** Off to China **

Well, this will be the last post until we are in China.

Since it is "officially" Wednesday 31st. (it's 12am and I still can't sleep) we only have 1 more day left. Today will be filled with final packing, double checking and triple checking. Making double copies of all of our paperwork (just in case) and saying goodbye to the "kids" - the cats Elizabeth and Charlie. (I just have to wonder what they will do when she's finally here!?!?!)

We leave Thursday a.m. @ 9:51am. We meet Anne Marie the afternoon of Monday 5th . We'll return on Friday 16th @ 5:05pm.

We'll be updating our blog from China and sending e-mails if at all possible!! If you'd like post notes on the blog while we're gone , we'd love it -- that way we can keep up with you all and feel more "at home".

We do ask that everyone say a prayer for us. Pray for safe travel, good weather, easy government appointments, and pray for Anne Marie as she adjust to us and deals with losing her foster mom and becoming part of our family. We pray that we're able to have a positive bonding experience while we're there. God has been so good to us and know that he'll be with us our entire trip and trust that he will see us through!!

We'll see you all when we're home and can not wait for each of you to meet Anne Marie. We'll let you all know when we're rested. (haa haa -- does that ever happen after you have children? I guess we'll soon find out!)

Melissa & Mike & very soon -- Anne Marie!!

1 Week and Counting ....

Today we received our travel itinerary. We found out which hotels were going to be at and when all our government appointments are, but best of all ...... we found out that Monday February 5th will be the day that we finally get to meet Anne Marie!!!!

We can not believe that this time next week we will be in the air on our way to China. Reality is finally setting in I think.

The first few days we will be in Beijing so that we can see The Great Wall, Tienanmen Square, The Forbidden City, a pearl and jade factory, as well as a few other places they have planned for us. We will spend about a week in her Provence (Jiangxi) taking care of some paperwork, touring, shopping and hopefully bonding successfully with our daughter! Then we will travel to Guangzhou to finalize her visa and the rest of her paperwork, we will be there almost a week. We found out today that the weather will vary from 30 degrees all the way to over 70 degrees depending on which Provence we're in! Talk about a packing challenge!!! (And we can not have more than 44 pounds of checked luggage per person!!! -- I will be an expert at packing by the time we're done -- can I make a career out of that??)

We will then fly out of Hong Kong -- I wish we had a few days there, but I think unfortunately it will be just a few hours at the airport. I'm sure by the time that day comes, we will be SO ready to come home, we won't miss touring Hong Kong.

We will post at least one more time before we leave to say "goodbye" to everyone. We will also try to keep our blog updated while we're in China. We've been told that there are computers in the hotels that we can use based on a "pay per minute" basis. So please keep up with us while we're there, pray for us while we're gone, and post comments so we don't get "home-sick" while we're there!! (ha)

Melissa & Mike

God Answers Prayer !

Today is a wonderful day! God has come through for us again!

We received our consulate appointment today as well as booked our flights!

We will be leaving on February 1st. We will arrive in Beijing on February 2nd in the evening. (They are 13 hours ahead of us right now) So we'll loose a day, but that's one day closer to Anne!! Our consulate appointment is on February 14th -- how great is that !! Our adoption paperwork will actually be finalized on Valentines Day.

Mike and I know that God was watching out for our travel group, because we found out a couple days ago that one last family in our group still did not have that ever-so-necessary Immigration form. (The one we were waiting for a couple weeks ago) . Just yesterday they received a copy of their form that gave them their immigration approval, and just TODAY our consulate appointments came in. IF we would have gotten these appointments any sooner, this family may not have been able to travel with us. Now, all 36 families will be able to travel together! We just know that God did not want one family to be left behind!

We are praising God in a big way today and we are so excited that we finally are a step closer to our dream. We should have a full itinerary next week of when we'll be where and what day we will actually be united with our daughter. We will let everyone know as soon as we find out.

Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes, now, let's all pray for GOOD WEATHER! (ha)

Melissa & Mike

25th a "No Go" -- Trying to Keep Hope!

Well, tonight while we were at church we got an e-mail from the travel coordinator at our agency. They have informed us that there are no appointments available for the week they were trying to book for us. They said they are trying to get appointments for us the following week. So at this point the earliest we can travel is going to be around February 1st.

Needless to say, Mike and I are very sad that we are having to wait again, when we were trying to prepare ourselves to get our little girl next week! We are just trying to stay positive and know that God is making these plans for us.

We are now at the point that we will need to leave around 2/1 or we will be in the middle of Chinese New Year, so if they can not get an appointment made by then, we'll have to wait until the first week of March after the New Year is over. We ask all our friends and family to pray that they will be able to make appointments for us in time to slide in there before CNYear!!

