One Way or Another I'm Gonna Gitcha, Gitcha, Gitcha ....

It is officially "gotcha day" for Mia. The moment she walked in I knew it was her. I ran over to her and gave her the biggest hug. She had on the largest smile possible and hasn't stopped since. We went back to our hotel room and have been showing Benqin her new clothes and such. She is so appreciative of it all. She has been sharing all her food and snacks with us! It is so funny. There has been so many special moments! When we went down to each lunch, Benqin told the waiter that we were her mama and baba and the she loved us. The waiter was very sweet and told us what she had said. He asked her what she wanted to eat and she told him that she will eat the same thing that her mama eats. I so wanted to order spaghetti, but I didn't know if she would like it or not so I ordered a sandwich and fries. She loved the fries with ketchup. She holds both our hands and even ran over and across the lobby calling baba. She is very sweet, funny, and affectionate. She has the sweetest voice and even sang a song for me. She is taller than we expected and wears a size 10. Thank goodness we brought a few of those with us. She had a blast trying on clothes and then realizing they were all for her.
When we first walked in the room and she say the beds, she said that her and mama would sleep in this bed and baba in that bed. How funny!!!  What a joy!
We did give Benqin the letter from her friend Zoe and she remembered her! She called her by her Chinese name as well as the little boy in the picture. She did read the letter and was very happy after reading it! 

We are in Ch*na!

We did make it to Ch*na on Friday. I remember everyone stating that they would make it to Ch*na but they forgot to mention how long the journey really was (or did they?). We couldn't sleep on the plane coming over (14 hour flight) so that made for a long day. We only had one incident where we thought our checked bags were going straight to Hefei, but that wasn't the case. We didn't find out that we were suppose to pick up our luggage at Terminal 2 until we got to Terminal 1 at the Shanghai airport. We had walked over (about a 20 minute ordeal). There was a young Chinese man who saw our confusion and stopped to ask if he could help. We told him we were trying to get back to the other Terminal to pick up our luggage and wanted to know how we can take the Shuttle. He pointed us in the right direction and off we went. Once we made it over to the other Terminal, we again were wondering around and in our confusion this same young man came over and helped us to get back over through security and then over to baggage claims. What a day! I was just happy to see our luggage was still there. Our hotel room is very nice. We have everything that we need. They are building a highrise outside of our window and that has kept Phil entertained, as well as the traffic. He loves watching the families on bikes and mopeds skirt through traffic. It is truly amazing how much they can carry on a bike and what they carry.
We will be meeting Mia on Monday and will post again then!

View from our hotel window

Mopeds and bikes are abundant, even in 30 degree weather!

We Received a letter from Mia's friend, Zoe!

Mia had many friends in the orphanage who were adopted over the years. She has been there 11 years. She has gotten close to many of the children over the years and then one day they leave with their new family. There was one very special little girl who was friends with Mia several years ago. Her American name is Zoe and she currently lives with her mom, dad, three brothers, and her dog. Zoe found out several months ago that Mia was going to be adopted and that she would be coming to America. To show how sweet Zoe's heart is, she wrote a letter to Mia that we are taking with us to China. Zoe offers encouragement to Mia about being adopted, living in America, and learning English. She lets her know that English isn't all that hard to learn. She tells her how awesome it is that she will be coming to America and how wonderful it is that she will have a family forever. Zoe mentioned to Mia how great it is that she is getting a sister and hopes they have fun together! I know we are hoping the same thing!

We had Zoe's letter translated to Chinese and added a photo of the girls on the day that Zoe left with her new family. This special photo was given to us by Zoe's mother, Monica. What a treasure for Mia to have as a keepsake!  Thank you so much Zoe! How can anyone forget a smile like yours! Thanks to Monica for taking so many pictures of that day (which had Mia in almost all of them) and for contacting us and sharing your story!

Zoe is in the middle, Mia on the right.

TRAVEL APPROVAL!!

