Children's multi vitamins (chewable tablets), Vicks, Puzzles, books, coloring books, crayons, and markers. Thanks so much for their help I am sure the children will love having new stuff. During the last snow we had, when we were out very early delivering our papers and one of our subscribers was out shoveling her driveway when I stopped to take her paper to the porch she approached our car and asked how our adoption was going. I told her it was good and we are going to get him next month. She thanked us for our service and I told her how thankful we were to have the paper route to help us reach our $20,000 goal to complete our adoption. A few days later I was delivering the paper to her porch and there was a bottle of Sprite with a note to me attached sitting on her porch. Much to my surprise when I opened the note out fell a $100 bill to help with our adoption expenses. Yes, I finished the route with tears rolling down my checks. If it was not for the generosity of people like this we would have never been able to make this all happen and give this 6 year old little boy who has already overcome so much in his short life a forever family. We are so blessed to have friends, family and even strangers help us along this long journey. Thank you to everyone who has helped us get here today :)

The news is finally in :)

We could not be happier! On Jan 31st we got the news we have been waiting for since March 2012! Tayler, LuEssa and I leave on March 8th and we will be back March 15th with our new little monkey. We have never been out of the country so this whole trip is going to be crazy full of emotions! I am hoping to get lots of traveling tips to help make things go smoothly. I finished booking travel arrangements today, boy, was that a PAIN! Now I need to finish putting Griffin and "Percy's" room together, so far we have bunk beds painted with new mattresses :) We had a friend donate a ton of clothes to us so he already has drawers full of clothes and shoes (Thank goodness for that)!! We have gifts for his birth mom and the staff at his orphanage. I am working on getting together some donations to take to the orphanage. We need to decide on an American name for him, and many more things to do before we leave. We had a skype visit with him on Jan 29th, he was pretty restless. He loved our cat and tried to pet her through the screen, he showed us animal blocks and drew a picture of his hand. He blew us lots of kisses and said "I love you". I hope he is as ready to come home as we are to go get him.

Thank you all for the support you have givin us!!! We feel so blessed to have so many special friends and family!