It's official! We leave for China soon

This week I received what is probably one of the best Valentine's and birthday presents I could have received: We got our Travel Approval!! Our agency notified us today that they received our Travel Approval from China today and they expect us to travel the first week of March. They have tentatively told us to expect to leave on March 4! We are SO excited we can barely contain ourselves. We'll be travelling with a group of about ten other families.

Our agency is confirming with the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, China, our appointment date to get Julia sworn in as a U.S. citizen and then we'll be able to book our airfare!! In the meantime we are going to be swamped getting things ready for her at home and getting packed. As soon as we get our final itinerary we'll post it for you, but I'm pretty sure we'll be flying into Beijing.

We were also fortunate this week to get an update on Julia. As of February 5 she is 13 months old and weighs 20 pounds!! I wish we had updated photos but we'll see her in just over two weeks!!

Other things going on:
Anna is doing great. She is still doing a lot of independent standing in the pool and we are thrilled. She has come so far and I'm so proud of her.

My stepdaughter, Kaitlyn, just bought a car!! She worked a long time to be able to get her car, a red Kia (UGA colors!!) and we're thrilled for her. It's so hard to go to college and work at the same time.

Our dog is still a pain in the you-know-what. He's got this thing now where after we leave for the day he'll take the loaf of bread or whatever happens to be on the table and eat it all. It's been cold/rainy so we don't leave him outside all of the time. Any ideas on how to break him of this would be appreciated.

My parents have figured out how to get revenge on my sister: give her son (Robbie, 1) M&M's!! He's wired for hours after he has chocolate. It's so cute though!!!

The night of "The Call"

Some say that blood is thicker than water. I say that love is thicker than blood.

Many of you know by now that we seemed to be in a perpetual wait to be matched with a child. Based on the timelines I was hoping we'd be matched by the end of 2008 but on the other hand it didn't seem real since we'd already been waiting such a long time. But, it finally did happen and it caught us completely by surprise. Here's how it went down:

Gwen: So, it was the middle of the week and I was at work assisting with a homicide investigation. It was around 5 p.m. and I'd just returned to the police department and was waiting for other detectives to get back so we could discuss the case. Jason called me and said, in a very low, odd tone: "We have a baby." I was busy and I thought he meant he picked up Anna from the babysitter. He said again "No, WE HAVE A BABY." I finally realized what he was trying to tell me and I began jumping up and down in my cubicle. Jason emailed me Julia's picture and the paperwork from our agency while I tried to recover from my shock and called family. Luckily my supervisors were VERY understanding and they let me go home so we could celebrate.

Jason: I was home with Anna when I received a call from a CCAI representative and of course I knew right away that it something important because there was no other reason for them to call. I was worried that maybe something was wrong with the paperwork. It didn't register at first what she said. She said "Hi, this is CCAI, I'm looking at a picture of a beautiful little girl that needs a mommy and a daddy." I hate to say it, but I don't remember much after that. I remember she told me the basics, such as her date of birth, and the fact that she has a cleft lip and palate. I also remember her asking if we were interested in her, as if there was any doubt. She agreed to email me the pictures and information and I told her I would call Gwen and tell her.

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We submitted our Letter of Intent to adopt Julia to our agency and it was sent to China on December 10. We received PA, or Pre-Approval, from China on December 29 and we are now awaiting the final Letter Of Acceptance (LOA) from China. A few weeks after we get LOA we will receive the Travel Approval and we will go to China from one to three weeks later. We hope to be in China at the end of February or beginning of March. We won't know the exact dates of travel until we get the Travel Approval. It's a lot of hurry up and wait, but let's face it, we're dealing with government agencies.

Once we get the dates we'll finalize our itinerary, which I will share with you of course. While we wait we are preparing Julia's room and learning about China and Julia's province. Julia, meanwhile, is being cared for in a foster home in Henan province. I'm very grateful to this foster family for loving her until we can get to her.