We are on our way baby!!

We leave in 3 short days :)  Wow!  It has taken almost 17 months to get here.  I have had 17 months to prepare but I feel like I'm not ready to leave.  I can't wait until we can hold our sweet baby in our arms, kiss her chubby cheeks, tuck her in bed, give her baths, discover her favorite toys and food, hold her little hand and comb her hair.  I am not looking forward to leaving home for 14 days!  We have never been away for that long!  I am so thankful we are able to take our boys, I wish we could have brought all our family with us, I am going to miss them all so so much!  I still have to pack and get paperwork together.  I hope I don't forget anything important!  Please pray we have safe travels!  I can't wait until I can post pictures of our sweet little Dottie with her new Forever Family!  :)

17 more days!

After many paperwork setbacks, system shut downs, Chinese New Year, VISA's and a very VERY LOOOOONG wait we finally have our Travel Approval!  :)  We started our 2nd adoption journey just before Christmas 2013.  I wanted to make a donation for a child on Reeces Rainbow since that is where we found Isaac and we also received a grant from Reeces Rainbow for his adoption.  As I looked through the children I loved little Leandra.  Our nice had a baby that December and when we went to see her baby my husband said "we need another one" (yes, he gets baby hungry...LOL).  I told him there is a little girl waiting on Reeces Rainbow that would be perfect and he said OK, what do we have to do?  So the journey began again.  This adoption process has been a lot different than Isaacs I think mostly because Taiwan was not a Hague country so the paperwork was not as critical and has fewer requirements.  

While waiting for our approval and thinking we were fully funded for our adoption Dean was put on lifting restrictions and I injured my shoulder and needed to have surgery so now I have lifting restrictions too.  At the last minute we decided to bring our 2 teenage boys with us to get our little girl so they could help out with luggage and lifting.  We expedited their passports and now we have our VISA's and I have been busy trying to make our budget stretch as far as I can.  Trying to plan airfare is a pain.  I'm trying to keep down the cost but I also am trying to avoid driving 12 hours to Las Angeles (since it would save us a bundle on airfare).  We leave in 17 days and feel like I have a million things to do.  Planning a trip for 4 for 14 days and having to work with a travel planner in China who will arrange in country stuff is way more difficult than I expected.  In Taiwan we were on our own to make all travel, hotel, and transportation arrangements. We only had 2 appointments in Taiwan and this trip has many more.  I'm sure we are in good hands but still the communication and working with a tight budget is stressful.  

I want to thank everyone for your help, support and prayers as we move on to the next portion of our adoption.  TRAVEL :)