1st Update

Rob and I made it through the flight without any hiccups...yeah! We are now residing in our residence at the Shangi-La Hotel in Hohhot for the next week. It is currently 9:20 am in Wyoming which makes it 11:20pm here. No wonder we are whipped! Tomorrow is a recooperation day and Monday at 11:00 (China time) we will finally meet Pan Yu. Sorry for the short post everyone, but we are exhausted! We will post more tomorrow.

Travel Plans

What a whirl-wind week it has been! I have been attending a fabulous Lucy Calkins conference all while trying to get the last minute things around for our trip. I am very thankful for our long lunches (and being able to run errands kid free). Our money has officially been wired to China. I think I only have the following things to do:
* Finish packing for Jace
* Start and finish packing for me
* Gather toys for Eli (send him off to Nana & Papa's on Friday...yeah, there will be
some tears shed but the trip will probably be a little more smooth sailing)
* Double (yeah, try triple) check adoption paperwork
* Write up SKYPE directions for my parents (why do I find myself chuckling??)
* Clean up the house...nothing beats coming home to a clean house

I am sure there are numerous other little things that I will find myself doing!

Pan Yu .....In Our Arms a Week From Today????

Hard to believe that a week from today, we will be walking the street of Hohhot. Will our little man be with us or will we have to wait until Monday? We haven't received our agenda yet...oh, the suspense!

If you check our blog, maybe you will consider becoming a follower. Everyone that has a blog loves to see who visits. At the bottom of the page, is a place that you can click to become a follower. While we are in China, please feel free to post as many comments as you want. We will love hearing from family and friends while away....just like email and facebook you kind of look forward to saying, "Oh, we have five new messages to read!!" When our trip is over, I will print the comments and add them to Jace's scrapbook (which is already started...holy cow!!). I did this for Eli and we go back and read the comments quite frequently.

It has been one busy week. With Eli not going with us, I wanted to do as many adventures as we could. On top of swimming lessons, we went to the Botanic Gardens, Children's Village, Swetsville, hiking, quading, and a few other silly little things. Rob and I are going to miss him like crazy....and Nana and Papa are going to count down the days until our return.

Once home, it is going to be so weird (and nice!) not to be in this mode of preparing for children. Since Rob and I were married, we have been in some form of chaos (maybe not the best word....) to have our family. First it was invetro, then it was his reversal, job changes and moving to different cities (and then states) which delayed our 2nd adoption international adoption. There has been a lot of ups and downs, but we will finally have our two little boys....and a grandson on the way! I miss my brothers, sister-in-law, nieces, lots of family, and friends like crazy (by far the hardest thing about moving away...thank goodness for FB and unlimited texting...my connection to my zany nieces on a daily basis)....making new friends at this stage of my life isn't that easy, but slowly it's all coming together. Those of you that know me well will understand why I didn't mention my parents, one never knows where they will call home as they have lived as gypsies for the past 15 years (I think). They always come to visit, but you never know how long they will be able to stay or where their next journey will take them! What we do know is how much they love all their children and treasure every moment they get to spend with their grandkids!! This thought is hard to tie-in, but Labor Day Weekend's will never be the same. Getting together with many of my aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins and friends that we have known for so long that they are just family was so much fun for so many years!! I would love to have everyone list some of their favorite Labor Day stories over the years....fun and crazy times!

I will end my post with this....Life is a puzzle...sometimes its a 100 piece, other times its a 1,000 piece puzzle! After eight years of marriage, Rob and I can say we are(will be) a family of four...which will bring many crazy events!!!

Travel Dates

This is the million dollar paperwork...Our Notice to Travel to China!! The crazy thing is that the date on the stamp is my birthday.

Eli is very excited!

What an adventure the past two days have been but we FINALLY have the golden ticket. We will be flying from Denver on July 23rd and coming back Aug. 7th. Our gotcha day will probably be July 26th! We will know our exact travel agenda next week. It feels great to finally have ordered the tickets. Stay tuned to our agenda :) On a bright note, after three years I finally figured out how to load our camera for the computer. Now we will be able to skype while we are i n China.

The Call We Have Been Waiting On!!!

While Eli and I were reading books at the library, we finally got the call from Mary at Adoption Associates...we have received our TA (travel approval). Rob was sleeping so I couldn't share the news with him! We do have to wait one more day to find out when we are traveling....always something isn't it. :) Now the to-do lists start to get longer of things I must accomplish before we fly off. Hopefully by this time tomorrow we will have our travel plans...this is all becoming a reality quite quickly. Before I know it, I will be a mom of two boys....oh my!! This blog update is also a test run to see if my friend can add it to our blog since I won't be able to update my own blog while in China. I am very lucky to have her willing to do this for me!!

Frustration!

Still no word as to when we will be leaving for China. I realize we are so close now, but the wait is becoming overwhelming. The cost of plane tickets is next to ridiculous. They weren't kidding when they said to expect prices to go up! Eli is chomping at the bit to get his little brother (hopefully he remembers how excited he is while on the plane ride !) I have tried to explain to him how we are waiting for a very special phone call that will tell us when we get to go to China. So, now everytime the phone rings, he wants to know if that was the special phone call! Gotta love that kid....even if he is going through the stage of not wanting to follow directions. He also thinks naps are no longer needed (ah yes, some days my patience is tested) and bedtime isn't until 9 pm. It was nice to read a friends Facebook post stating how her child really isn't interested in going to bed...reminds me that trials and tribulations do happen to others :)

Hopefully my next post will bring details to our travel plans....we should be hearing something soon!

BaoTou Orphanage

Hard to believe that our little guy is somewhere wandering around in the hallways or playing outside in his temporary home. One of these days we will hear the news we have been waiting for but until then, we will continue to learn about his culture and prepare ourselves to be together!! I found this amazing poem that I couldn't resist posting.