Anxiety/Peace

"Cast all your anxiety on Him for He cares for you" 1 Peter 5:7

I am awake and very restless tonight. I am getting so excited about having Sophie in my arms soon but getting sad and anxious about leaving Joshua. He will be well taken care of while we are gone so that is not the issue. Just that this mama's heart is going to miss him as much or more than he is going to miss me. This is such a bitter/sweet emotion for me and reminds me of when my Mom passed away while I was 8 months pregnant with Joshua. It is very hard to be happy and sad at the same time. The two emotions just fight against each other. I think because he is the baby that I carried the entire time my Mom was going through cancer, makes our bond a little different. Joshua was the strength I needed during such a uncontrollable and sad time in my life. "Be stong and courageous, do not be terrified, for the Lord you God is with you wherever you go" Joshua 1:9 This is Joshua's name as a result of this verse I clung to during those difficult days of losing my Mom.

I am going to cling to this verse once again and cast all my fears and anxiety upon Him. My prayer is that Joshua will be able to do this as well. My prayer is for immeasurable peace!!!

Thank you once again to all my wonderful friends and family that will be praying us through! My next post will be from China!!! Thanks for sharing this journey with us!!!!

Travel Plans

Hello everyone!!!! It has been a very busy week. I am so sorry that I have not posted lately. The boys started back to school and I started back to work. BTW have you heard lately that WE ARE GOING TO CHINA in 12 days!!!!!! So yes, I have been busy and will get busier as the days approach for our departure. We have enjoyed watching the Olympics and we think that it a huge blessing that God has provided a glimpse of life in China through the Olympics. He is in Control!!!!

Here is itinerary for those who interested:

8/27 Leave for China 6am

8/28 Arrive in Beijing 6:40pm (note this is 5:40am 8/28 Alabama time!!!!23 hours!!)

8/29 Tour Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple At Heaven and Acrobatic show
***I am tired...whew***

8/30 Great Wall (I'll be napping at the bottom) Summer Palace
***Very tired!***

8/31 Take train to Tianjin ***Getting excited!!!***

9/1 GOTCHA DAY!!! ***my soul is content and I am in love****

Sept 1-5 is spent in Tianjin

9/4 Visit Prince of Peace ***sad that I can't bring them all home to loving homes**

9/6 Fly to Guangzhou ***let's see how Sophie does on a plane***

9/7 Free Day ***SHOPPING!!!!***

9/8 Sophie Medical Exam

9/9 U.S. Consulate Appointment

9/10 Swearing in Ceremony U.S. Consulate

9/11 9:30am Fly from GZ to Shanghai. Leave Shanghi and arrive back in Dothan 9:30pm
Sept 11 ***Yes I realize the date...please pray for our safety**

Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, and support for our family. We can't wait for you all to meet our "little princess". Please pray for Joshua has he stays behind and also for my heart because I will miss him just as much or more than he misses me. Please pray for Sophie to adjust well and to feel immediate security and love from us. My prayer is that the Lord will be glorified through this entire adoption because He is the author of this story. We are just thankful to be the characters that He chose to use!!

Another New Picture

More Pictures

Correction

Okay I told y'all I was no math whiz!!!!! We leave Shanghai 3:30pm Sept 11 (2:30am Dothan time 9/11) This is only 19 hours to arrive in Dothan 9/11 9:30pm. Whew!!! That was really messing with my head. Still a long flight but better than 31 hours!!! I was counting from Sept 10th. Just remember that China is 13 hours ahead of Dothan time.

We have tickets!!!

We have our ticket receipt and itinerary. We leave at 6am on August 27 from Dothan and arrive in Shanghai on August 28 at 1:45pm. We will return Sept 11 leaving Shanghai at 3:35pm and arrive in Dothan at 9:34 pm on Sept 11. Now I am no math whiz but that is 31 hours...YIKES!!!!! This will definitely be the ultimate test of my patience with a tired husband, tired 14yo and a daughter who doesn't speak any English. This will definitely be a day I will need my "prayer warrior" friends to pray!!!!!

IT'S OFFICIAL...WE ARE GOING TO CHINA!!!!

Patricia called this morning and we have our CA appointment confirmed for September 9. We will pick up our precious girl on Sept 1. I am sitting here with my friend Monica trying to make our airline reservations. Needless to say, we are having a few problems being able to understand and communicate with the not-so-good English speaking employees with Delta. We have gotten some conflicting information but we have finally found and English speaking woman that is getting the job done for us!!!

