Gotcha!

Sorry this is late and short. Henry is grieving pretty hard and it's taken both of us.

But... here's a few pics! 😀 We are in love!

Dear Henry

my sweet boy,

tonight you're laying down your precious head in your crib in the orphanage for the LAST time. Tonight you go to bed an orphan for the very last time. Tomorrow you will wake up  a son and have a family. We are SO excited to meet you. We can't wait to hold you and squeeze you, tell you we love you and make you laugh. You are a dream come true.

I know tomorrow is going to be hard on you. I know you might be scared. I wish I could take away the fear and hurt...I CAN promise you this... you may be getting the most crazy, loud, feisty, ridiculous family out there but nobody will love you and fight for you like we will.

We have prayed for you before we even saw your face. You are already cherished.

You are our son.

We promise to do all that we can to make sure you always amd forever know that you are loved. We promise to always be there for you and always be your biggest fans!

Life is about to change for all of us.

We are ready.

Beijing

Our time in Beijing is coming to a close. In the morning we get up early and head to the train station. We are taking the train to Zhengzhou. This is where we will me our son!

We are super excited and nervous and all the other emotions that might go with something of this magnitude. I cannot believe in a matter of about 48 hours we will be parents of 3 children!

Today we explored the Great Wall. We got some great exercise and enjoyed the view! We are so blessed to have gorgeous weather and no smog! Amazing! Here's a couple pictures of our day!

Thanks for your prayers and love! We are
Feeling it and are so grateful!

We are here!

So we arrived in Beijing around 2:45 local time (12:30am cst) and after customs and luggage and gladly walking a mile to the car we got on our way to the hotel around 4:30. We got settled and went exploring.

It has been an exhausting trip. Anytime you lose a day it does. I'm still laughing at Rob's impersonation of  me trying to get comfy on the plane. He compared me to Emily and probably I was more fidgety than her. Haha. Oh well. We are here.

The smog wasn't bad, we saw the sun  and blue sky! So by the time we got back out it was dark and a full moon!

We found somewhere to eat, which was an adventure!

Menu was in Chinese, but we guessed and ended up liking it all. See the little plates, they're like the size of a saucer or bread plate . Last time we never ate on a plate bigger than that. This time too so far, I told Rob this is how we shall diet when we get home. 

A little more exploring...

Dairy Queen Blizzards. 

 

A church in the middle of the city. Beautiful. 

See if you can enlarge the Dairy Queen blizzard flavors! Ha. 

Pretty uneventful evening except for the party going on outside our room door. 

Haha. Good thing I was so tired it didn't bother me. We talked to our giirls on FaceTime and then off to bed. I should still be in bed. It's 3:57 now and I'm wide awake! 

Perfect quiet time to blog! 

Thanks for the continued prayers! 

Oh.. one last thing. A fellow mama got to see Henry today! Man I can't wait to squeeze him and make him smile! 

With love and hopefully a few more ZZZZZ's

Team Taylor!

Happy New Year!

As this year comes to a close my heart is overflowing. Yes it's had some hard stuff, some down right crappy stuff and yet it has been full of beautiful beautiful stuff.

This is the last New Year's Eve we will be the Taylor 4. I'm excited , overwhelmed, thrilled and scared looking forward.  I look back at our journey and how much I complained about our path when we first started fertility treatments. I complained that God wasn't listening... that He didn't care what WE wanted. Y'all I hate when I'm wrong but boy was I wrong.  I'm grateful for every. Single. Tear. For every single day of heartache. All those days paved the way for this. For two BEAUTIFUL girls finding their way into our hearts and lives. For us seeing Gods calling in our lives and being totally honored that we have been called to this. If it wasn't for these two angels and all the people we met along the way God wouldn't be making way for number three.

I wish I could open my heart and just let you all look in. There are so many things I cannot put into words. God has blessed me far more than I deserve. He has truly given me the desires of my heart. Yesterday the girls and I were spending time with friends and I drove our 5 year old friend and Emily while Livvy rode with my friend Sheila. I listened to Emily and Morgan talk about where Morgans mom was (driving in front of us) where Emily's mom was (sitting in front of her). Emily then told Morgan about how she went to get ice cream with "my mommy, my daddy, my mei mei.... I went with my family. " For some reason that touched a deep part of me. We are her family. Because God tolerates a whiny, demanding, doubting girl in Snyder Texas... ok I know He loves me but I've got to be on his top ten most annoying-wish-she-would-just-trust-me list.... because He wanted to give me more than I even knew to ask for, my life gets to be overflowing with proof of God's AMAZING grace in two little faces that bless my socks off every minute of every day. How great is the Father's love for me! I'm so grateful that God gave us a family... that he gave us them. Maybe I am looking back at 3+ years ago when my sweet girls did not have a family. We did not have them and how from opposite sides of the globe... he made #teamtaylor. That's amazing y'all. Amazing.

The best part... He's not done. In a matter of days we will be getting on a plane to meet our third blessing. Yesterday we received travel approval. Yep. We are going to China! Soon! We won't know until Tuesday for sure but it looks like we are leaving January 11th!  God willing.

