Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

2017 is the Year of the Rooster! While we have none in our house we do have 2 Ox, 1 Rabbit, 1 Dragon, and in a few weeks we will add 1 Horse. SO EXCITED.. 

  

Typical Nian smiling face.  

No the hate won't fit Isabel either

This isn't the outfit he wore but the one he got from
Aunt Bev, Uncle Adam, and Elean for Christmas!

Over the last few weeks I've been re-reading my blog.  Brings back some Great and not so great memories.  The great far out weight the not so great!   Each one has brought me to this point in my life and helped make me the person I am today. Lord knows I'm a sinner, but I try to be the best Christian and the best ME I can be! I was reading one of my posts from Aug 1 2014. Here is a part of it 

We know we are exactly where God has meant for us to be and we couldn't be happier. While we are trying to save all of our time (off) for when we get our little one, we are starting to plan a few weekend get a ways.  Today is one of those days and I SO need it.  What a great cool morning today and Isabel just gave the mail man the what for.  Bet he loved that.  She's so scary LOL. At least I'm getting a glimpse of what she doesn't during the day 

I realized how ironic that I took that date off, of all days to take off I take off Aug 1, 2014.  And I did nothing all day.  You see friends, this is the day little brother was born. I just love these little moments in life because I've not doubt God created!

Saturday I had some much needed Sister/Pedi time Saturday morning. Took the truck in to get an oil change and had them look at the tires/brakes it was acting up a few days before.  New back breaks, rotors and calipers later. YIKES – I blame it on that damn adoption fairy! Yeah that bitch likes to break big ticket items so people have to fix or replace these items during their adoption journey. She usually messes with our paperwork so that we have to get multiple papers done. Good times. J    After we got the truck we dropped Nian off at Grandma and Grandpa’s then headed out for some China supply shopping.

 Joe and I had SO MUCH FUN!!!!  We headed over to the new outlet center and got some much needed items for our trip.  Of course we had to stop and get little brother some new shirts/pants. I can’t wait to show you all the sweet shirt we got him, but you have to wait until he has it on.  You’ll know when it you see it!  Joe said it “fits” little brother, so of course we just HAD to have it.  I LOVE this man!!! We hadn’t been out just the two of us in a long time. It was such a great day all around!

Sunday we headed down to Berrien Springs to enjoy Andrews University’s Chinese New Year Celebration. It was nice to see a lot of people dressed in their silks. When I got Nian’s I didn’t realize they were shorts so he just wore the top of his Red Dragon and dress pants.  We had such a great time hanging out with Aunt Bev and Eleana. We can’t wait to get together this summer with them. Uncle Adam was sick so next time we see him we’ll have little brother.

So Chinese New Year pretty much shuts a lot of things down in China, and for sure the CCCWA. They will be back to work on Feb 3^rd and 4^th, then everything opens back up on Feb 6^th.  We are hopeful that they will issue our TA on either the 3^rd or 4^th, but we aren’t banking on it.  That’s the last thing, well 2^nd to last thing we’re waiting for so we can get our flights booked and get going.  Once we have our TA we’ll need to get our CA (consulate appointment), which will also tell how soon we can return home, and THEN we can get our tickets booked!!  And those things keep going up and down, and up and down, and up and down, well you get it…

I did get our last hotel stay booked with our Points = FREE. WOOT WOOT that will save us some.  We’ll be upgrading again to the Executive level so we’ll have access to the awesome lounge and all the good extras.  I also found out from a recently returned Mama that with Exec level access we can also go to the larger breakfast buffet for FREE!!!! SWEET.. Free is a WONDERFUL word to hear in the process of an adoption, or really at any time! J

My nephew’s passport and Visa application are with the courier right now, and she will take them to the Consulate tomorrow.  It’ll be back to us by next Wed!  I’m for sure concerned, but not too worried about this one.  We waited so long to send it due to him working for a religious organization.  He had to fill out an extra form, and he may only get a 30 day Visa so we had to wait until it was closer to travel to apply. I didn’t want to wait too long because they also changed the picture requirements for the Visa, which makes no sense but I’m not in control of that.   PRAYING all goes well with his papers and that they will give him a 10 year like the rest of us got. Your prayers on this would be MUCH appreciated!!!!

Today is exactly 3 weeks before our expected travel date of Feb 22.  At this point we are pretty much planning everything around that date.  Of course we can’t inform employers until we have the actual dates, but that is the date we are shooting for. Flight this time around are similar to the first time, but MUCH cheaper. Still have a 4.5 hour layover in Detroit and then straight over to Beijing (14 hour flight).  Return will take us through Beijing this time instead of Shanghai, and only a 3 hr 40 min lay over there- instead of the 6 we had in Shanghai last time.  The kicker is once we get back to the states in Detroit we have a 4 hour layover instead of the 2 we had last time. YUCK!!!  Which means we’ll be getting back into town at 11:10pm and not the 9:30 we had last time. L  Praying for a Thursday return home date as the flights are cheaper, but we will take what we can get!! 

So we are ready to go, but yet we are not. Lol….  We are ready to be in China and experience the country again this time WITH Nian, and we are so ready to get little brother and start the bonding process. We can’t wait for Caleb and Evan to see that beautiful country that has given us our family.  Yet we still have a lot to do.. Our weekends are being left open so we can focus on getting everything done before we take off. We’ll be enjoying as many “last’s” as we can as a family of 4, before little brother makes us 5. YES Isabel is in that count. Come on now ya’ll should now that by now! J

We have been working with Nian the last few weeks, and will continue to prepare him for this trip.  We feel it is SO important that he travel with us.  We can’t imagine not taking him. This is the country of his birth, and we want to be there with him to experience new parts of it.  We also feel it’s important for him to be there with us on Gotcha day.  We know he’s going to make a GREAT Big Brother.  We’ve been having a lot of “Pretend you’re on the Plane” moments to help get him ready for that long flight.  And I do have a trusted back up plan for that too.

Thanks for stopping by, sending us your love, support, and especially the prayers.  We for sure will need them in the coming weeks. We ask that you please remember to keep Little Brother in your prayers, the other children with him, and those who are caring for him. He’s going to have some BIG changes coming in a few weeks.  We can only pray that his nannies are helping prepare him for us with the photo album that we sent over. 

Praying our Lord blessing you and ministers to your needs as well.