15 More Hours

  Well the time has come. We leave at 6:30 tomorrow morning for our long awaited journey to bring home our little Dane. It seems like this has taken forever but we actually started this China adoption in February of this year.  We are going to be staying in Beijing a few days in order to see several of the sites and then on Sunday we fly down to Zhengzhou where our little peanut has been living for the last 20 months. On Monday the 19th, orphanage personnel will bring us our sweet boy. I cannot wait to wrap my arms around that sweet boy and tell him how much I love him.   We will spend several days in the Henan province doing various paperwork and of course celebrating Thanksgiving with many other adoptive families that we will have the pleasure of meeting and spending many days with. On November 24th we fly down to Guangzhou which is where the US consulate is.  This is where we get Dane's final paperwork in order so he can come home with us. We go to the consulate on November 29th and take the oath. On December 1st we fly home and thanks to a 14 hour time difference we actually arrive in Nashville at 10:00 PM December 1st.   We welcome anyone who wants to meet Dane to the airport that night because we may not be leaving our house for a while once we are home. 

  I have a few prayer requests... One is that we have a safe flight. We are flying on 8 different flights while we are gone and as we have done this before, I still worry about our safety with that much flying. I ask that you will keep Lindze in your prayers as this is a long journey and a lot to take in. She gets to see firsthand how we went about bringing her home and I don't know how this is going to affect her. I also ask that you pray for sweet Dane who is getting ripped out of the only home he has only known and getting thrown into strangers arms. I cannot imagine how this is going to upset him. I know eventually he will be okay but please pray for the initial few days and that God will heal his poor little broken heart.  My last prayer request is for my little Gabriel. We are leaving him for almost 18 days. We plan on Skyping with him as much as humanly possible but leaving him is tearing me up and I haven't even left yet.  I love that kid and I have given him a kiss and a hug every day since the day God blessed us with him at 6 weeks old.  My brother Brandon and sister in law Catherine are going to be caring for him while we are gone and I know he is in great hands.   At this point it is all in God's hands and I know he will take care of us. 

    I will be trying to update everyone via Facebook or through my blog as we go along on our trip. Thank you for all the support and many prayers that have been sent up as we have journeyed toward getting Dane home.