We are leaving the 29th of February!!!!!!!!!

Hi, :-)

Yep, you heard right! :-) We are leaving this Friday! Oh boy, I can't believe it! In 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!

We will arrive in China on Sunday and then the next day we will meet Millie for the very first time. That date will be March 3rd. Less than a week!!!!!! :-) :-) :-)

We would love your prayers as we are packing, packing, packing and then flying! I am SO trying to pack as little as I can, but somehow things keep multiplying.... :-0 :-)

Also, Dan's mom (Miriam) is going on the trip with us. :-) That makes 4 of us traveling together (of course until we get Millie). We are SO grateful that mom is coming with us!!! Thanks dad for giving up mom for 14 days. :-)

bye for now,
Marna

We LOVE the comments....keep them coming!

We can't tell you how much we have LOVED your comments! :-)

Thank you ALL SO much for taking time to express your excitement and love for us. :-) It has meant SO much! :-)

Your prayers are very cherished and much needed...please don't stop! :-)

It's so wonderful to see family from Washington writing in. Hi, to you all!!! :-) I miss you very very much! There were tears of joy seeing your comments. THANK you! We love you! It is so neat that you can share this wonderful time in our lives together. I can't believe we are blogging! I am SO not a writer.... :- However, isn't this such a neat way to follow along with us while we are in China? :-)

We are also so grateful for family and friends right here in Indiana!!!! You all mean so much to us! We love you too! :-)

Something funny. :-)

Dan wanted to make sure I signed my name at the end of my entries (not that he thought it wouldn't be obvious who was writing) hey, what do you mean Dan? ummm.....with ALL my exclamations, smiles, lack of capitalization (however I am trying in this post), and lack of grammar....I'm sure they won't think you wrote it, honey! :-) Anyway, Dan and I had a good laugh over that. So, in the future if I forget to be typing "proper" you'll know, Marna wrote THAT post. ;-)

By the way, this is my first time posting a post (is that a "blog-ism?). ALL the others were Dan (could you tell?). :-) He had to teach me how to post, so I hope I am doing this right! Thanks honey!

Please keep commenting...specially while we are in China. Having your prayers and support means so much. While we are in China I am sure they will being us such joy as they have even now! :-)

We love you,
Marna

Updated Pictures

Here are the most recent pictures we have of Millie. :-)

I have a new and wonderful friend who is in China now to adopt her precious daughter and she took these WONDERFUL pictures! :-) She tried to get Millie to smile for me...as most of Millie's pictures she is either crying, not feeling well, or has that "blank stare" look. :-( I am so grateful for Susan and these pictures!!! I can't wait till we can LOVE all over her and bring a smile to her face and heart! We're coming SOON Millie! :-)

love,
Marna



How CUTE is she!



Those lips need some serious KISSES!!



That's Susan...trying to make her smile.
Thank you Susan!!! :-)





OK, just cute! :-)

We have Travel Permission !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I listened to phone messages when I got home from work tonight, and we had a message from our adoption agency saying that they had received our travel permission paperwork today! They said we may leave as early as next Friday, Feb. 29th. It may also be a week or two after that, depending on when the consulate appointments can get scheduled.

It was too late when I got home to call our agency, so I'll have more details tomorrow. The next step is for our agency to schedule appointments with the Chinese consulate (to finalize the China side of the adoption) and the U.S. consulate (to finalize the American side and grant citizenship to Millie). Once those appointments are scheduled, then we'll know when we need to fly over there.

We are so excited that we can now finally travel and pick up our daughter. We don't really care at this point whether we leave on Feb.29th or a week or two after that. It's just a relief knowing that we can now travel!

Please pray for us specifically that:
1. We will all be in good health when we leave (we've been struggling with coughs, colds, etc.)
2. God will prepare Millie's heart to meet us.
3. We will have wisdom/patience/strength to meet Millie's immediate needs while in China.
4. All our preparations will go smoothly as we determine travel plans & pack for the journey.


Thanks to all of you for your love, prayers, and support over the past two years. Lord willing, we will have Millie in our arms shortly !


-- Dan

Long Distance Birthday

Millie turned 2 years old February 7th, which this year was the start of the Chinese New Year. Through our agency, we found a lady in Nanjing who gives birthday parties to the children in the orphanage.

Since Millie's birthday was the 1st day of the Chinese New Year, the party was delayed until February 16th. Here are some pictures of the event. After the party, they filmed a little video, but it breaks our heart that she was sick/hungry and not feeling well. The video is the first we've actually heard her voice (or cry, as it were). Seeing her makes us all the more want to be with her!!! We just can't wait till we can travel to bring her home.....SOON! :-)

Here are some pictures of the "party":







We asked for updated measurements so we could gauge clothing size:


Tired and hungry:





The Sweetest Cry . . .

Updated pictures of Millie

We were very fortunate to get these pictures in late 2007. Two couples who traveled to China in late 2007 were able to take some pictures of Millie and send them to us.

Good Friday was Extra Good in 2007

We started this adoption process in February 2006. After completing all of the necessary paperwork, we submitted our dossier to China in late 2006.



On April 6th, 2007 (Good Friday), we got a phone call that made it extra special. We were informed that our agency had a little girl matched with us. Two weeks later, we received these precious pictures of our little Millie.

This is the very first picture we saw of our little girl:

These pictures soon followed: