NEW BLOG

Due to technical difficulties in China, I cannot access Blogspot. Therefore, please bookmark this new blog for posts while we are in China. Sorry for the confusion.

http://www.babyjellybeans.com/web/do/site?ID=29408

Thank you for all your prayers. Happy Abby Eve (sent 8 p.m. 1/24 - China time)

What day is it

After waking at 3 a.m. local time and watching two dvds it was time to get up and start our day. We had a brief discussion what day it was and experienced the full blown effects of "JET LAG". I had a cup of Folgers coffee that I brought from home. It was the best coffee ever. Then we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel. I had some bacon, eggs and french toast. I am not the adverturous type when it comes to food. Hoffman had some potatoes, steamed pumpkin and Chinese pancakes. It was very good. The high temperature today is supposed to be 25 degrees F so we added another layer of clothing after breakfast and headed to the lobby. We met Gary and headed to Tian An Men Square - a giant courtyard inside a wall. By the way did I mention the high today was 25? Inside the square is the Fobbiden City a series of gates and walls and snow covered courtyards - another outside tour. Did I mention 25 degrees and the snow was from over a month ago? The handwarmers I purchased at Academy worked well. After the beginning stages of frostbite started we headed to lunch (an indoor event). We were told it was a traditional Thai meal (Ratsamy you would have loved it). They had some dancers doing some traditional umbrella/belly dancing while we ate. Becky had her first Diet Coke in almost a day - her favorite part of the trip so far. After lunch we went to the Pearl Market. I captured an oyster with a net and "Alice" (again not her real name) harvested some pearls. There were close to 20 pearls in one oyster and we each got one as a souvenir. We purchased some items and headed to The Temple of Heaven - another outside event but I think we finally made it to 25 degrees and the Temple is beautiful. We are resting at our hotel now before dinner and a Kung Fu show. Thanks for the prayers. We are having the time of our lives."
Becky & Becky

Day 1 - January 20/21st

Due to some technical difficulties Jinni will be our scribe for the first few days. Thanks JT!We travelled to Seattle next to a nervous woman who tapped her fingers on her tray and a man in front who snored loudly. It was great. We were upgraded to business class for the trip to China. That was awesome. We had a special dinner menu and our seats made into beds. I slept great.. We were met at airport by "Gary" - pretty sure that is not his real name and after an hour long drive we arrived at our hotel. We were beat and in bed by 8 p.m. local time. LeFan

Itinerary

1/20 8:15 a.m. DFW to Seattle
1:20 p.m. Seattle to Beijing

1/21 4:35 p.m. arrive in Beijing
go to hotel Super House International

1/22 Sightseeing - Forbidden City, Tian An Men Square and Temple of Heaven
Evening - Traditional Hong Kong Fuoey Show

1/23 Sightseeing - Great Wall and Old Beijing Area
Evening - Chinese Acrobatic Show

1/24 10:50 a.m. Beijing to Wuhan
go to hotel Poly White Rose Hotel

1/25 Meet Abby

1/26 Adoption Paperwork and Abby Time

1/27 Sightseeing Yellow Crane Tower and Abby Time

1/28 Hubei Museum and Abby Time

1/29 Passport Ready
6:10 leave Wuhan for Guangzhou
arrive 8:05 go to hotel Riverside Hotel

1/30 Photos/Medical Examination

1/31 Relax and Abby Time

2/1 Visa Appointment

2/2 On our own - scary

2/3 Visa at 3 p.m. and Celebration at 4:30

2/4 9:30 a.m. Leave Guangzhou to Shanghai
6 p.m. leave Shanghai to Chicago
5:10 p.m. arrive Chicago
7:10 Leave for DFW
9:40 We are home!!

Request for Prayers

My good friend Becky Hoffman and I leave for China in 6 days to bring Abby home. I would ask that you pray the prayer below for us every day while we are travelling that we may be safe and protected during our journey. Thank you again for your love, friendship and support over the past four years of waiting.

