Mila's baby sister is coming home!!!

Friday night I did something fantastic! I purchased the tickets to go get our sweet pea. We leave Portland on the 6th and arrive in Beijing on the 7th. Shane and I are taking a couple of tours, one to the Great Wall and the other to the Forbidden City. We are super excited. On the 10th we have orientation and then on the 11th we fly to Guangzhou and get our Jaili Joi!!!! We are going to be parents!EEEEKKK and YIPEE!! There are so many feelings that we are experiencing right now. It's hard to describe and navigate them. It feels like the air has been taken out of the room and at the same time one of the most amazing feelings ever. I imagine it's probably what mothers go through at about a week before they give birth. It fills my eyes with tears and my heart with such wonderful joy to think about the first time I will get to hold our daughter in my arms! Shane and I have anticipated this day for so long. We got use to the waiting so the fact that it is actually time is somewhat surreal. There are so many fears that go along with everything... is she going to attach, what if she doesn't like me, am I going to be a good enough mother..etc (there are about a million more but I'll spare you and stop there) I know that Jesus has planned this from the very beginning and if he blessed us with the opportunity to be this sweet babies parents then what the heck am I worring about? It's been along road to get to where we are right now. I don't know what the future holds in store for our family but I know that as long as we have our faith in God, eachother and our daughter, our family and friends and an endless support system I'm pretty excited to see how the Lord is going to guide our lives! I will try to post several times while in China, so stay tuned for the continuation of our journey.

We are going to China!!!

We received the best news yesterday! Our travel approval to get our Jaili Joi!!! It is hard to put into words the excitement that Shane and I are feeling. We also received an email today that our tentative consulate appointment is for the 21st of Dec which means we would be leaving the 7th of Dec for Beijing and returning home on the 23rd of Dec. That is only about 2 weeks!!! YIPEE! We are almost there after such a long wait to have a baby. It seems unreal that in less than a month we will be holding OUR DAUGHTER. What a truly amazing and faith building experience this has been. It just proves that our God is wonderful and he has such an amazing plan for all of us in our lives!!! I just can't wait to be able to take care of our sweet pea and officially become a mom and Shane a dad!! Wow mom and dad (how weird). It's almost scary if I think about it too much. A baby girl to totally depend on us. Holy smokes!!! What a huge responsibility. I just rest in the fact that God has prepared us for her and he has had us picked to be her parents all along. What a blessing!!! Thank you everyone for sharing in our joy! It's been a fantastic and sometimes bumpy adventure ( and it's not even over yet) but I'm praying that it will only get better from here. Your parents are coming to get you Jaili Joi!!!!I pray that the Lord keep all of us safe and happy during these holidays and thank him so much for providing Shane and I with such a blessed life. Take care everyone, I'll keep updating when we get the updates.

Travel approval is almost here!!!!

O.K. the picture has nothing to do with travel approval, I just thought it was funny/cute.
TA IS COMING, TA IS COMING!!!!!
Shane and found out 2 weeks ago that our dossier had been moved into the last part of the review room and would soon be moving to the travel approval room, Holt has been just amazing with the whole process. They have been contacting their person in Beijing to find out where all of our paperwork was since we are nearing the 4 month mark on the wait for travel approval and they called yesterday to let us know that the CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) should be issuing our travel approval in the next 2 days and Holt should receive it either by the end of next week or the beginning of the next. After they receive it they will schedule our appointment with the US Consulate in Guangzhou and then Shane and I buy our tickets and we will be off to China!!!!! Shane and I are excited beyond words!!!!!! We are praying everyday for that TA to come in. We are so close to get our little girl, I'm starting to feel the labor pains so come on Jaili Joi!!!! Keep praying for us everyone. It's all in God's hands. We are hoping to be home for Christmas and Jaili's 1st birthday. I set up a picture viewing site where we will be posting our pictures of Jaili and China when we are there. Feel free to take a peek. Go to www.flickr.com/photos/ninjasquirrels. I know awesome name huh!! Ninja squirrels cracks me up. That was all Shane of course. Take Care everyone I'll update when we get more info.

Jaili's 2nd Baby Shower

Yes, I'm FINALLY updating the blog. Sorry I've been so slow just haven't felt like being on the computer. Anywho, we had Jaili's 2nd Baby shower on Oct 8th and it went fantastic! We have just about everything we need so thank you so much for coming everyone and for the lovely goodies. Jaili already has so many people that love and care about her it is just amazing. We are so blessed! Also in other news we are in the midst of a career change for Shane. He will be spending some time at home with Jaili when we first get home with her because we arn't sure of the extent of her needs at this time. He then would like to get into project management with an emphasis in finance. Teaching has been great but it is time for a change. We are doing well and just thank God everyday that he has bestowed so many blessings on us.