Happy New Year!

Dates to Remember

As of Wednesday December 16
-Ethan is 13 months old
-11 weeks (77 days) since RA!
-6 weeks 1 day (43 days) since I-800 Approval
-3 weeks 6 days (27 days) since I800 cable notice
-3 weeks (21 days) since Article 5
-TA!
Wednesday September 30th
-13 weeks 5 days (96 days) since DTC
-12 weeks 1 days (85 days) since Referral
-11weeks 6 days (83 days) since LID
-10 weeks 5 days(75 days) since PA

Merry Christmas!

Travel Confirmed

Our consulate appointment is Jan 25. Gotcha Day will be Jan 18. Our travel dates are Jan 14-28.  We are booking our flights today.

We would LOVE for everyone to meet us at the airport when we get home.  Or if you want to meet at our house that would be great too.  I will be needing to see familiar faces.

Once we know flights I'll post them.

3 more weeks!  It will get here fast!

4 weeks!

In four weeks, we should be on the flight to Beijing. Our agency said that they are calling for our consulate appointment and it looks like we'll be leaving on Jan 14th and coming home Jan 28 or 29. So in 4 weeks we'll be leaving. I had hoped for 3, but 4 is good. We know that in 1 month, Ethan will be placed in our arms, FOREVER! Gotcha Day should be January 18. He will turn 15 months old that day.

When we heard that it will be 4 weeks now instead of 3 when we will travel, we did think about asking if we could leave next week. But then we remembered why we had peace about leaving in January. And we still do have peace. Leaving a week later than planned gives us another week to get ready. We'll have 10 days after school gets back. We will be able to enjoy the holidays without worrying about packing and getting ready to leave. It will all work out perfectly.

I'm praying that we'll be there the same time as Ethan's little buddy Max's family. They are waiting for TA. They should get it in about 2 weeks or so. It's very possible we could be meeting our boys on the same day. That would be awesome. For friends to meet their forever families on the same day.

I'm also praying that another friend, who I've never met personally, will be traveling with us. We "met" through our agency 6 years ago, when we were paperchasing Abby. We've chatted on and off the past 6 years. But reconnected about 6 months ago, when I saw her posting again on our agency's yahoo group. She is also adopting a little boy. And she also received TA yesterday. They are praying about if they should leave next week. I selfishly and praying they leave with us in Jan. :-)

So now that we know tentatively our travel dates, we can start to plan. We are trying to get the girls taken care of. We have plenty of friends who have offered to take care of them. Our dogs will be taken care of by another sweet friend. We just need to make the final arrangements for everyone.

Now I get to enjoy Christmas and not worry about paperwork. I love this feeling.

Soon....we'll be in China! I'm so excited.

TA!

We're going to China! We just got the call. TRAVEL APPROVAL! We are so excited.

Tentative travel dates are Jan 7th OR Jan 14th. Keep checking the blog for the dates. We should know in the next few days.

Be sure to follow us on our travel website. www.ethanwilliam.com

Less than a month and we'll have a son! Praising God!

Love,
Debbie

GREAT NEWS!

Our agency emailed this afternoon. Good news! Our Article 5 was issued TWO WEEKS AGO! They just found out. This means we are 2 weeks into the wait for our travel approval. Average wait for TA is 2-4 weeks.

So Bill & I have been talking (and we need to do more praying). It is possible for TA to come by next Wed. If it does, do we leave on Dec 26th? Or do we just wait and leave on Jan 7th. We don't know what to do. I hope we'll hear an answer from God soon.

So now I'm anxious about travel. We could be leaving in 2 weeks. Oh my!

Update

Well, I'm so anxious. The closer we get, the more anxious I get. It does not look like we'll be leaving Dec 26th. I'm a little sad about this. But I know it will all work out perfectly.

-Do I really want to leave my girls the day after Christmas?
-Do I really want to skip Beijing?
-Do I really want to fly 24 hours and then meet Ethan the very next day?

The answer is NO. I want to enjoy Christmas with my girls. I don't want to feel rushed. I want to enjoy Christmas vacation with them. Maybe we'll even get a couple of Disney days in there. I want to experience Beijing without the girls. I want to take it all in. I want to have the 2 days to get adjusted to China before meeting Ethan.

I know all I keep saying is "I want". I know that God is not having us leave later than expected because of "my wants". But I'm just starting to understand WHY we are not leaving with other families who we thought we would be traveling with. And it's starting to make sense to me.

I contacted my agency yesterday and they are going to check on Article 5 for us. It's been 3 weeks since it was cabled. They feel that it should be issued very soon. The next tentative travel date is Jan 7th. This is what I'm praying for now. I'm praying Article 5 will come THIS week, and TA will come by Dec 28. If we leave on Jan 7th, then we will meet Ethan on Jan 11. Just a little over a month from now.

I thank you all for the prayers & support. Continue to pray for Ethan. Pray that we will bond and that his adjustment will not be too hard for him.

Until then, I wanted to leave you with 2 photos we took last night. These photos did not make it to our Christmas card. :-) Merry Christmas! I can't believe Christmas is in 2 weeks.

Still Nothing

Still no word. I'm getting anxious, and worried. So I emailed our agency. I asked if they could check on our Article 5 status. They agreed they would. They think we should be hearing something soon. I hope they are right.

I also asked if they had tentative travel set for January. She said they do. Right now they are thinking Jan 7th. So that is what I'm praying for now. That we can leave on Jan 7th. That would mean we would meet Ethan on Jan 11.

Ethan's little buddy Max might be meeting is forever family that same time too. That would be amazing and so neat.

This wait is getting old. It's been 10 weeks since RA. Why on earth is it taking so long to get travel approval. It should not take this long.

God's timing IS perfect. I know I will look back and understand this very soon.

Until next time......

Travel Website

We have set up a website for travel. No, we have not received travel papers yet. But we are just getting prepared.

I emailed our agency and asked if our Article 5 has been issued. She said they have not received word yet. She also said if we get TA by Dec 16 then we will be with the Dec 24 travel group. That is 2 weeks from now. Since Article 5 is not in yet, then I'm not sure we'll make the Dec 24 group. This makes me sad because I heard our old guide Rosa is going to be the guide for this group. And we really want to be with Rosa again. So please keep praying.

Here is the new site. www.ethanwilliam.com

Until next time....