Prayer for a Safe Journey

Lord, be with Becky, Becky and Abby. Be their guide and protector on their journey. Watch over them. Protect them from accidents. Keep them free from harm to body and soul. Lord support them with Your grace when they are tired. Help them to be patient in any trouble which may come their way. Keep them ever mindful of Your presence and love. Amen

Flights Have Been Booked

Okay prayer warriors start praying now! Our flights have been booked. My friend Becky and I leave for China next Wednesday, January 20th. We travel to Seattle then on to Beijing. We will spend two days in Beijing seeing the Great Wall before travelling to Hubei to get Abby. We spend one week in Hubei doing the China portion of the paperwork and then travel to Guangzhou to complete the US portion of the paperwork. We then will travel home on 2/4 from Shanghai. It is our plan to blog as often as we can depending on internet connections so you will be able to keep up with us here on the blog.

Please pray for our safe journey!

Travel Authorization Received

Yesterday Gladney called to inform me my Authorization to Travel to China had been received. The next step is to get an appointment at the consulate for Abby to get her Visa. My friend Becky and I have sent in our paperwork to obtain our Visas to travel to China and hopefully we can get those back and the appointment made so we can make our travel arrangements for China.

Keep praying. I would love to be able to be with Abby on her first birthday on the 30th of this month.

Thank you for your support,
Becky

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I am really excited about this year. I don't have anything new to tell you yet but I do covet your prayers as this wait seems long now that my sweet baby has a face. I am hoping to hear from Gladney today as to when we will have the travel meeting and when the travel authorizations will come in from China so we can prepare our Visa paperwork. As with everything else in this process, one piece of paper depends on the prior piece of paper being approved. I am hanging in there but would ask that you pray that I hear some good news from Gladney this week. I am really wanting to go to China before Abby's first birthday but with the Chinese New Year looming, it needs to happen pretty quickly. Please pray everything falls into place so we can travel at the end of this month. If we hit the Chinese New Year shut down, we won't travel until the end of February.

Blessings to you!

-Becky

Today is the day.

It has been one amazing day. I woke up after not enough sleep to snow covering the ground. I was running late but checked the rumor site to find the following note: R-5 - Cut off Date March 31st. I immediately called my friend Becky to tell her. She was so excited. On the long (1 1/2 hour ride to work - Texas drivers and snow) I texted family and friends to tell them "it could be today. Say a prayer and stay tuned." When I got to work I had an email from Gladney that referrals were on the way and I would receive a call when they arrived. My case worker had told me the usual time for calls was our 3:30 our time. I almost made it but around 2 I finally emailed her to ask if they had arrived. Then, at 2:49 p.m. Wendy from Gladney called to tell me about my little girl. It is all a blur right now but she did say she would send the photos after she hung up. I hung up and everyone standing around my desk screamed. The executives came in to hear the news and we all waited for the photo. She is absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait to hold her. God has blessed me so richly. Thanks for hanging in there with me and stay tuned for further updates. Travel is expected in 6-8 weeks.

Still we wait . . .

Still waiting - they placed babies with families with login dates through 3/28/06 on 10/12/09. Logically now they are working on 3/29/06 (my day). They were averaging sending out referrals once a month but last month took 52 days. I am hoping for sooner rather than later but no rumors yet so I don't know. :( I will keep you posted. Keep praying!

Looks like we missed the cutoff

Well, apparently referrals are on their way to the US. Unfortunately, they only matched through March 28th. This means I missed the September (actually mailed in October) referral cutoff by one day. Hopefully, they will mail another group in October but there is no guarantee. I will keep you posted. Keep praying.

August Update

China has officially processed families with Login Dates (LID) through March 24, 2006. The 25th and 26th were weekend days which usually don't have LIDs so we only have three more days of paperwork to be processed to reach 3/29/06 - my LID. They have processed two days per month over the last two months so if they keep up the current rate, I should receive a call in October and travel in December. It would be nice if they could go ahead and get to the 29th in September but it is probably not likely. Keep praying. All things are possible.