This is a little late but Olivia's visa (Article 5) was picked up from the US Consulate and sent to the CCCWA.  Now all we are waiting on is China to say "Come get her"!  I am hoping it comes the first week of January.  We really don't know, it usually takes 1-3 weeks for travel approval.  We are SOOOOO close!!!  Luckily we have Christmas and New Year's to keep us busy in our waiting......I am also using this time for some much needed time with my 3 kids here that have seriously felt my spaceyness lately.  I have been a little scatter brained, to say the least (some may call it "placenta brain", with out the placenta.....)  I hope these next couple of weeks while they are home we can really have some much needed family time.  We are just waiting on the TA, there is finally NO more paperwork to do, so I can devote my time to them and enjoying them. 

A few examples of our God's love.....

Yesterday, Taylor and I had lunch with my friend Michelle and her beautiful little girl Ava.  Ava came home in October and has been an absolute blessing to Michelle and her family.  Read about them here.  Ava is just precious!  She is so happy and I love to just watch her, you can tell there is so much going on in her little mind.  I think mainly she is saying "What in the world?"  She just watches everything and everyone.  It's so amazing to think how God has blessed this family with this little miracle and blessed this little girl with this family.  Just two months ago she was living in an orphanage and had no idea what it meant to be loved and wanted and now she has a family that absolutely adores her!  I love spending time with Michelle and getting all the tips she has for China and what it's like adjusting to her new life, but I also feel a little closer to Olivia.  Sometimes it feels so unreal, Olivia is half a world away and all I have are a few pictures and a short video, you can easily get wrapped up in the minute and the travel part of it.  Trying to plan and prepare for 2 weeks in China with a 3 year old has taken a lot of my brain capacity here lately....LOL.  Anyway, being with them brings me back to reality and the fact that I will have a little China princess soon! I will soon be doing the whole toddler thing again, I will have a little one to carry and teach new things to. Oh how I can't wait to meet her and learn her little personality, what she likes and doesn't, what makes her laugh or cry, and even more to show her that we love her and that she will, FOREVER, have a family! 

Last night we went to the kids Christmas program at school. It was so nice to be reminded of what this time is really about, Our God and His love, by giving us His son, Jesus Christ.  The school had a Lessons and Carols, where the kids sang Christmas carols (true Christmas songs, not Rudolph) and they read scripture about the birth of Jesus.  It was Awesome!! It may have brought a few tears, hearing those little voices singing such beautiful and meaningful songs.  Here are some pictures.....:-) Chase is officially too old for this....:-(

Friends....

I have some AMAZING friends!! They have organized a bake sale at work to make money for us for the adoption. Today they baked multiple baked goods including yummy pumpkin rolls that people have PREORDERED!! I am so thankful for the blessing of friends. Today is a terrible day for America. After a man walked into an Elementary school in CT and killed 18 little angels. We have to find thankfulness in the things that REALLY matter. Our friends and family. This time of craziness and preparing for Christmas in which we all over spend and buy things that are by needed, we lose sight of what really matters. We have a God who loves us more than we can fathom and in this time of heartache we must not forget that. He puts people in our lives for a reason, just as He has given us Olivia Kate, he has also blessed me with some wonderful people to share my life with.

Article 5 Drop off

So I have been patiently (yeah right nothing patient about this) waiting for the I800 approval, that we got last week, to be sent to the National Visa Center, to then be sent to the US Embassy in China.  Well it finally happened today!! We will now wait 2 weeks and then it will be picked up on Thursday 12/20.  After it is picked up we will only be waiting on Travel Approval (TA) from China.  Once we get our TA we will be assigned a date for our Consulate Appointment, which is the American side of the adoption that is finalized in Guangzhou, China, at the US Embassy towards the end of our trip.  TA can take anywhere from 1-3 weeks and we could leave a week or so later.  So this time next month I may finally have an answer to the million dollar question "When will you go get her?"  These are the last few steps y'all, we are SOOOO close!!!!  :-)