Happy 14th Birthday!!!

Fourteen years ago today my dreams of being a mother came true. God blessed me with a sweet, dark headed little boy with the face of an angel. He was a precious blessing to me that day and has blessed me with his humor, strong-will, stubborness, faith and love everyday since. I am proud of him and proud to be his Mama! Happy Birthday Jon Milledge....may all your wishes come true! I love you!

Thank You Daddy!

After going over and over several packing lists from different adoptive parents, I came up with a suggested list of medicines that I feel like I need to take to China, just in case. Thankfully, my daddy is a pharmacist and he, along with a doctor friend, filled our entire list. We have everything from antibiotics, scabies cream, diaper rash ointment, first aid kit and much more. Hopefully we will all remain well during our entire trip but if something happens....we're prepared! My next problem is going to be packing all of these meds and everything else I have gathered to take and keep my bags under 44lbs each. Yikes!

Plane tickets have been purchased!

It's official...we are headed to China! Our plane tickets have been purchased and we have them in our hands. We leave on July 2nd and will return home on July 17th. I can't believe after four and a half years I am going to China to bring my baby girl home. It is a very surreal feeling.
Since Milledge has just started a new job, he hated to ask off for over two weeks so shortly after starting. So, Jon Milledge and I were going to go by ourselves and I was fine with that. Little did I know about all the people praying for our safety and sanity in China trying to do it all by myself. Obviously God heard all the prayers because on Friday my good friend Caryn, who has adopted twice from China, called me crying saying that God had burdened her with the desire to go with me to help. She had been praying about it and told herself and God that she would only go if it didn't interfere with anything that her family had planned for the summer. Caryn has 5 children total and they are all very busy in different activities. Guess what? The two weeks that we will be gone were the only two weeks this summer that no one in her family has anything to do! WOW! We had already purchased mine and Jon Milledge's tickets so we had to scurry around on Friday to see if we could get one purchased for Caryn and we did without any problems. Milledge, my mother and my father are all rejoicing in the fact that there will be another adult with me...especially one that has done this twice! I now have a peace that I didn't know I needed or didn't already have. I have been more relaxed this weekend about the trip than I've been the whole time.
Thank you God for answering prayers that I didn't know about or know that I needed. He is good all the time...isn't He?

We're Going to China!

We received our TA yesterday, confirmation of our consulate appointment today and are in the process of ordering plane tickets. From what I can tell, we will leave on July 1st or 2nd. We will meet Ruthie on July 5th China time but it will be July 4th here!! We are very excited and overwhelmed all at the same time. Hold on baby girl....after four and a half years of tears, frustration and waiting, Mommy is FINALLY coming!

Numbers

Today marks 43 months since our LID for Ruthie. So much has happened in the last four years, not to mention the last month and a half. We are tired, happy, grateful, scared, overwhelmed and just ready to start our life with Ruthie.


Also as of today, we have been waiting 28 days for our TA or travel approval from China. There are many charts online that I have been looking at that let me know that we are nearing the end of our wait. Most people receive their TA 4-5 weeks after LOA. So we are celebrating this number and can't wait to receive our formal invitation from China to come pick up our baby girl!! Hurry up China!!!!