Slowly but SURELY

We are getting SO CLOSE.

I keep pinching myself.  As hard as I try, I cannot wrap my mind around the changes that are just ahead.  We are excited beyond any excitement I've known.  There are so many unknowns and as we get closer, our prayers become more specific.  If you're praying for us, here's a few specific prayer requests.

1.) That God will prepare our girls.  That he will somehow, supernaturally, make them ready for "Gotcha Day" and our family. Pray that they'll "know" us, somewhere deep inside them, that we will be familiar.  Pray that God will protect their little hearts from the trauma of being taken from all that they know.
2.) That God will prepare US! We are old, we are set in our ways, we are selfish.  Life is going to change dramatically and I've no idea what's ahead.  That's super exciting but it's also super scary.  Pray that God will prepare our hearts for whatever Gotcha Day brings, be it tears, screaming, laughter.
3.) That we will use our time wisely to get "ready".  I realize we will never REALLY be ready but at least that we'll be as ready as possible.  (i.e. the house organized, room finished, meals prepared and frozen)
4.) That God will continue to provide financially.

Thank you in advance for lifting us up.

Now... where are we in the process?  I've no idea, lol.  This last bit is confusing to me, it's faster paced and i keep reading and re-reading the instructions I got from our agency.  No matter how it happens or how you mix it up... we are CLOSE.

We now have i800 provisional approval.  That's permission from the US gov't to make Emily and Olivia a part of our family. It's now on it's way to the National Visa Center to apply for visa's for the girls.  This info will go from NVC to the US consulate in China.  After a few weeks it will be back in China's hands and we will wait for Travel Approval (that'll take a couple weeks).  Once we have travel approval... off we go! Our visas are en-route back to us (this is scary to trust in the USPS b/c our passports are in that package, that's another prayer request... that they get back to us!)

It's exciting, this time next month we'll be packing and preparing for the adventure of a lifetime!

Thank you so much for all the love and support! Thank you for buying Tshirts and sending emails and contributing financially and prayerfully.  We just can't thank you enough.

With Love and Thanks,
Jenn & Rob