We're getting closer to our leave date!

Mika turned 16 months old today! It's hard to believe that this little girl will be walking and running around our house in 3 weeks!

I got a lot of packing done, so I'm reveling in the feeling of accomplishment! Hopefully, I can finish the rest tomorrow and run the errands I have left.

Here's our flight schedule: Annie, Noah and I (Heather) leave at 6:00 am Wednesday morning to fly to Portland, OR. Rich and Kiana fly out on Thursday. And then Friday, the 19th is the day we leave for China! It's going to be tough saying goodbye to the kids, and I'm sure I'll be crying on the way to the airport. But I keep on reminding myself that this is a short period of time in the grand scheme of things, right?!

My prayer today is that that the nannies in Mika's orphanage are preparing her for the fact that we'll be coming to get her. I have no idea what they'd say to a girl her age, but I'm hoping they throw around the "mommy and daddy" concept. God's big...He can prepare her for what's about to happen to her.

December 1, 2008

About 3:15 this afternoon God and I had a talk….or I should say, I whined to him. The wait to go get Mika in China has been killing me the past few days. I had my perfect plan in mind, and I just wanted God to put his stamp of approval on it, and we could move on. After spending about 15 minutes confessing my pride, anger, disappointment, and spending some time refreshing my mind about who God is, I shut my bible and journal. I proceeded to get my coat on and rustle up Annie and Noah to pick up Kiana at school when my cell phone rang. It was our adoption agency telling us our Travel Approval had arrived today! Does God have impeccable timing or what?!! But wait…it gets better…they told us the potential travel dates – December 11th – 24th! Can you believe that??? We could be on our way to China in 9 days! There will be a call made to the in-country staff tomorrow in China to try and get our date with the US Consulate – that appointment determines the whole travel time. They asked us to pray that it would happen as they’ve planned, and we should hear back from them tomorrow. God has given me such a gift with this timing – it allows us to spend time with my family after we get back from China. Mika is not going to know where her home really is at first, but she’ll eventually learn that we live in Indiana, right?!

My mind (and Rich’s) is filled with details that need to be taken of…mainly finding people to watch the kids while we’re gone. There is so much to be done here – crib, buying a car seat, diapers…all that fun stuff! What does a 16 month old do??? I need to find that out, too! So, if you would, first thank God for his incredible gift to us today, and pray for our sanity as we try to maneuver all the things that need to be taken care of before we leave. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for your prayers on our behalf!!! I’ll let you know when we get the final word on our travel dates!

Love,

Heather

December 3, 2008

We got a call yesterday, Dec. 2nd, saying the Consulate dates looked pretty full for a leaving date of the 11th, but our agency hadn’t officially heard back from them. Would we be willing to leave on the 18th if we had to? Oh yea, we would! So, today we got the e-mail confirming that our Travel Group would be heading over to Beijing on the 18th and we would meet them over in southern China on the 20th! (we’re skipping the sight-seeing portion of the trip since we’ve already been there)

I have to tell you what an incredible thing God has done for us. All along, I had been thinking that the perfect scenario for us going to China would be if we left sometime between Dec. 18-21st. My reasoning? This would allow our whole family to fly to Portland, Oregon to be with my family, and we’d fly to China from there. The kids would spend the two weeks we’re gone with my sister and her family. I have been torn in my heart about going over to China and spending Christmas with my Dad. He has pancreatic cancer and this could be our last Christmas together. To think that God would give me the gift of both getting our daughter in China and then having 4-5 more days to spend with my Dad after we get back with Mika is unbelievable! Ever since Dad was diagnosed I had been praying that he would get to meet our little girl from China, and now that is going to come true. Our God is so good and He has shown me that he loves me very specifically the last 3 days.

I feel like a giant load has been lifted off my shoulders. The original plan of leaving on the 11th was exciting for the sheer fact of getting Mika so soon. But the reality and stress of pulling off everything that quickly was daunting. I could not have picked a better scenario for our whole family – God knows our needs and longs to give us the desires of our hearts! ovemeber!

November 19, 2008

While our blog is just beginning, our journey to adopt Mika Ke Dundore began 2 years ago. In November 2005 we sent in our paperwork to adopt our second child from China. The "wait time" continued increasing each month, and we knew this was going to be much longer than Annie's adoption. About a year ago, Rich and I decided to put our names on the "Waiting Children (special needs) List. We knew we couldn't have a child with a significant need due to the size of our family, but we also knew we did have hearts that wanted to see these sweet kids with loving families.

On September 20th we got the call we had been waiting for! Our adoption agency asked if we'd like to review the case of Yi Ke Qun, and we said an enthusiastic yes! We opened the e-mail and found an adorable little girl with chubby cheeks and beautiful brown eyes. We had doctors and an occupational therapist review her file, and all they could find was roughly a 3 month developmental delay. This was too good to be true!

We sent word to the Chinese government that we wanted to adopted Yi Ke Qun on Sept. 22nd. After a month, on Oct 23, we received our Pre-Approval to adopt her. Now, the we began the wait for our Referral Acceptance - this was the official "she's ours" acceptance.Our agency told us it would take approximately 1-3 months for this to arrive. But God had other plans! November 1st was the day our acceptance arrived - it took only 8 days!!!

We are currently waiting for our Travel Approval which will tell us when our actual travel dates will be. When we began this process our agency was estimating we'd leave for China mid to late December, and that looks like it could be pretty accurate. Kiana, Noah and Annie will not be going with us, so it could mean a Christmas apart. That breaks my heart, but I have to keep reminding myself that we're bringing home a great present for our entire family! A fantastic scenario for us would be traveling to China around Dec 18-20, so we could fly the kids to Oregon to be with my sister and Dad and Mom for the holidays. Can you believe my sister actually wants to watch my kids for 2 whole weeks?! She's a saint!

I found myself filled with worry last night over the travel dates. I so need to stay in this moment and not worry about the "what if'" scenarios of this whole journey. I continually remind myself that God is in control. He is trustworthy, and He wants the best for all of us.

Yesterday morning we woke up to an incredible site in our inbox -15 pictures of Mika! We had not seen any pictures of her since she was 9 months old (she is now 16 months old). We were wondering if her delay was increasing, or if she was even walking. Our fears were dispelled as we saw picture after picture of Mika walking and running! We can hardly wait to bring our little daughter home!