We have travel approval!

Hey friends! Let the blogging begin!

Well, today at12:30pm I got a call from Kristen at our adoption agency. The long awaited call... We have travel dates, or at least tentative travel dates! We will be leaving Indianapolis on the evening of the 9th - yes, that is only 9 days away!!! I'm sure you can imagine the chaos. The lists have begun...baby Tylenol, little bitty socks, hand sanitizer, tiny shoes, visas, baby backpack, travel guides, crib sheets...I could go on and on...and on! And then there are the errands. You can pray that we keep our stuff together!

We will be in China until probably the 24th of September. We aren't sure if Lauren and Marcus will be traveling with us or not. We are hoping, but that is a major prayer concern. Pray that it would work out just how it should.

OK, so now that you're up to date with the now, let me give you the back story:

We started this process 3 1/2 years ago - February of 2006. It seems like eons ago...Our kids were in very different places at 5 and 3 years old. We had been thinking about adopting a little girl from China since when we first got married, so we jumped in, hoping it would take about 18 months or so to do the whole thing - that had been our friends experience anyway.

Well, our paperwork went to China on August 22, 2006 and we were logged into China's system on September 19. And then we waited...and waited. The wait time went from 12 months when we started to 40 months wait for families getting healthy baby girls now (I think). We would still be waiting, but last fall, we decided we didn't want to wait the 6 years it was going to be, and we chose to accept a baby girl with minor special needs. That line is a little shorter. We knew we could get a call at any time with a little one who matched our profile.

Our first call came on May 19, 2009. There was a 20 month old little girl with cleft lip that was available. We were seriously considering her and beginning to get excited. Then, before we had said yes, about 3 hours into deliberations, another family snapped her up. We experienced such disappointment. On top of it all, this was the arrival day for 40 college students for our summer mission project that my husband is in charge of and I am heavily involved with. OH, WHAT A DAY. Roller coaster would aptly describe our emotions. But in the midst of all this there was a peace that passes understanding and a knowledge that thankfully, we are not in control.

Summer Project came with all of it's fun, stress, busy-ness and travel. By the beginning of July we were exhausted, but it was time to move on to the next thing: the bi-annual staff conference for Campus Crusade in Colorado - a 2 week trip plus a week long vacation. In prep for this, I flew out to CO on the 10th of July for some meetings while David stayed in Indy with the kids working from home. At 8am, as I was preparing to leave the Denver airport enroute to Fort Collins for the day, I got another call from our agency. They had another little girl for us to consider. This time she was a 2 year old with pulminary valve stenosis - a fixable heart valve issue. So, David and I, with laptops and phones connecting us, decided this was our little girl! What a day! Needless to say, focusing on meetings all day was a challenge!

We were originally told that we'd go get her in October or November, but every approval kept flying at us in record time, so low an behold, we are traveling next week! We have named her Meilynn Noelle (pronounced maylynn). Her birthday is May 2, 2007. She is my very first dark haired baby and she likes to play with cars :). We don't know if she's had her surgery yet, but we are praying for her heart every day.

Please pray with us! We need it and she does too. We will keep you posted.