Mike and Melissa

Getting Closer .....

Ok -- today we received an e-mail stating that the CCAA finally sent in our travel approval from China.

This gives our agency permission to request an appointment with the Chinese Consulate (which is where we will be able to sign the legal paperwork to adopt Anne Marie). We will not find out when we'll be able to get this appointment until sometime next week. We are still a little worried about getting this appointment before Chinese New Year starts. From what we've heard the government will start their official time off for CNY around 2/15. I'm hoping that we can, but we hear the appointments are getting filled up FAST!

Our agency says that if they are able to get our appointment quickly, we should (and they stressed the word possibly in their e-mail) possibly be able to leave by January 25 !! WOOO HOO -- that's only 13 days away!! Well, I know what we'll be doing the next 2 weekends!! Packing, Packing, Packing!

Just pray that we'll get the appointment and travel plans all squared away! As Mike says,
"remember Melissa, all in God's time". God has reasons for the way he times things, we know, I guess I'm just getting anxious!

I just can't believe that it's finally here!! Just a couple weeks and we'll finally get to hold our sweet little girl!!

Melissa & Mike

Paper's In Hand -- Woo Hoo

Today, in the mail, we FINALLY received the actual copy of the USCIS form we've been trying to get for weeks. We just thought that we'd update everyone to let you all know it's now official. We're just waiting for our Travel Approval from China to come in, so that our agency is able to book our consulate appointment and flights. We've been hearing about these TA's coming in with other agencies over the last few days, but no news from our agency. We are faithful it will be soon -- all in God's time!

I have to say Anne Marie has the most wonderful family and friends. This weekend friends and family came together to throw a shower for Anne Marie (and Mike and I as well). I have to say that I couldn't have imagined a shower this wonderful! Thanks to Jenn H - Robin - Jennifer L - and Natalie for all you did -- we had a GREAT time!

She got beautiful clothes, great toys, wonderful books, and some great baby and nursery items. (As you can see by the pile of things in our living room!) There was great food, and what a cake -- thanks to a wonderfully talented friend of ours - Heather.

Speaking of talent. Everyone at the shower (and other family and friends that were not able to attend) sent in pieces of fabric so that another friend of ours - Jennifer L. - could put them all together into a beautiful quilt for Anne Marie. She did a beautiful job!!! The picture only shows the front, but the back is just as beautiful as the front. It has her name embroidered on it as well. Robin also put together a scrap book with a swatch of each fabric and well wishes from the friends and family that sent in that fabric.

I can not believe after 2 years we were finally able to have a baby shower for our little Anne Marie!! It's hard to imagine this time has finally come.

Now, on to packing for the trip (this will be the third try at packing Anne's suitcase) -- I got a tip to roll clothes instead of laying them flat -- maybe that will give me more room! (haa!!) Third time is a charm right?

God Is Good !

Well, we made some progress today with the USCIS!! We were able to talk to someone today and she finally was able to approve our paperwork!

At this point we were able to get a faxed copy of the important "I-171H" form today. We still have to get the original in hand, but a copy of the signed approval is a GREAT start! She promised me today that she would have the original sent out in the mail tomorrow. So we're continuing prayer that it will be here by Wednesday of next week.

We have faxed a copy of this copy to our agency, but it wasn't until late this evening, so I will have to talk to them tomorrow to make sure they got it and to make sure that they will be able to use it to start our travel approval. (I talked to someone today that said it should be enough to start everything, then I could just sent the original to them next week!)

God is SO good -- and today we just want to praise him for helping us through this time in our lives as well as all the friends, family & friends of family that were praying for us and checking on us these last couple of weeks.

I will update everyone to let them know when we get the original in the mail !!

Mike and Melissa

** Happy 2007 ! **

Well, it's now 2007!

I hope that everyone was able to have a safe and happy New Year. Friends cam from out of town this weekend to see us. We were able to have a wonderful dinner with them on New Years Eve and it was nice to get our mind off the stress that we've been having lately!

This week is set to be a crazy week for us. We're asking for more prayer this week as we are going to try to contact Congressman Goodlatte's office on Wednesday, the USCIS number we were given we will try to contact on Thursday (that was the day she told us we were allowed to call) and if neither of those contacts can help us get the form we need, we're going to travel to Washington DC and visit the USCIS office in person.

Please pray for Mike and I that we find wonderful people this week that are ready and willing to help us. We have heard that we might expect Travel Approval's from China this week, and if we can not get this form, our agency will not be able to make any travel plans or appointments with China for us to pick up Anne Marie!

God Bless each of you in this New Year!

Mike and Melissa