Our Travel Approval is Here!!!

We can't even belive it!! :)  I love when God leaves no room for doubt that He is at work!!!  He has ordained this little girl for Danny and me.  I am in awe of our Great God tonight! 

This evening, when we got home from work, there it was - the email we've been waiting on for 9 months!!!  Our travel approval has been issued by the China Center of Adoption Affairs and now we just have to let the details get worked out.  We should know our travel date in just a few days.  Our precious China coordinator is working on booking our appointment that every other date is set from.  So, as soon as she gets that booked - we will book our travel.  We can't even believe our time is finally here! 

I told Danny that I might kiss Olivia to death!! :)  I can't wait to just hold her and look at her.  I am dying to meet this little girl that God so carefully created for us to raise.  I wonder who she looks like - her mom or her dad?  I wonder who she will be like - Danny or myself?  I want her to know how much everyone has loved and prayed for her.  Her birth parents no doubt put her where she could be found quickly.  But, God was always in control of our little one!!  He knew right where she was on that cold January morning - and He knew that one day - just over a year later, that her forever mommy and daddy would move heaven and earth to come hold her in our arms!!!

We are overjoyed - we are overwhelmed by God's grace and wonder - and we are so thankful for each other and this new life that will join our family!!

We are going to get our little girl home soon!!! :). 

Danny and Julie

February Updates Are In with New Pictures!!!

Our precious China coordinator sent our February updates!!!  Our little one has gained a pound and a half. :)
We also LOVE new pictures!!! :)

1.  Height: 64 cm; weight: 5.4 kg; Head 40 cm; Chest 41 cm; foot 8 cm;

2. She wears s size diaper.

3. Her primary food is mashed rice and she can eat half bowl.  She takes Wyeth Formula.

4.  SHe likes to play with her nanny.

5. She sleeps at 9 pm and wakes up at 7 am.  She takes a nap for 2 hours.

6. She had her heart surgery on 8/3/2010 at Shanghai Children's Hospital.

7. When she cries, she does not have cyanosis.

8.  Will not cut hair.

I want to come through my computer and hold her!!

Daddy's favorite!

They are ALL my favorites, but if I could only pick one - this is it :)

 

President's Day

Today - the waiting is hard!  I am off today for President's Day and find myself home alone.  Danny is at work and my beautiful little girl is half a world away hopefully having sweet dreams as I type (it is 12:30am in China).  So, I have decided to clean out my closet today :)
Even though we are closer than ever to meeting our precious little Olivia - I find the waiting to be harder than ever.  I wonder what our lives will be like when we bring her home...  I know different, but I wonder in what way.  I know we will have lots of doctors appointments and lots of hospital time at first, but I wonder who this little girl is that God has so carefully chosen for us.
We should be receiving her February update answers any day now and I will post them as soon as we get them.  We aren't sure what size she is, so as of now we are just guessing :)...  Please pray for Olivia everytime she comes to your mind - and if you think about it - please pray for her mommy and daddy too as we anxiously wait for the long anticipated call to come to China ;).

Getting Ready for Little Olivia

Danny and I went to a great local Hernando children's clothing store today called Itty Bitty :)...  We bought the absolute cutest clothes for our little one!  The owner was so sweet and helped us pick out bows for every outfit :).  We all know from Olivia's pictures that she has great hair for a bow.  As soon as I meet my beautiful daughter and smother her in kisses - I'm going to put a bow in all that hair while her daddy is smothering her in kisses :).  Below are some of the precious outfits we bought her today.  Our furniture is expected the first week in March - YAY!!!  Once it arrives - we'll get some "almost" finished pictures of her nursery.

By the way - all of you are writing the sweetest comments, but I haven't figured out how to respond!  I really want to say thank you for caring enough to read about our journey!!  We love to read all the comments - they make our day!

We found this today at another local shop.  We both thought it was SO sweet!

This is one of my favorite little outfits.   We thought the plum color would look really cute with her dark hair.  It is SO soft - its called a romper I think :)

This is another one of my favorite sweet outfits.  It is actually something she can sleep in, but it is precious enough to wear during the day.

Can't wait to hold her in this one :)

Danny said her little bitty feet would just barely stick out of this one - it's so long.

