UPDATE ON GRACIE

We didn't get any pictures but we got a new update on her size and measurements.
Apparently, she hasn't gained any weight and so she is still only 17.6 pounds but she grew about a half an inch in height and is now 28.1" long. She was only in the 3rd percentile for weight and height at 12 months and so I'm guessing not even on the charts now at 14 months! We've even been told to be prepared for her to weigh less because very often they weigh the children with their clothes on! Her last update said she had 1 tooth on the bottom and now she has two on the bottom and two on the top! We're anxious to see if she has grown any hair since she is pretty much bald in the only pictures we have of her.
Can't wait to see you sweetheart!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME STRAIGHT FROM HEAVEN!!!

The first good news we received this morning was that my great friend, Jess, had her baby boy Ezra early this morning!! Congratulations Abe, Jess, Mal, & Took! And can't wait to meet & smooch you little Ezra! A few minutes later we got a call from our adoption agency................... and our Travel Approval document finally arrived and they had already been able to schedule us a July 23rd Consulate appointment!!! Yeah, yeah, yeah!!! So, I've already booked our travel to China and here is our itinerary:

Wednesday, July 11th head to Boise in the afternoon and get the kids settled
Thursday, July 12th:
Depart Boise airport at 11:40am & Arrive Portland at 12:00pm
Depart Portland at 2:40pm & Arrive in Tokyo at 5:00pm (which will be Friday July 13)
Depart Tokyo at 6:50pm and arrive in Guangzhou, China at 10:35 pm on Friday July 13th
*We will stay in an airport hotel since we arrive so late.
Saturday, July 14th:
Depart Guangzhou at 8:05am and arrive in Nanchang at 9:15am
*we will check into the Gloria Plaza Hotel and probably spend most of the day getting settled and taking a nap!
Sunday, July 15th:
Sometime in the afternoon, we will probably find out on that morning, we will have our precious Gracie place in our arms!!! Keep in mind that since China is 16 hours ahead of Spokane and 15 hours ahead of Boise that it will actually still be Saturday, July 14th over here when we get her. Hypothetically, if we get her at 3pm on Sunday in China it will be 11pm Saturday night in Spokane and midnight in Boise. So, when you wake up Sunday morning you will definitely want to check our blog to see if we've had a chance to post pictures and video of our "gotcha" day. We will have some down time for sightseeing and they schedule a few tours for us but we will also have official adoption work to do while we are there too. All of that is arranged for us and once we get there our guide take us exactly where we need to be the entire time. Which sounds great to us!
We will leave Nanchang on Friday, July 20th and fly to Guangzhou where we will be staying at the White Swan Hotel. We will have a different guide here and he also organizes where we need to be and tells us just what to do!
Monday, July 23rd is our Consulate Appointment
Tuesday, July 24th is our swearing-in and Gracie will become a US citizen!
Wednesday, July 25th we head home!
Depart Guangzhou at 8:20am
Arrive Tokyo at 2pm
Depart Tokyo at 3:25 pm
Arrive Portland at 8:30 am
Depart Portland at 11:50am
Arrive Boise at 2:05pm on Wednesday, July 25th!!! (we get to travel back in time!)

The kids and I are tentatively planning on staying until Saturday, July 28th because I think Scott is going to head over to Creation (at the gorge in Washington) early Thursday morning.

Happy birthday to my neice Bailey Grace today too!!! We love you sweetie!

OUR VISAS ARRIVED MONDAY!

I forgot to mention that when the kids and I rolled into Kennewick Monday night at 8:15 pm that a FED EX envelope was wedged into our apartment door! It had our original passports in them now with Visa stamps to China on them!!! I'm sure glad we live in a really nice & safe apartment community! Now, since our Travel Approval document should be here Monday we will have every legal document we need to enter China and bring our sweet Gracie home!!! All we need now is our Consulate appointment so we can schedule our flights to and from Guangzhou. I got online last night and did a little exploring to see what the going rates are for flights with the tentative dates of leaving July 12th and returning July 24th. Flying economy on the way there we should get tickets for less than $1000 a piece (this is with a 65% adoption rate discount!!!) We are highly considering flying premium economy/business class on the way home because apparently the economy seats on international flights are quite a lot smaller than the US economy seats which are already a pretty tight fit! We feel like we can tough it out on the way there but on the way home with a 15 month old it might be nice to have the extra room. But we aren't sure how much extra that will cost and if it's a lot then we're just going to tough it out on the way home too. Anyway, Scott made it home from camp this afternoon and boy were we all glad to see him!!! My Mom, Angie, Morgan and Emma even got to say hello as they were heading out from spending the week here with me and the kids. We are going to have a BBQ and go swimming down at the pool to celebrate daddy's homecoming!