I will post more later when I get all the reservations confirmed!!! Thanks Monica and Peyton for all the help!!!!!

Info about Nuan Nuan

This is a part of the post from Jodi's Blog about Sophie:

Then we went in the room where the kids play who are just a bit younger and there seemed to be 2 special friends in there. One was a little boy, the other was Nuan Nuan! Sherrie’s daughter! I got video in there and our guide was encouraging us to put it on the Internet! I will try that later. We also got many pictures that we will post. Nuan Nuan was pretty serious and they tried to get a smile out of her, but were unsuccessful. She didn’t talk much either, but she seemed to get around OK. Our guide told her that her parents are very excited to come and get her. She asked her if she wanted to go to America and she said yes. So sweet. Our guide, Shirley, said she told the caregiver that her parents would be here by the beginning of Sept. They are very excited for Nuan Nuan.

New Pictures

Thanks to Jodi at Wall of Precious Stones (located on my sidebar) . She is in China getting her daughter Evie. They toured POPCH yesterday and she has sent me these pictures of Sophie. She is so beautiful!! I can't wait to put a dress on her!!!

Consulate Appointment (CA) update

Here we go again with our lesson in patience!!!! Our group of families has been labeled the Fabulous Five!! I am not feeling too fabulous today!!! God is still good!! He is in control!!!! PTL!!!! We just can't wait to put our arms around our little Asian Princess!!!

Dear Families,
Unfortunately, email confirmation of your CA may not be turned around as fast as
usual (48-72 hours) due to there being several personnel at US Consulate on
vacation. We will follow up by sending email "reminder" to consulate 48 hours
after sending request. Please know we will do everything we can to get your
confirmation so you can make travel arrangements. We appreciate your patience.
Thank you,
Patricia

Happy 10th Birthday Joshua

Today is Joshua's 10th Birthday. He wanted to go to Mikata Japanese Restaurant for his birthday. The Eriksens, Jerod and Tamara, Nanny, Dedaddy and Emma were all there to celebrate with us. Happy Birthday, Joshua! I love you so much!

TA and God's Radar

We received our Travel Approval today!!!!!! We have a tentative "Gotcha Day" for Sept 1. Labor Day!!! How appropriate because this has definately been an act of long labor! For the few of you that I have already spoken with, they originally told me August 25. Still things could change a little bit. Nothing is permanent until we get our Consulate Appointment. It is about 1:30am in China right now so I am sure no one is checking emails and making appointments. So hopefully I will know something by tomorrow.

Now the rest of this post will be somewhat rambling but I want to explain how my phone call came about today..... I was talking to Courtney this morning and my phone kept messing up and we were not able to finish our conversation. She had told me that she was going up to the preschool to do some things in the room. Both my home phone and cell phone were giving me problems and she was not able to hear me but I could hear her. So I jumped in the shower and got dressed and rode up to the school. This is where God's Radar comes in. I got to the preschool and Bonnie, Paula, Allison and Courtney were all there. They were excited to see me and asked me questions about the adoption. Paula said "wouldn't it be great if you got the phone call while you were here"!!!! I walked out on the playground to see some of the childcare children and Courtney comes to get me.

C: You have a phone call!

Me: What?

C: You have a phone call!!!

Me: Are you sure it is for me?

C: YES

( I have not been to the school since our last day in May)

Me to Bonnie: Who is it?

B: I don't know

Me: Hello?

P: Hi Sherrie, this is Patricia from Harrah's you have your TA Today!!!

Me: Why are you calling me here?

P: Well I always call work numbers first.

Me: But you don't understand, I don't work in the summer.

(By this time I don't even hear what Patricia is saying? I start rambling about how I am not even suppose to be here and how my teacher friends are saying wouldn't it be great if you got the call while you were hear...poor Patricia. I am sure that she is thinking this girl has gone completely off her rocker!!)

Anyway, I finally calm down and listen to all that she has to tell me. Hang up the phone and get a group hug from my friends. I am so thankful that God has me on His Radar.

