Our Adoption: Week 33

How Far Along: 33 weeks 

How I'm feeling: Completely overwhelmed... like in the swimming in the deep end, thoughts totally swirling, not sure how much more God will allow or how much more I can handle...
Gender: a precious and beautiful boy
Total of bills so far: $14,113.96

(You can see what bills we've paid in the sidebar.)
Total money raised: $18582.64

Favorite Moments: Sammy's monkey made it to China!  We can see now how God totally made it possible through our friends.  When Harry went through the airport security/customs, the security were unhappy with the batteries in the monkey's arms (for our voice recordings).  Harry explained about the monkey and even played the recordings for the security.  Same thing happened at the airport post office.  Word came that had he not been there to explain the monkey, they would have cut the arms off to figure out the batteries.  Harry ended up taking the monkey to his home town and mailing it from there.  Helen - the forwarding person - emailed and said that the monkey is on its way to the orphanage and that she'll let us know when it arrives.  :)  

Another great moment was two-fold.  We did our travel meeting!  We learned all about .... traveling!  It is a LOT to take in!  But one thing is for sure, our agency is solid.  Even though this is our first time, it isn't their first time and they have things working like a well oiled machine.  I think it'll be a good trip!  :)  The two-fold part is that during our meeting, we got a call from our social worker saying our I800 had been approved.  This means that the US has said that they have approved Sammy to come to live in this country.  

Things learned:  Where do I even start?  We can't bring too many gifts to give away - there will be plenty of people who can be blessed by appreciation.  A guide will be holding a sign with our name in our provincial city and we will be well cared for until we leave for the airport two weeks later to return home.  We probably get to go to the zoo!!  In China!!  I BET WE'LL GET TO SEE PANDA BEARS!!!!!!!!  That the day we get Sammy and for the the next 36-48 hours, we will be alone with him so that he will have his needs met by us and not gravitate to our guide.  That there is no pomp and circumstance for the moment we meet.  They'll check our Letter of Approval and passports and then hand us Sammy and then that's it.  That we will use the 15 hour plane ride to come up with any question we want answered about Sammy and his life or daily routines or anything we can think of.  That we will go see Sammy's orphanage.  That we'll be staying in a great hotel that has an indoor and outdoor playground for adoptive families once we're near the US Consulate.  
What we're waiting for:  We are waiting for the National Visa Center to coordinate with the US Consulate and issue Sammy's visa.  Once this happens, word gets sent to the CCCWA (China adoption agency) that all the ducks are in a row and they will send our travel approval.  

What I am looking forward to:  So many things: school starts, we apply for my visa, we get to go through some crazy adoption crazy-craziness (ya - I don't know how else to say it!) to get the visa and travel approval, we get to start packing, need to get gifts for the people who have cared for Sammy his whole life...
Pictures:
at our Travel Meeting - 

Thank you to everyone who is praying for us.  Next week, I hope to write a little more about what life is like right now.  It's hard to describe the emotion.  It is really hard to even describe all that's going on with the adoption and preparing for adopting an orphan.  But what makes it even harder is that life is really intense right now and all I can ask for right now is your prayer.