Counting it all Joy

Sam's Baptism Jumper

Donations for Sam's orphanage

Kim and Suze

Promoting Adoption for National Adoption Month

5 days until we leave and time is really passing quick! Today, a dear friend of ours, Kim Hendrix, interviewed Suze on WSFA's Alabama Live to promote adoption. November is National Adoption Month. You can watch the interview by clicking http://www.wsfa.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipid1=1942379&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=Local+Family+Prepares+for+Adoption&d1=352867&redirUrl=www.wsfa.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage . Above are some pictures. We also wanted to send a special thank you to everyone who donated medicine for Sam's orphanage. We know they will be very grateful for the supplies. Also pictured above is the outfit that Sam will be wearing when he gets Baptized. Thank you to our dear sweet friend Dot (Aunt Dot to Sam) for purchasing the suit.... it is such a special gift and we will forever cherish it! We also want to send a special thanks to Judy and Jerry... (Sam's Mimi and Papasan).. we love the both of you very much for and we Praise God for Him bringing you into our lives! Our Sunday School class prayed over us yesterday and you could truly feel the presence of our Heavenly Father. God's timing is perfect and we know there is a reason for us to be getting our son during this season of Thanksgiving! Please pray that all of our flights arrive and depart on time (and that our luggage arrives with us)!!God Bless you all! We will try and post again before we leave!! We should be able to post every day while in China.

Giving Thanks

Suze and Jo having "Royal Tea" at Gracie's Tea Room

Ray and Sandra Grace having breakfast with COTW families

Lindy, Mae Mae, and Grandma Pat

Beautiful Mae Mae

Having dinner with our dear sweet friends from church.

(Left to right) Nick, Judy, Jerry, Suze, Brad, Gayle, and Dot

Psalms 107:1 "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever".

We are so blessed! This is such a great time of the year: changing of the seasons and Thanksgiving. What a perfect time to get our son! God's timing is perfect and in less than a week we will be off on our incredible journey of a lifetime! We have been very busy packing and buying last minute items. I am sure we will pack and repack many times before we get it right. There is a 44 pound weight limit on all checked baggage in China! We have got Sam's suitcase packed and we are starting to work on ours. Today is my (Suze) birthday. To honor the occasion, Joetta treated me to Royal Tea at Gracie's Tea Room. It was so much fun and very relaxing!! Earlier in the day, several Children of the World families enjoyed at reunion breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We can't wait for Sam to be part of this wonderful COTW family! Our agency director is affectionately known as "mama" or "grandma Pat". She has helped unite hundreds of children with their forever families! She will be traveling with us next week and so we will be in very good hands!! Friday evening, our dear friends Judy and Jerry treated us to dinner at Sommer's Place. We were joined by some other friends from our Sunday School class. God has put so many wonderful people in our life over the last year! Today for my birthday, my "twin" Sherry took me to lunch and then we went shopping for some last minute items on our packing list. Tonight, Nick and I will just relax and order pizza. We are enjoying every minute of preparing for Sam! I will post again in the next few days before we leave!

Sam is growing!

We got good news today from our agency. They got an update on Sam's measurements! Weight - 10 kg (22pounds), height - 80 cm (32 inches), head -46.5 (18.6), chest- 48 cm (19.2 inches), foot - 12 cm (4.6 inches). That means he has grown 2 inches and gained 2 pounds since our last report in August! We are praising God for Sam's growth and obvious good health. He is 4 inches taller than the other children in our group!! We also found out we will be visiting his orphanage. It is a 3 and 1/2 hour drive from Nanjing so it will be an all day excursion. God has laid it on our hearts to give something to all the other children who are still waiting on families. Pat, our agency director, says they can always use infant and children's Tylenol/Motrin and diaper rash cream. We are going to collect some donations of these items from our Sunday school class, family, and friends, and take to the orphanage.
We also have our itinerary.
Leave Montgomery 7am Friday November 23 (fly to Atlanta, Detroit, Tokyo, then Beijing)
We will arrive in Beijing on Sat night
Sunday morning we will visit the Great Wall and the Olympic Venues. We will depart to Nanjing in the afternoon.
Monday morning - Gotcha Day!!!! (this will be Sunday evening Alabama time.. please keep us in your prayers between 8-10pm)
Tuesday - Complete the Adoption process
Wed- visit the orphanage
Thurs - Sight seeing and pick up notary books
Friday - pick up passports and depart for Guangzhou
Sat - Medicals, zoo and jade factory
Sunday - Church - lunch together at the Cow and Bridge
Monday - go over consulate paperwork
Tuesday - consulate app
Wed -Swearing in ceremony at the consulate
Thursday - return home (we will get back in Montgomery around 8:30pm)
14 days until we leave!! WAHOOOOOOO!!