Please pray for Henry. For God to prepare his heart and for him to somehow know us. ( I know this sounds like a strange prayer but I prayed it every day for the girls and I swear when they handed me Livvy and she looked in my eyes.. she knew me somehow) pray that the girls will be covered and prepared for there being another little in the Casa. Pray our finances will come together. Pray for my mom as she tackles a HUGE task in taking care of two littles for 2.5 weeks. Pray for our flights and in country travel. I'm terrified of leaving the girls for this long and far.


I'll let you know Tuesday if it's all systems are go.

Until then... Happy New Year!

Oh... and there's a few hours left to get a Tshirt!

With Love,
Jenn

Waiting some more...

Seems like the theme of my life is "wait!".  So, it makes perfect sense that I would end up in the adoption process and do a whole lot more....wait for it.... waiting. I've begrudgingly waited much of my life. Ask anyone that knows me well haha.

There's something different about this time or maybe it's just at this point in the waiting game. I'm at peace. We don't know if we will beat Chinese New Year (Jan27-Feb 3). Even if we get approval in time we might get pushed until after the new year because there are a certain amount of consulate appointments and they may bet backed with Christmas and New Years holidays. Who knows?! Either way there is not a thing in the world I can do to make anything happen a certain way. Maybe I'm uber busy this time and that's the difference or maybe, just maybe... I'm learning.

Today our "article 5" was picked up at the US Consulate in China. It will be delivered to the Chinese government and we will await "TA" travel approval. We will know either way by January 3rd if we will leave January 11th or Feb 1st. This is the last two steps before we get on a plane and go get our son. I've had a few mom friends ahead of me get really fast TA's but hey... I'm a wait-er so I'm guessing I'll have the longest TA wait on record. 😂😂😂.  I know it will be here before we know it and Lord knows I've got a to-do list a mile long.....

We are SO EXCITED (and scared)!

Please pray for Henry's heart first of all... that God will prepare him for a family. That SOMEHOW, supernaturally, he will know us. Pray that the transition and change will be as easy and natural as possible. Our son... by the time we meet him... will have endured more trauma in his short year and a half than I've endured in my entire 44 years. I worry about what he will feel and how the transition will be for him. It's such an incredible day. The happiest day for us, the scariest for him. I hate that part. Pray for the final weeks before travel. For finances to come together (want to buy a tshirt???), for plane tickets to become reasonable, for God to put is with the perfect travel group. Pray also for our sweet girls. That God will let the time pass fast for them. That their time away from us will be fun and so full that they hardly notice we are gone. Pray for my mom, she's taken on a HUGE undertaking. 2.5 weeks with two toddlers is pretty big. Pray that she will have an easy time and that the girls & the dogs will cooperate. (Volunteers for relief care givers??  Anyone? Anyone? 😂)

Thank you so much for following this adventure ! Thank you for your love, support, and prayers! You still have until Jan 1st to get a tshirt if you'd like one.  Click HERE if you'd like to order one or two! We are about 50 shirts away from our goal of 150 shirts!

We pray your New Year is a your best yet! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Team Taylor!

With love,

Jenn

Waiting...

Waiting STINKS!  Like, really-REALLY stinks!

We are at day 42 of our "LOA" wait.  We are currently "In Translation" and have been the last 41 days.  Yesterday a fellow adoptive mama moved to "OOT" (out of translation) and she is at day... wait for it.... 8.  EIGHT!  There's no rhyme or reason to how China does things or.  Basically her Dossier ended up on the top of a pile on someones desk.  Our Dossier... apparently on the bottom.  It's hard to rejoice with my fellow mama's when China shakes up the line.  Nevertheless... I'm thrilled for her and frustrated with the process for sure.

I was complaining to Rob yesterday told him "See, she prayed for a fast process and she's getting it, what's wrong with my prayers?"... he just smiled and asked "What did you pray though? Did you pray for a fast process or for God's timing?"... and he's right again folks.  That's one of the many reasons I adore my sweet husband, he always points me back to God.  God's timing is exactly what I prayed and while I despise the wait and want to hold my son and love on him... I want it in HIS time, not mine.  Another friend reminded me how silly (my words, not hers) my "bad mood" was by pointing out that if I hadn't seen my adoptive mama friend's movement in the process.. I'd still be happy and waiting in line like the rest of the mama's... and she was right.  I would be.  Lesson learned... I hope. :-)

So... now that I've been reminded and learned a lesson... I'll be changing my prayers to "A speedy process" and less God's will mumbo jumbo. I'M KIDDING! HAHA

However he orchestrates it is OK by me.  (please remind me of them if you see me whining on Facebook or in person ;-))  Our last trip was perfect in every way down to our travel group and guides.

In all seriousness, please continue to pray for God to prepare Henry's heart for becoming a Taylor and pray for our hearts to be ready as well.  Pray for the girls and their feelings of security in our love for them and that they will feel blessed, not threatened, by another little one.

By God's Grace,

Jenn