November 18 -- WE ARE FINALLY GOING TO CHINA!!!!!!
HOORAY!!!!!!
We are Bill and Bambi. We have been married for 12 years and have 3 beautiful, yet wild boys. Jacob is 11 years old, Chevy is 9 years old and Elijah is 6 1/2 years old.
We are adopting a beautiful baby girl from Jiangxi, China. She is 14 months old and is considered special needs because she was born with 2 thumbs on her left hand. She has been in foster care since she was 7 days old and we will be going to Nanchang, China on Tuesday, 11/22 to get her!! The wait has been unbearable but the GIFT that GOD is giving us is definitely .............WORTH THE WAIT!!! (this one's for you Aunt Linda)GOD IS GOOD!!!! ALWAYS ON TIME!!
We will be taking our youngest son Elijah to China with us and our social worker Nikki is accompanying us too. For those of you wondering, normally your social worker does not travel to China with you. This is just one of those doors that God opened up for us and Nikki is a blessing to our family and will be an excellent travel mate AKA.... SLAVE!!!! ha ha Just teasing Nikki!!
When you read this, we will be flying to China. Elijah hopes he can help the Pilot fly the plane! For those of you who know Elijah, if he helped, There would definitely be a crash landing!!!
We are so blessed and our lives have been changed by the MIRACLE of ADOPTION!!! God is expanding our family and we are forever in his debt. We need Gracie and she needs us!! God's timing allowed this to happen and only by his grace and his love are we here today.....headed to China, to adopt a beautiful baby girl who will soon be known as Gracie Mei Yao .
Thank you for following our journey to China and back. We will be landing in China Saturday morning at 8 am ..USA time but it will be 9 pm China time.....VERY CONFUSING. But, in a short explanation, China is 13 hours ahead of us!!
Please pray for comfort and peace for Gracie as she makes the transition into our family. To her, we are complete strangers. To us, this is the day that we have longed for.......to touch her, to hold her, just to love her, simple as that!!!
We hope you to may experience the AWESOME Miracle of Adoption, either with your family or sharing in ours!
++++++++++++++CHINA HERE WE COME++++++++++++++
With Much Love, Bill, Bambi, Jacob, Chevy, Elijah, and Soon Gracie Mei
November 19 --
WE MADE IT!!! THE EAGLE HAS LANDED!!! Our feet are now on China soil!!
No pictures to post yet. Are you crazy?? We don’t even know what bag the camera is in at this point!! But, we will post pictures tomorrow.
Elijah was such an awesome kid on the plane!!!He played, napped, made new friends, stocked up on some sugar and asked me to, "Just let him enjoy the flight!" He's so funny sometimes!!
In case you were wondering, I did NOT sleep on the plane. But, much to your surprise, Bill slept ALOT!!! SHOCKER!!!!
We have decided to take a tour tomorrow to the Temple of Heaven and a Hutong tour with lunch at a Famous Beijing restaurant. Hey, They said it was famous and I didn’t want to question what they said. Just Roll with the punches !!!
Its almost unreal that we are in the same country finally as our daughter and in 2 days, we will be flying to get her. AMAZING HUH!!!
We decided to take the tour tomorrow just to pass time and see the sights. Monday we will go to the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. The next morning at 11:30 we fly to Gracie’s city to get her!!
We are ahead of you about 14 hours. So, its late Saturday night here!!! So mixed up right now!!!
Oh ya, the help in China ROCKS!!!! They carry everything, wont let me lug my own luggage. TOTALLY GREAT!!!
Oh, I MUST clear up a rumor I once heard!!!IT IS TRUE!!!When you go into a bathroom in China, they do not provide toilet paper. So, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go. That’s what I did. Then, I figured out what was NOT in the stall and Yelled for Nikki to bring the tissues and save me!!!! She's GREAT!!! I have no idea what the Chinese people do here about the bathroom, toilet paper thing....I don’t want to know!!!But, I came prepared with lots of mini tissue packs.
Gotta Run! 3 more sleeps till Gracie comes!!!
Jacob and Chevy, I LOVE YOU MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF!!!!
I cant wait to bring your new sister home to meet you!!!
Thanks Jeremy and Tammy and Lisa for taking care of our boys. We appreciate it greatly!!! And to MARGARET, please don’t kill my dog while I’m gone.You know I love ya, but Corky is a member of our family!!! (INSIDE JOKE)
With much Love,
Bill, Bambi, Elijah, Nikki and soon Gracie Mei