We received travel approval from Ch*na on Thursday, November 8. Our agency called in the morning and told us that it had come in. The next process was to send an email to the US consulate to schedule our consulate appointment. We received the consulate appointment that night (because of the time difference). We thought we would be traveling a week earlier than what we are, but one week off is not bad! The bad news is that we will most likely be leaving on Thanksgiving Day! No turkey, no stuffing, no corn casserole, no baked beans (yes, baked beans), and no cranberry sauce, no mashed potatoes or Phil's gravy! But most of all we will miss our family on Thanksgiving! It has been a tradition to cook at home for any of our kids and their families who were able to join us. The family up North have been faithful in keeping us company through this special holiday. We will miss all of you very much and we will be thinking of you! Rest assured, we won't be missing Thanksgiving next year! Jen, be sure and tell Kadina, Austin, and Matthew that we will have turkey for them next year, and tell Mark that he will have his stuffing too!
Our plans are to leave on November 22 and return on December 6. We will be meeting Mia on Anna's birthday, November 26 and then be meeting Anna a week later. We were really trying to get to Anna before her birthday, but just missed it! This will be the last birthday she will spend in an orphanage!
So much more to do . . . so much more to think about. All the unknowns to face. Our family and friends have prepared us as best as they could up to this point and we will rely on them to get us the rest of the way. We can't begin to thank all of our family and friends for their prayers, love, and support during the last few years! We know just how blessed we are!!!

New Pictures of Mia With Her Hair Down!

We have been very blessed to have met a family on our "Chuzhou Yahoo Group". They adopted a little girl at the age of 18 months from the same orphanage that Mia is at. Their daughter, Ella, is a year younger than Mia so it has been several years that Ella had been adopted. They made a visit in October to visit Ella's orphanage. Ella's family is from New-Zealand and with that said, this world just got really small. As you will see from the pictures, Ella has grown into a very beautiful, healthy, and well adjusted little lady. We thank you for your kindness to Mia!

While they were visiting Mia's orphanage in October, they were able to observe a few things and make a few comments about Mia and her surroundings. They had emailed us while they were in China and told us they think they just met our daughter but was not sure. They told us about her smile and about how she was excited to show them her "bed". Once they said this we knew that this was Mia! In Mia's referral it stated that she was always so excited to show visitors her "bed". We emailed a photo of Mia to them and they said that this was the same girl! They also gave Mia a globe from New-Zealand with a sheep in it. They said that she was happy when they gave it to her and completely unspoiled. They said that she had a beautiful smile and was a little shy. She is quite tall and very thin. She was with a group of children with severe special needs. The environment was without much stimulation for a bright healthy child. They said that the sooner we can get her the better, which is our feelings exactly. With love and care she will become a pretty and lively child. They told Mia that they were taking pictures for her American family and she didn't seem afraid about the idea of a new family at all. They noticed that the orphanage was very clean and well run and the staff seemed very kind and affectionate, but it is not very homey. We can't thank our friends from New-Zealand enough for all they have done for Mia.

Mia and Ella

Mia and Ella

The Barr Family with Mia

We Are Getting Close to a Travel Date!

Our next big step in this process is called TA "travel approval" from Ch*na. We expect to receive TA at any time now. Usually TA comes between two and four weeks, so we will be in our second week on Tuesday, November 6. They have been coming quickly so we could receive TA this coming week. YIKES! We should be traveling by the middle of November. If there is a delay then it will be at the end of November. Our travel date, however, is contingent on when we receive our Consulate appointment. This we will receive after we receive TA. Anyone else confused? We do hope to be home with Mia and Anna by Christmas, but we will most likely miss Thanksgiving with our family. We will have to have our turkey for Christmas this year. We are also hoping to post while we are in Ch*na, but some families have had problems with this since Ch*na blocks internet activity. We will try and use a VPN and hope all goes well. Any advice for our trip would be greatly appreciated at this time!!

One For The Books!

We have been waiting for what they call Article 5. This process usually takes two weeks with no exceptions. We had a representative from our agency drop off our paperwork at the US consulate in China on September 26. China had a holiday during the first week of October and all official offices were closed for 8 days. This delayed our Article 5 by a week. Our representative went to pick up our Article 5 and he was told that they did not have it ready yet. They needed to have the family (us) contact them directly because we were adopting two children at the same time. Just to give you a little background on what we received as directions when you get to this part of the process from our agency - it went like this: NOTICE: The US Consulate-Guangzhou advises that adoptive families should NOT call or email them to check on the status of the Article 5. Contacting the consulate may result in a significant delay or decline in issuing your paperwork. 
We asked our agency if this has ever happened before and she told us that she had never heard of it before. We also asked several other people who have adopted from China and they told us the same thing. Well I was urged by our agency to email the consulate and ask them what the delay of our paperwork is and what we can do to help. It is their Friday so we are hoping they respond with something positive. Just another bump in the road on our journey. Please continue to keep us in our prayers. We are still hoping to travel sometime in November (note to China: of this year).