Leaving for China November 23

WOW... talk about something to be thankful for!!! It is official.. we will be leaving the day after Thanksgiving to get our son. He will be placed into our arms on November 25! What a beautiful day that will be. I do not have our exact itinerary, however, I do know a few things that are scheduled. We leave Montgomery Friday the 23rd and arrive in Beijing Saturday evening. We will get up early Sunday morning and tour the Great Wall and visit Olympic venues. That afternoon we get on a plane and fly to Nanjing which is the capitol of Jiangsu, Sam's Province. Once in Nanjing, we will go the civil affairs office and receive our son. He will be carried in by the Orphanage Director and his caretakers. Once he is placed in our arms I hope we get to talk to his caretakers and ask them questions regarding Sam's schedule, what he likes to eat, his sleep routine, etc. After that we take Sam back to our hotel and then return the next day to start the paperwork on our adoption. After a few days doing adoption paperwork and waiting on Sam's passport, we will fly to Guangzhou where Sam will get a medical exam and we do more paperwork to finalize the adoption. Our consulate appointment is on Tuesday Dec. 4 and our swearing in ceremony will be Wednesday Dec. 5. We will return home on Thursday Dec. 6 to several friends and family who cannot wait to meet Sam. By the way, Sam will become a U.S. Citizen once our plane touches ground in the United States! I will post more information as soon as I get it!! WAHOOOOOO!!!

The Power of Prayer

1 John 5:14-15 "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." Isn't that scripture WONDERFUL? It is so comforting to know that God loves us and wants to spend time with us. Of course, prayer is the best way to spend time with our Heavenly Father. It is a special time to communicate and talk with Him... the creator of the universe! Yesterday I had the honor of being in the presence of about 18 beautiful sisters in Christ who came together to pray for me, Nick, and Sam. My dear friend Joetta hosted the prayer brunch at her home. Above is a picture of me and Renae (sitting down) and Joetta and Shannon (standing up). Renae, Shannon, and Joetta are an example of an answered prayer that the Lord gave me last fall. I met them at a bible study callled "Let Prayer Change Your Life" and they have been true and godly friends to me ever since that study and I know God will continue to bless our friendships. Yesterday, God really gave us a blessing as all of my prayer warriors came together to pray for all three of us, for our travel, for our health, and for God to prepare Sam for us. Joetta had put our prayer requests on chopsticks (see the above picture)! Isn't that so creative?? Each person took a prayer request and will pray specifically for that one thing while we are in China. Nick and I have total peace about our journey because we know that our friends and family will be praying for us and God will be listening! Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."

We got our Travel Invitation!!

Praise our Heavenly Father... the wait is almost over!! All the families in our travel group got their travel invitations today from China. This means our agency director can make us a consulate appointment and we can make travel arrangements. I will post as soon as we get specific travel dates.. it is looking like we will leave either November 23 or November 30! If we leave November 30, it will be two years to the date that we decided to adopt.. and November 30, 2006 was the day our dossier (adoption application) was officially logged into the system at the China Center for Adoption Affairs!! Wow... what a significant date!! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we prepare to travel.

October Update

Our agency director is saying we will probably travel the last of November or first of December. We ordered our visa's and put our entry date as November 15. Visa's are good for 3 months after the entry date. We are praising God that we will have Sam home before Christmas! We sent him a care package through Blessed Kids. He received it October 1. In the package was some pictures of us in a soft "who loves baby" photo book.... so I guess he now knows what his mama and daddy look like!! We have not gotten our travel invitation, but I think it will come next week. We continued to be blessed by friends and family who are praying for all three of us. Last week we had friends Ted, Joetta, Shannon, Wayne, Renae, Jason, Debra, and Mike come over to our home. We prayed inside and outside our home in every room. We asked God to bless our home as we prepare to bring Sam home. It is comforting to know that our Savior is in control and present in our lives! We are also thankful to CrimeStopper Board of Directors who gave us a gift card from Toys R Us. We used it get Sam's car seat. Boy... that was job installing it in our car.. but it is there waiting for Sam... safe and secure.