My friend Michelle reminded me that everytime I have gotten an important phone call that I have been surrounded by friends. Both of my parents and grandparents are deceased. I don't have any family that live close by. My friends are very important to me. God has orchestrated all these phone calls of good news to come at a time that I am surrounded by people who love me.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Psalm 150:6

In Honor of Nuan's Biological Mother

Today has been a very strange day knowing that we have a daughter half way around the world celebrating her birthday. I wonder if she even knows that today is her special day? I wonder if her biological Mother is thinking of her today?

I have spent most of the day thinking about Nuan's mother. I can't even imagine one day without my sons especially on their birthday. I wish there was some way to let her know how much we are thankful for her bringing Nuan into this world and how much we love her and can't wait to be her family. My prayer for her biological Mother is that she will feel a strange, unexplainable peace on the day that Nuan is placed into our arms.

Happy Birthday sweet girl! We can't wait to meet you! Soon, very soon!!!!

Delta Sky Miles

My sweet friend Jane and her husband Peyton have offered to donate Delta Sky Miles for our trip to China. We have discovered that it is a very good possibility to be able to get 3 tickets using Sky Miles. I am not real good at asking for help but here it goes.....If anyone has any exsessive Delta Sky Miles they would like to donate, we would be so very much appreciative. If you are unable to comment on my blog, you may reach me at Peaks5@aol.com. Thanks!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday

Tomorrow is our sweet girl's birthday! We are so sad that it didn't work out to be with her but we have sent her a package so she knows that we are thinking about her. We are still waiting for our Travel Approval and hoping that is will be next week when we get it. Once we get this (yes I know it seem like these approvals will never end) we will travel within 3 weeks.

Waiting again...

Just wanted to let you all know that we do not have any information about our travel yet. We should receive TA (travel approval) hopefully next week. I will post as soon as I know anything new. Thanks everyone for checking on us and sharing this exciting journey with us. Just keep praying for Sophie that she will do well with the transition.

Happy Day

Well we received our document today with a little bit of confusion with the address not being correct. They had Trail lane instead of Trout Lane. I was able to talk with them just before they were getting ready to leave with it on the truck and tell them not to go anywhere with it....I was on my way!!!!! We had to drive into Panama City. No big deal. I would have driven back to Dothan to sign it. The lady at the DHL office told me that they had just discussed where in the heck was Trail lane. They were going to put in on the truck and try to figure it out! PTL they had not left yet!!!! Here are some goofy pictures of us at the DHL office. Enjoy!

Thanks to all my sweet friends who have left me comments and the ones of you that I know are looking but are not able to leave comments! Your support of this adoption has meant the world to me. We are blessed with and awesome group of friends!!!

Blogger is not letting me post pictures right now so I will post them later.

LOA LOA LOA LOA!!!!!!!!!!

Praise the Lord!!! We received our LOA phone call today!!!! YEA! YIPPEE!!! At 3pm, I was sitting at the ball field here in PCB and the phone rang. I could not see who was calling because of the glare! I knew it was not my husband because he has a special ring tone so I answered the phone and heard Erin's voice on the other end "Sherrie your LOA arrived today"!!!! I just about killed myself trying to get off the bleachers so I could jump up and down. I ran down past the dugout with Erin still on the phone...Justin was playing 3rd base....by this time he was looking at his mom like she had lost her mind. He looked at me and I gave him a big thumbs up and he then returned a big thumbs up and a huge smile to me. This is when the tears starting flowing!! I have been waiting a month for the phone to ring and expecting a morning phone call and here it is the middle of the afternoon and I can't even see who is calling me! I was so afraid that I would miss the phone call and there it was right beside me on the bleachers ringing....I am still in shock!! It will be a long night...I don't see how I will be able to close my eyes and sleep tonight. We are having our LOA Fedex to the beach so we can sign it and return it tomorrow. This one last step has to be done before we can actually begin our travel planning. If all goes well, we are hoping to travel within 6 weeks!

Justin, I am glad that you didn't miss any balls at third base while you were looking at your crazy mom doing a victory dance!!!!

97 Days and still waiting

We are still waiting for our LOA. We are at the beach. Justin's travel baseball team is playing in a World Series all week long. It has helped pass the time for me but I am still anxious to get our call. I saw the cutest little chinese girl yesterday and it just makes my heart ache.

Justin and Joshua have had a lot of experience with little girls this week. One of the families we are staying with has twin 5-year-old girls and the boys have done a great job playing with them. It is fun to see them interact with the girls and makes me anxious to see how they will be with Sophie.