This is Daddy's favorite outfit :)

These just arrived from Gymboree :)

Yes - you might see this at your local cracker barrel :)...  I couldn't resist - I thought it was SO cute.

Olivia's Aunt Melanie found these in North Carolina :)...  They are sweet little Chinese girls - they match exactly some hand towels Aunt Les bought :)...  Olivia is already SO loved!!

We Got It!!!

"Your article 5 will be picked up tonight.  It will then be expressed mailed to CCAA." - from our China coordinator :).  She's our angel :)

This was the GREATEST email we could have received today!!!  It came over a week early!! :)...

We could be just 4-6 weeks from holding our daughter!! :)  I can't begin to express my emotions at this moment :)


Beyond Excited,
Danny and Julie

...And We Wait...

Today we are waiting on any word on our precious little Olivia.  We sent her February update questions on February12th and we have requested more pictures!  Oh how I hope we get more!!  We are also waiting on our Article 5.  I have no idea what an article 5 is, other than we need that to get our Travel Approval.  Once we get our Article 5 - our travel approval should come in 2-4 weeks!!!  We can't hardly wait!!  We are beginning to wonder just who our little one is going to be :)...  We think about her all the time and what her little personality is going to be like.  She might surprise us completely!  We can't wait to meet the little one God has designed just for us and us for her :).  Glory be to our Great God for this wonderful blessing!!!

As we wait,
Danny and Julie

Rough Draft of Olivia's Room :)

Okay - here are just the beginning pictures of Olivia's room!  No one worry - we aren't finished!! :)

You won't see her crib because it hasn't come in yet!!  We just hope to have it up by the time she get's here.

ALL the items Les and Gig brought to help decorate Olivia's room!

I didn't realize the pillows were off center :).  We have a twin bed in Olivia's room and it will go with her crib bedding.

I love this pillow with her sweet name on it :)

GiGi, McKenzie, and me hard at work sanding the twin bed to make it look old.  Gigi's genius!!!

Logan, Adley, and Hunter pooped after a long hard day's work! :)  Logan helped Danny move lots of big furniture and Adley helped paint.  Hunter sniffed every new item to ensure he liked it too.

How sweet is my sister-in-law :)...  These are her hands after literally HOURS of painting the master piece you see to your right :)...  Only 1 minor injury covered with a band aid.

Olivia is going to love her master piece!  Thank you for sacrificing your normally clean and beautiful hands (and sleep) to do it :)

NVC Letter!!!

YAY!!  God's timing is always perfect, but sometimes it's even better than what we can imagine!!!  I called the National Visa Center this morning and as of today, our paperwork has been wired to Guangzhou.  Also, they went ahead and emailed us our much needed letter so that our agency could begin working on getting our article 5.  This could take up to 2 weeks, but the wonderful people at our agency are trying hard to expedite this as well.  Once the CCAA receives our article 5 - it will take 2-4 weeks to get a travel date and then about 2 weeks until we travel!!!  We are ready to get our little girl!!! 

Olivia - we love you so very much!!!  We think about you everyday and pray for you all the time!  We can't wait to have you home.  I promise we are trying everything to get there as fast as we can precious!

Danny and Julie

I-800 Approval!!!

YAY!!  It finally happened - we have our I-800 approval.  What does this mean?  Well, I'm not exactly sure :).  I just know that it's good!  We now have to wait approximately 1 week to receive a letter from the NVC - and then everything gets returned to China and we wait for our travel date!!

I'll try to get some pictures of Olivia's nursery up by the end of the week.  My sister-in-law, her mom, and 3 of neices and nephews came up 2 weekends ago and we all worked on the nursery.  Everyone got to do something for Olivia - it was awesome!!  They brought like a million things for Olivia's room and did all the decorating.  Leslie painted the most precious little board and it took her until like 4am!  Gigi painted the most precious letters and had to take a lot of stuff home to keep painting.

Thank you Leslie and GiGi for EVERYTHING!!!  Her room would have looked very sad if you both had not done all you did!  I love you both SO much and couldn't imagine my life or Olivia's without you in it!  She is so lucky to have you both in her life!!!  We love you!!!

Danny and Julie