POSSIBLY ANOTHER SPEEDBUMP

So... we got another call this morning from our agency and even though our Travel Approval was sent from China on Wednesday, via DHL which usually is overnighted, for some reason it still hasn't arrived in the States yet. Hopefully it will arrive by Monday! But this may mean that July 23rd CA appointments will be booked up by the time it gets here Monday (they have to fax a copy of our TA to the US Consulate in order to be able to make the appointment). Ughhhh! It's just a wait and see thing which I guess I should be used to and anticipate at this point!

ELATED, TO DEVESTATED, BACK TO ELATED!!!

It has been a very emotional and trying week to say the least! After we received our LOA on June 6th, we got an e-mail from our agency on June 11th (the same day our house was supposed to close but fell through!) stating that due to our Chinese translators/guides going to be in Spokane July 10-August 1 that our group would not be able to go get our babies until they returned! Of course we were totally devastated as days before they were thinking we might go as early as the end of June. Well, last night I was up until almost 1 am unpacking the boxes in our apartment bedroom (one of which was our "Things for our China trip" that went directly into luggage) so totally asleep when the phone rang at 7:55 am! I stumbled out of bed and answered the phone to "Wake up! This is Kathy Storro and your TA is on its way!!!" "But, but..." was the only thing I could get out at first. I am still pretty confused but of course ecstatic that it looks like we will be going before August!!! Right now they are working on getting us a July 23rd CA appointment which would mean us flying on July 13th. My next post should be our CA appointment date and possibly our itinerary for China!!!

WE SENT AWAY FOR OUR VISAS TODAY!!!

It was very unsettling to send our original passports along with a good chunk of change and our visa applications to a courier who will deliver it to the US Consulate in San Francisco. People used to be able to send them directly to the Consulate offices but for some reason this changed recently. We sent it overnight FED EX and after a 4 day processing time, and a two day return delivery we hope to get our passports and our visa stamps back by around June 19th. I can't begin to tell you how much my faith has been stretched along this journey. I conveniently "forgot" to mention how over the last few months I've had a few momments of fear and doubt that we would ever truly have Gracie in our arms. One night, I read online that the CCAA, who reviews all the dossiers, was being really hard on families who had switched from the regular "healthy" adoption route to the waiting child route. Well, you can imagine that I got a little freaked out and could barely sleep that night. I e-mailed the director of our agency and she promptly e-mailed me back and here's a portion of what she said:
"CCAA Confucius say 'Family who stay off the internet will worry less about adoption in China.' Confucius also say, Trus Kai Xi (Small World Kathy) she take good care her families.' As the scripture says, 'why do you worry about this, that and the other, don't worry about tomorrow but seek first His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you!' Mt. 6:31-34
Hang in there, trust God that what He has started, He will finish...."
It was a good jolt back to what I knew to be true in my heart but I allowed fear and doubt to creep in and grab hold of me. With the sell of our house falling through today this passage has once again brought much peace to my weary mind and body.

YIPEE CHINA SAID YES!!!!!!

I barely slept a wink last night which you can tell by my very tired eyes but that's okay!

We have been praying every night that "Gracie is safe and healthy and that China is getting our papers ready fast, fast, fast!!!" Well, we asked and we received even faster than we had dreamed!! We got a call early yesterday morning that our coveted Letter of Approval/LOA to adopt Tong Min Mei (already Gracie Mei to us) was on it's way here via FED EX. It arrived at our agency's office this morning and we went straight there to sign it and have them FED EX it right back!! God is so good and we are so thankful!!! If they return our permission to travel in record time then we could be heading to China on June 29th -July 11th. Unfortunately, this morning our agency said that more realistically we will be there July 6th-18th or July 12th-23rd but even those are just approximates. Well, now our prayer is that China will get us our permission to travel fast, fast, fast so we can bring Gracie home! Please also pray along with us for our sweet baby girl's transition. It is often said when referring to "Gotcha Day," which is the day we will physically have her in our arms for the first time, to remember that what will be one of the happiest days of our lives will likely be one of the saddest days of her life. Most likely she will be picked up from her foster home in Tong Gu by one of the orphanage workers early on the morning they bring her to Nanchang to us. I think it is a few hours from Tong Gu to Nanchang and I imagine will be the first time she will be in a vehicle since Tong Gu is a very remote county/city. As far as we know, she has been cared for by the same foster family from the time she was born. It will no doubt be very traumatic for her but we hope that the care package we sent may help with the transition. If she received it then the duplicate bear and photo album we bring will be familiar to her which we hope will help a lot with the attachment and bonding process. Well, I had better get back to packing!!!