YEAH! My family got TA and will soon be on their way!

TA arrived today!!!! We have been waiting for this day for over 4 months now. It was a time of great celebration at our house, and the children and I had a ball jumping up and down and yelling "We have TA." Even Ethan, our 3 year old, said "We have TA." in his very cute little way. This picture of Lilly is one that we received on April 4. It is the first picture of her that has shown any personality. We thought it was perfect for this post! She definitely looks older and oh so cute!

Our agency is working on obtaining our consulate appointment in China. The date of that appointment determines our travel dates. It appears that we got TA just in time to make it with the May 11 group, but we will not know for sure until our agency hears back from the consulate regarding our appointment. If we do get to travel on May 11, "Gotcha Day" will be on Monday, May 14 which is David's birthday. It will also be the day after Mother's Day. What a special day that will be.

We are so thankful to God for calling us on this journey to adopt one of His precious children.
It has been an amazing journey so far, and the best is yet to come- when we finally get to see and hold Lilly for the very first time! James 1:27 has become a very special verse to us. I guess you could call it our "theme verse" for our adoption journey. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." May God be glorified through this adoption.

Now that we have our TA and will soon be on our way to bring Lilly home, we have some new prayer requests. Please join us as we pray: for safe travel, for our boys as we will be leaving them for 2 weeks, for Lilly's attachment to us as her parents, and for good health for all 7 of us as we make this journey. Thank you for sharing this journey with us.