Almost ready to leave!

We have our travel Itinary, our airline tickets are purchased, our hotel is booked, we have our prescriptions, we have our cash and we just have to pack. We think everything is purchased on our list, now we just have to get it in our suitcases. We are trying to pack it all as carry on!

Next Sunday at 8:55AM we will be off to China!

I just got home from working all night (13 hours), looked at the calendar and realized Our FLIGHT LEAVES NEXT SUNDAY at 8:55 AM from Seattle for China.!!!!!! I can hardly believe it is so close! Now I am having a hard time going to sleep and I have work again tonight.

Every morning Katy asks if we can leave to go get "My China". We have to keep telling her not today but pretty soon!!!

The Tickets are reserved and confirmed!

By a large miracle we have plane tickets reserved and will be paying for them on Monday! A family member was able to give us a short term loan and Mandy Hu found us an awesome deal on Northwest Airlines.

We will be leaving on Sunday August 5 from Seattle Washington at 8:55 AM and arriving in Guangzhou, China on Monday August 6 at 10:35 PM!!

Lexi we are almost on our way! We will be there soon sweetie!!!!!

We are getting down to the wire for tickets!

We know something will work out, we are leaving it in God's hands.

Keep praying!!!

Keep us in your prayers for cheap tickets!

We are trying to find cheap tickets and the money to pay for them. So far the best price we have is $4500 just for airline tickets. We talked with the Agency and told them we did not want to do the tour again because they go to the same places we went last time. They called back today and said they negotiated a better price for us to just use the guide for transportation to and from the airport and for the adoption related stuff.

The Agency wants us to have our tickets by Friday so here is to a lot of praying that everything works out and we will have our baby in our arms on August 7th!!!!

Lexi's Doctor appointments are set up.

We set up doctor appointments for Lexi for the 24th of August to see her pediatrician and then on Monday, August 27th, we spend all day at Seattle Children's Hospital with the Cranial-Facial team.

The high point will be we get to have a birthday party for her on August 23, she will be 2! This will be her first ever birthday party!

Our travel is all set up!

We have our official travel dates!!!!

We leave Seattle August 5, Gotcha day is August 7 and CA appointment August 16, Visa appointment August17 and return home on August 19.

CA Confirmed!

Our Consulate appointment is confirmed for Thursday, August 16,2007 and our return date is Saturday, August 18, 2007.  We will not know until next week what our actual Gotcha day is; right now our Agency is saying August 6, 7, or 8.  the actual date will determine what day we leave for Guangzhou, China.

Our TA is here!!!

We just got a call from our agency and our travel approval came in today!!!

They are trying to get the 15th for the consulate appointment and we would leave here August 3 or 4, have Lexi in our arms August 5 or 6 and return home the 16th!!

It is finally happening!

We have our Chinese Visa!

Our passports arrived here today with the visa to enter China, this means we are ready to go! Just waiting for the travel approval.

Matching Mom!

Everything I go to look at for Lexi, Katy's first comment is matching Mom! Katy thinks her and Lexi should have everything matching. We will see how far this goes, but I figure I might as well get matching as long as she wants to since down the road she probably won't want to match her little sister.

We have an update on Lexi!

Ann from Red Thread China emailed me today stating.

"the orphange said that they got the package for your daughter.......the nanny said that your daughter is starting to walk, she is a little shy and scared girl....but very lovely, her skin is light to other kids.....also her first operation for her lips was done.....the nanny said hello to you!"

Lexi's Care Package!

We sent a care package to Lexi today!

Ann of Red Thread China put this package together for us and mailed it along with a letter with some questions about Lexi we wrote out to the Xuwen CWI director. She translated them into mandarin for us and will let us know when Lexi receives the package.

Hopefully the cloths fit. I wish I could deliver it in person!!!

Our LOA is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Agency called today and our LOA is here! We went down and signed it and met another family that received their LOA also. It was great to meet a family we will probably be traveling with.

LOA stands for Letter of Acceptance. It is stating that we acept Lexi as our daughter and will take care of her and we are aware of her medical condition "cleft lip and cleft palate" and that we will haved her treated and take care of her as any child born to us.

We already sent them a letter that states all of that but they want another one. Now we just have to wait for our travel approval (TA).

Our PA is Here!*!*!*

China has pre-approved us to adopt Lexi!!! Now we can send a care package and post what pictures we have of her!

The Agency got an update and we have new measurements but not new pictures. The following pictures were taken when Lexi was approximately 8-9 months old.

Our daughter is Xu Jin Ying at Xuwen Comprehensive Welfare Institute, Guangdong Province. She is 19 months right now, birthday August 23, 2005. At the end of March her measurements were : height 78 cm, weight 11 kg, head circumference 46 cm, chest circumference 47 cm, foot length 11 cm. Which is identical to Katy's measurements at the same age. Lexi has a repaired cleft lip (repaired by the Smile Train) and unrepaired cleft palate.

Lexi's name at adoption will be......Alexis Jean JinYing Harmon and we will call her Lexi!

"Somewhere far across the sea
Waits a little heart for me
Amazing though how it may seem
We both are sharing the same dream
I long to tuck you in at night
And hold your tiny hand so tight
To kiss your tears and keep you near
To chase away your every fear
Only God knew what to do
A red thread tied from me to you
And now my love it's almost time
When I'll be yours and you'll be mine
Soon forever-never to part
My child I bore inside my heart"
(unkown)