SNOW???????????????????

The one time in like 15 years it's supposed to snow would be when we are trying to leave the country. We had some on Wednesday, much more than we expected. Vince and Madison actually had a mini snowball fight on the back deck, but now they are predicting like 2 inches, come on????? As much as I would love for it to snow for all of you guys that are not going to China right now, I can't manage thoughts about delayed flights and things like that! Please God, let us get out of Birmingham on time and Chicago on time! That's all I ask, no ice on the wings or the runway, just let us get on our way to Beijing Sunday morning! It can snow when we get home in February. That would fine with me!
Last night we managed to repack again and squeeze everything from the suitcase we had packed for Zoey into our suitcases. I hope that they are only 44lbs., otherwise I guess we'll be discarding things at the airport. I can't believe it's finally here, day after tomorrow we are on our way to China, YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well it's Thursday afternoon.....

So we leave for China in 3 days, well Sunday morning, and I am really beside myself. Our house is an absolute disaster and for those of you who don't know me well, I am a bit of a clean/neat freak!!!! (that's probably an understatement) We have suitcases all over our bedroom and carry on bags, plus my house needs to be cleaned so bad and I can't do it because of course right before we leave, yesterday, I had to have an epideral shot for my back so I can carry that sweet baby around China. Anyway enough babbling, I am just so ready to get on that plane! Next Wednesday morning (Tuesday night in the U.S.) we finally get to kiss, hold, and love on our sweet baby girl, after 2 1/2 years of paperwork and waiting. I have to say thank you to all of our family and friends who have been so supportive in EVERY way, from donating money, to buying things for us, to keeping Madison for us to help us save money, everything little thing means more to us than you can imagine! We'll keep you all as updated as we can in China!

Pictures to Share

Some of you may have seen this picture from the blog link: Digging to China This is a picture of the orphanage where Zoey is right now. She at the Poyang County SWI (social welfare institute) in Jiangxi Province, China. My friend Courtney's daughter is also there and I had seen this photo on her blog. Vince and I had tried to find something on the internet on the SWI and couldn't find any pictures. It kind of reminds me of a pink beachhouse along the gulf coast. I know in reality it is nothing like that, but it is kind of comforting to me to think of it that way. It seems cheery to me and that is comforting too. Right now it is tenatively on our travel schedule to visit the orphanage several days after Gotcha Day. My mom told me that when she visited China years ago that they had told them on a tour that if you look at the corners on the roofline you can see how they point up, toward heaven. This will bring blessings on them. I thought that was very interesting. I know that blessings are being brought on those precious babies, they are being cared for until their forever families can get to China to bring them "HOME". This picture below is a picture of Poyang (a.k.a Boyang) Lake.
This is some of the landscape and scenery from Poyang. You can see from these pictures how green and lush the area looks. I am so glad to see that Zoey is from such a beautiful part of China. I am so overjoyed to know that in a very short time we will be there!

CA APPOINTMENT CONFIRMATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah Yeah Yeah, we finally have our US Consulate appointment confirmation on January 31 at 9:00 am, so we are definately, absolutely leaving on Sunday morning January 20 at 6:57 am to arrive in Beijing January 21 at 4:05 pm (they are 12 hours ahead of us) and then Gottcha Day is January 23rd in Nanchang the capital of Jiangxi where little Zoey is waiting for us unknowingly. And then we return to the US in Birmingham on Feb. 2 at 4:46 pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is such an amazing relief to have an itinerary, flight arrangements and know we are definately going on a particular day! WOOHOO, Zoey Bo Cheng Blaszczynski (boy that's a mouthful) HERE COMES YOUR FOREVER FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

China-Not this week......

Well we just got word from our agency that we won't be traveling until the 20th of January, we think. We finally have a verbal committment from the US Consulate for a January 31 appointment, but we have to have it in writing. I think they are hoping to have that by the end of the week. Please keep us in your prayers and of course, Zoey, we are about
to scream! God please give us patience! And pray for Madison, bless her heart, I think she is almost more anxious than we are. She is scared about traveling (of course we are too), but she has a little bit of a chlostrophobia issue and keeps asking if we could get stuck in the plane and the doors won't open. So pray for some peace of mind for her and our travels! We'll keep you all posted and hopefully we'll hear something soon.

Update on last post for TA

Our agency keeps pretty quiet about things, which I like because we don't get any false information or get our hopes up, but after hearing possible dates from a friend with another agency, who we will be traveling with because we are all under a larger umbrella agency, I emailed our coordinator at our agency and this is what she wrote back:

"We are hoping these dates are going to happen (1/11-1/26). We want you guys to get over there before the New Year. The travel approval letters have not been issued yet, so we don’t know what dates you are going to travel. But the dates listed below are within the range. Hopefully we’ll know more by tomorrow or Friday."

Now I am REALLY freaking out!!!!!!!! We could be going to China NEXT FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waiting on that TA!!!!!

Well we keep hearing reports but don't know anything concrete yet. We've heard that there might be a possibility of travel January 11th through the 26th. I am absolutely freaking out!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's NEXT Friday! AUGHAUGHAGUAHAGUAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was feeling prepared, now I am feeling very unprepared!!!! I'll keep you all posted!