T A - we travel July 19th

Our Travel Approval is here and yes we travel to China in only about three weeks. Cannot wait to meet Maya and bring her home. This was the final piece of paper we needed, that everyone needs who will travel to adopt a child in China. Now, I can start counting down the days til we board the plane to Beijing. That will be on Saturday July 19th at 3 pm. We will arrive in Beijing on July 20, meet Maya on July 21st and finalize her adoption on July 22nd. I pray to God all goes well and if the internet will work too I will try to update this blog as we go along.

My sweet and wonderful husband said to me to today with a glint in his eye, honey in three weeks we will have our daughter. Thank you my amazing husband for giving me this opportunity to help a child at a time she needs it. Thank you for accepting her and working so hard to bring her into our arms, for loving her and our children, grandson and me the way that you do. You love us all fiercely and I love you back for it ten fold.

Soon sweet girl you will be home and know a family like you've never known before, who loves you unconditionally and will never forsake you. Soon you will be home where you belong.

Does She Think About Us

It is just so hard, the waiting, I wish she was already home but many preparations still need to be made and things bought. Her bedroom furniture came in yesterday and we are working on setting it up. The bed is just a little too long to be by the door so we'll have to switch it up a bit. That's not a big worry. We are still waiting for the Chinese Visa to come in and then the TA, travel approval which is an invitation by the CCCWA to come to China. Our agency can also pick it up when we are in China but it would be nice to have it now. So it's yet another thing we have to wait for. The adoption process is all about waiting every step of the way.

I'm also trying to put together the gift bags for the officials. It is customary to small tokens to the officials and nannies. I'm looking for things that travel light, don't want to add too much weight in these gifts when we have other things to worry about. At least we don't have to worry about bringing coats and things of that nature because China in July will be hot, too hot probably but still better than freezing cold of winter.

I often wonder what our little girl is doing at the moment. Does she think about us? Is she longing to be with us? I would like to think so but for her perhaps life has not changed much yet. We've sent her another care package but were told she would be at a boarding school for the summer so she may not get it until it gets closer to adoption day if not right on that day but I hope she knows are thinking about her all the time. Here are a couple of photos that we first saw of Maya.

and something that she wrote

LOA is HERE

At long last China says YES. The wait for the LOA has been excruciating. Of all the waiting this one seemed to be the longest, though I'm fully aware that some people have waited even longer. Still, Sunday started off so wonderfully we had to celebrate. I got a cake with our little girl's name on it, some family and friends came over and we had a great day together, just talking about and anticipating the day that she is here.  Everything we've done, all the work we put in the last couple of years has finally come down to this, signing the LOA. We received the LOA or as it's now known Letter Seeking Confirmation yesterday via a PDF file. We promptly signed it and sent it back so the agency can get moving but they will need the original letter signed as well and we should be doing that tomorrow.

Our daughter's name is Maya Lanlan Josephine

Her Chinese name is Lan Lan Rao and she is in the Jiangxi province

She is 9 years old. She is beautiful and we love her so much already and just want to go, get her and bring her home. Here she is, our sweet girl, Maya.

We already have a travel date - we fly July 19th and we receive temporary custody of Maya on July 21st and on the 22nd we finalise the  adoption and than that's it - she is our daughter forever. So looking forward to that moment. We hope that her transition will be a smooth one. Sometimes with the older child it could be even more difficult and we are ready for that to help her the best that we can. She knows about us now and as we are told she is happy to come to Canada with us.  

Here is he listening to a message I wrote for her about the hopes of her being our daughter. So, I am starting to pack. I've shopped for clothes for her and we should be ready to go very soon and I need to thank my husband and my family for being so patient through the whole adoption process. Sometimes it wasn't easy at all but with God's help we somehow made it to this point.  See you soon baby girl.