HER ROOM IS READY!

Kelina and Kaylie's room is finally ready! I kept postponing ironing the drapes to be the canopy for the beds...I don't enjoy ironing. I think their room turned out adorable, don't you?! I couldn't find the bedspread that Kaylie has, but I found something that went well. The fairies and butterflies will be cute for Kelina since she is only 4. I wanted to stick to the monotone color scheme. This lavender is so pretty and feminine. Kaylie really wanted bunkbeds, but we wanted to hold off and see how sharing a room goes. This way the girls can see each other across the room when they are tucked in at night!

I can just see them giggling and talking together at night time! Unfortunately it won't stay this clean, I can picture that soon there will be stuffed animals covering the floor as two little girl's dressed up as princess or fairies dance around the room.

In Two weeks!

In just two weeks, we will meet our precious daughter whom we have been holding in our hearts since we saw her sweet face that January day! We will finally get to hear her voice, hold her in our arms, and look into her eyes face to face. It will come so soon and we are so excited! We have been longing for this day for so long! But we know that it will be a very different day for our girl. She will be taking a five hour train ride with the director of the orphanage and some of the nannies. We know of three other girls who will be traveling with her to meet their forever families. I take comfort in knowing that she has friends and familiar faces coming along on this journey. Matt and I have been in touch with these families and we hope to spend time during the two weeks with them as the girls get use to their new families. It is very likely that Kelina has been removed from her foster home or will be shortly and will stay at the orphanage to "help" with the transition. I've been praying that God will keep angels around her who will help her to fall asleep at night and hold her til morning. Kaylie told me, "Don't worry mom, God will take care of her until we get her". Such faith! Soon after the train arrives in Nanning, Kelina will be placed in our arms, but to her it will be the arms of strangers who look different and smell different and talk different. Thankfully she will have seen pictures of us from the albums we sent. But, she will miss her foster grandmother and grandfather and be homesick for the place she called home for 3 years. My heart aches knowing the grieving she will experience. We ask that you keep her in your prayers as you have been doing. Pray for this transition for her into our family. So much is going to change for her.

Why Foster Care is so important

A friend of mine who volunteers for Grace and Hope for Children, a non-profit Christian foundation that helps get orphaned children into foster homes sent me this link to show how important foster care is for children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGQ2qeEif6Q

The children receive more individual attention and love than they would at an orphanage. Being in a foster home helps kids who are sick to heal and get better. They also learn to bond and make attachments to others that are vital to a successful life.

Our precious Kelina would have spent 3 years in her orphanage if it wasn't for someone sponsoring her to be in foster care. Because of someone choosing to spend $46 a month in sponsorship, our Kelina has spent 3 years with loving grandparents. They have feed her and held her when she was sad or hurt, they sung to her and tucked her into bed, they woke up to take care of her when she wouldn't sleep at night, and they brought her to her school at the orphanage. We are so grateful for their love and devotion to our girl. And we can not express how much it means to us that someone would chose to sponsor our daughter and sacrifice financially to provide so much for a little girl 1/2 way around the world whom they had never meet.

Please consider sponsoring a child. There are some children in Kelina's orphanage and other orphanages still waiting for a sponsor. Visit www.grace-hope.org

We have our DATES!!

We didn't get the date we wanted for the first week of July. We wanted this date because we had friends who would be there that week getting their girl. We got the next week instead.
We will fly out on July 2nd and return home July 20th
Kelina Day (Gotcha day) will be July 5th!! When we finally get to hold our girl!!
Consulate date will be July 14th.
See the side for our itinerary!!

TA!!!!

We received our Travel approval on Friday June 11th!!! Sent our desired dates to the consulate in Guangzhou through our agency, but have to wait for their response until Monday because of the weekend :(

Traveling East Traveling West

This week our care package is traveling to Kelina's SWI! This week our TA (Travel appointment/approval) is traveling to us! Kelina will have a few weeks to flip through the scrapbook I made of her new family, listen to us read her a "Wu Ay Ni" (I love you) book with our recorded voices, and cuddle with the light up Panda Bear! The pictures that her teacher or foster grandmother will take of her exploring her package will be priceless!
I'm suppose to be preparing for a yard sale on Saturday, but who can when I'm going to be traveling so soon! I'll probably throw everything out in the driveway with a sign that says "make an offer"!
We can't wait, the time is ticking closer to going and meeting our girl! Two weeks...three weeks?! Not long know, Kelina!

COME ON ALREADY!!

Okay so this week is the week that I am hoping for TA!! I am keeping myself busy around the house, cleaning, going through summer clothes, etc. It looks like appointments with the US consulate/embassy over in China are still getting filled up! I am praying I get TA (that is travel approval, i.e. "Come and Get Her!" for those not up on adoption lingo) this week so that we can get our appointment at the consulate before they keep getting filled!! It looks like they are booking for last week of June and first week in July. We have to travel around this appointment! Pray TA comes soon. Thanks!