We received our travel approval today!

Our agency e-mailed us today with our travel invitation letters from China. We are so excited to be one step closer in our journey to Madison. Next week we should have our Consulate Appointments set in Guangzhou & then our itinerary will be set. We are hoping to be able to actually book our tickets end of next week!

This is going very fast (of course there is still an element of slowness knowing that she is still there waiting for us). Tonite we worked on our packing list so we can feel a little more organized.

Last week we sent a care package to Madison with a blanket, camera, & a photo book with our pictures. These were sent to a lady in China that does Care Packages who will add a few other items & translate our letter for us.

We have also put a few finishing touches on the nursery:

A little about Jiangxi Province

Over the past couple of days I have been researching the province where Madison comes from & have learned a lot. This province is known for it's porcelain, which will be adding to our list of things to buy. The climate is sub-tropical so even in late October/early November it should be pretty warm still. Jiangxi is also one of the poorer provinces in southern China as many of the larger cities in the south attract workers away for better paying jobs.

Above is a map of Jiangxi, currently Madison is in Leping (which is to the east of the large lake). When we travel to the province we will likely go to Nanchang to get her as this is where the Civil Affairs Office is located.

More info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangxi

P.S. Our acceptance went off on Friday (along w/the 4 other families in our agency's travel group aka 'Group 92') via DHL to China. Now we wait for the Travel Approval (which will come in about 4 weeks).

Introducing Madison

Here are the pictures of our Jiangxi Jewel. We are in love with this little girl already. We're still mulling over what her middle name will be, but most likely something with 'Yi' in it which means 'happy.'

It's a Girl!

We got the call today @ 12:15 pm telling us about the referral of our baby girl.


Name: Le Ping Yi (Yi means 'Happy')
Born: 02/5/07
She is currently in foster care out of Leping SWI in Jiangxi Province.

We are so excited to finally be able to see her face! We have pictures but are unable to upload them, should have these uploaded tomorrow.

Referrals are on the way

The current buzz is that referrals are on the way from China. For those who aren't familiar with how this process works, here are the steps:

1. Our file got matched with an available baby (this should have already happened)

2. Our referral (along with the other 4 families in our agency's travel group) will be sent with a picture & information about the baby.

3. This info is translated into English & we are called with basic information (aka 'The Call')

4. We will go to the agency to get our picture, file & letter of acceptance (LOA).

5. We sign the letter of acceptance once we are comfortable with the information provided (& have the medical information reviewed by an adoption specialist) & this gets sent back to China. Hopefully this part won't take more than a couple of days.

6. China then sends us an invitation called a Travel Approval (TA) allowing us to make our consulate appointment (CA) with the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China.

7. Once our CA is made, we can make our travel plans & start packing!!

Hopefully getting the above steps c0mpleted won't take more than about 4 weeks so we can have about 3-4 weeks notice after that before we travel. As soon as we get information I will post this. Hopefully this will be Tues or Wed at the latest.

In Loving Memory

My Aunt Jan passed away early this past Sunday morning. Our family is sad to have lost her so suddenly. She was a woman with great determination & a beautiful spirit. She loved angels, being with family and travelling. I am blessed that I got to spend time with her at our recent family reuion. We will miss her much, but her memory will live on in our hearts forever.

Quiet Time

As the day gets closer for our referral, I find myself having a lot more quite time to reflect & pray about the next couple of months. I have read in many other blogs & in various places from parents returning with their babies that this is the time to take a deep breath & enjoy before our life gets turned on it's ear.

Although this past 2 years have been very hard at times, I have found a peace in the waiting. Last year about this time when I realized that the wait would stretch out much longer, I finally came to a place of acceptance. It seems strange but the past year has actually gone by pretty fast. I feel blessed to have this time to really prepare for the journey ahead. I know the days ahead may have a lot of difficult moments, but I finally feel ready to face them.

In many regards I feel blessed to have had this extra time. I think of the friends & family I know that have unexpectedly found themselves pregnant & not ready for a baby (or another one) and they have little time to pull it all together for this life change. We have had the luxury of being able to plan & think things through. We have been able to talk about what kind of parents we want to be & what stances we may take on various topics. I know some of what we decided may need to be flexible, but we have the foundation (on God) at least that gives us our guiding principles for decisions.

We are ready, now bring on those referrals!!