A Beautiful friendship

This morning I received the most perfect(if you know I love hair bows) and beautiful gift for Miah. I thought it must be from my secret pal from a swap I am involved with through a yahoo group of other adoptive moms, but I was informed that my secret sister did not send this gift. So...I started digging a little deeper and found out that this was sent to me by my new friend Paige from Edmonton. We have never met, but I am honored to call her friend. She has also recently adopted a beautiful 2 year old from China and we met online during this process. One day I hope to meet in person and watch our girls play together!

I can't wait to fill it with hair bows for Miah (Colleen you better get busy) and I can't wait to try out some bows on Miah!

Thanks Paige!

We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

Last night we received our travel outline. It is confirmed that Drew will meet Miah on the morning of July 13th! (July 12th early evening Kelowna time.) The hotel in Nanjing has Internet access so Drew will send photos for me to post when all is official! It all seems so surreal after waiting and hoping for her all these years! She is finally coming home!

"Give thanks to the lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures forever." Jeremiah 33:11

H1N1 and the changes we have made

Last week when the WHO raised the level of advisory to a level 6 we began thinking about how this might effect our plans to go to China. We spoke with a few adoptive families who had been to China during the past few weeks and all told about the numerous checks points that included temperature screening and nose & throat swabs. Apparently any individual with an elevated temperature and is showing flu like symptoms will be quarantined for 7-10 days. And if you have just been on a plane the people sitting in about a 6 seat radius from an ill individual will also be quarantined. There is one adoptive family who is currently living out this nightmare. You can go here to read their story.

After much prayer and discussion we decided it would be in the best interest of our family if I stayed home with our girls and Drew went to China to bring Miah home. Drew's parents graciously agreed to go with him. They will be leaving Vancouver on July 10th and returning on July 24th. The girls and I will drive down to Vancouver and meet them at the airport. The photo above is the plane that Drew and his parents will travel on to China. They will fly through Shanghai on their way to Nanjing and end their time with a 10 day stay in Beijing. We are very disappointed that our plans have changed in this manner, but believe that it is in everyone's best interest. We have promised our girls that we will all go to China in a couple of years as a family and do a tour once all this craziness is over.

Travel Approval!

Today we received our official Travel Approval from the Chinese government. It is the official piece of paper that we have to take with us and show them when we receive Miah. There are two other families that are potentially travelling with us so we are praying that they receive their travel approval soon too. Both families are also adopting girls who are about the same age as Miah. What fun it will be to stay at the same hotel and tour with other fellow Canadians. As it turns out one of the other couples is also naming their daughter Miah, spelled the same way! We are now waiting to hear back from our travel facilitator but our tentative dates are to leave Vancouver on July 16th and return on July 30th!