Countdown 11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 ....China!

Our next family picture will be a family of 9! Our family has more than doubled in size in less than four years! Wow! God is amazing!
The girls' room is ready...

Bunk bed with trundle and Kamby's crib for a few more months. She can already climb out of it but as long as she will still sleep in it, it is staying up. Daddy did a fantastic job on the girls' bed!

The boys putting together another table and chairs to make sure we have enough "desks" for everyone to do school. Graci, Dax, and Susi will all start home school kindergarten as soon as we get back from China. I am sure Thad and Kamby will be very much a part of school as well so they also have a table/desk.

Dax helping daddy put together a chair. He is daddy's best helper!

Listening to directions and doing a great job!

Thad got a little bored helping and decided to work on his puzzle book.While the boys were working on the table, the girls were trying out the new floor.......

making sure that Susi's wheelchair will roll easily all over the house.....

they were also testing how fast they might be able to roll Susi's chair!

Due to God's amazing provision through a grant from Joni and Friends, we were able to put hard flooring throughout all the major traffic areas, kitchen, bathrooms, and playroom. So Susi will be able to navigate her chair easily, anywhere she wants to go. We also were able to remove some small walls and widen the hallways, thus making it easier to get through. So, the kids have loved riding their scooters and cars all over. They have planned how they will race Susi in her chair! All the painting is almost done, all the cooking/freezing is done, all the shopping is almost done, so now focus is on packing...that is the most mentally exhausting part...so much thinking goes into packing. We have 4 days until Alyx starts school and then just 6 more until we wake up to board a plane for Beijing!

Summer is Fading....

We are trying not to be completely consumed with getting ready to go pick up Susi. It is hard but we are also enjoying the remainder of summer. When we get home, we will be in complete school mode, so we want to enjoy these last fleeting days......

Gotta love summer dinner - chicken legs, popcorn, and watermelon!

This is the only fruit Thad will eat besides bananas...and as you can tell he enjoys his watermelon!

Do you notice the piece of watermelon is wider than Dax -ha- ha! He ate every last bit of it!

Susi Has a Family!

Well, we have known this for 10 months but Susi just found out Wednesday! She looks so happy....I hope she feels that way after meeting us. We love you baby girl and we are on our way, just 13 more days!

Travel Plans

It is so fun and yet so stressful to make travel plans. So many decisions to be made and deciding what is best for everyone. Many times with international adoption, families forget that the main purpose for their trip is to bring their child into their family. With so many opportunities and things you have never seen or experienced it is easy to get wrapped up in wanting to "do it all". Another thing that is difficult is, it is EXPENSIVE to travel and to experience the country and culture while you are in country. When looking at individual cost, one may want to eliminate and try to keep the cost as low as possible but this is not an easy task to balance. So, as I sort through (and my head is exploding) I am focusing on one top priority- Susi-Yue. Second priority - Graci Jia. Every thing we do and everything we experience has to be in the absolute best interest of these girls. One who will be leaving the only life she knows and meeting total strangers whom she will spend the rest of her life with, and the other whose life was that 4 years ago and now is going back to the country of her birth. Graci is very knowledgeable of China and all it has to offer but at five years old her biggest question about going back is "will my China remember me?" That is a tough question to answer to our precious girl. No, we will not meet anyone in China that remembers you, Graci. But, we will spend every chance we get to tell you what we remember about your China and the time you became our daughter. Her stated mission for going with us to China and picking up Susi is (how she simply explains it to Dax) : I have to tell Susi about God because I am her big sister and we both have the same China. So, every decision being made and every plan for our trip is to make sure that our precious girls 100% know that the only reason we are in China is because of them!

August 10 - leave Phoenix for Portland then Portland to Beijing
August 11 - arrive late at night in Beijing
August 12 - MEET SUSI
August 14 -Leave for Siping City to visit Susi's original orphanage and finalize adoption
August 19 - Leave for Guangzhou
August 23 -US Consulate
August 24 -Leave Guangzhou by train to Hong Kong
August 25 - Leave Hong Kong for Tokyo then Tokyo to Seattle then home same afternoon (time differences are so fun and weird)
August 25 -Arrive in Phoenix and HUG all my seven at once!

We’re going to China. I feel so happy! Gao-xing, gao-xing, gao-xing!

I couldn't resist quoting Kailan as I have been singing this song since I received the shocking phone call this morning. About two weeks earlier than we would have thought to hear, we received the call that we have TRAVEL APPROVAL! These are the long awaited words you hope to hear every day when waiting to go hold your precious child. We leave August 10th, 2011. If you are counting you will realize that is exactly three weeks away......ahhhhhhhh! There is so much to be done. The number one question I get is "Who is going to China?"

Of course, Mommy and Daddy are going...duh!
and these loveleys are making their second trip to China.....

The hard part........leaving my girls......

and my boys :(
We are certainly not looking forward to saying goodbye for 15 days to our kids, it will be tough to say the least. We have wonderful friends and family who will love on them while we are gone but nontheless leaving them is by far the hardest part of it all.

but, they are not being left in vain, this beautiful princess is our reason and she is worth every tear we will shed!