Birthday Party in Guangzhou!

We feel so fortunate to have found our friend, Ann, in Guangzhou. She sent the birthday care package to the orphanage for Madelyn on our behalf. I had been sent a photo of the contents of the package and was told it would be delivered in time for the celebration yesterday.

Well, this morning we unexpectedly received pictures of the birthday party just yesterday.... cake, playmates, nannies and all! The cake is just beautiful (wish I could have had a piece) and look at that precious one year old birthday girl. She is smiling for us! I must say, she is pretty cute, don't you think? We are so grateful we will have these memories forever. We also look forward to having our own birthday party with some of our new friends when we get to Guangzhou. Only six more days......but who's counting???

Love and hugs,
~L

Happy Birthday, Madelyn!

It's a Celebration Day! Today is Madelyn's first birthday :-) We celebrated literally across the globe.....Grammie had a birthday luncheon where her friends not only celebrated her birthday but also Madelyn's. Matt bought a cake and balloons to commemorate the occasion at work. Madelyn received a special birthday care package in the orphanage including a birthday cake, a Hello Kitty doll and tea for the nannies. It was all wonderful and brought us one day closer to being face to face. I cannot wait to see that little face up close......to touch her, hold her, squeeze her for the very first time. We can't believe we will be in the air this time next week.

Happy birthday, precious girl! We will be there soon.......
I love you,
Mommy

Packed and ready (Almost)...

We made our list and checked it twice, three times, four times... OK, so we're a little uptight. We are trying to pack two weeks worth of stuff for two adults, one child and one baby in two suitcases and a carry on. Knowing the tight weight restrictions on international flights, we decided to do a trial run this weekend. We got everything packed with room (and pounds) to spare, but not a lot to spare! We decided to go ahead and leave everything packed since it is all warm weather clothes (good thing there are irons in the hotel rooms). That is one less thing now to worry about (other than all the odds and ends still to be bought, made, laundered, etc.).

Megan is excited about "Trunk or Treat" this coming Friday. She is dressing up as a friendly ghost even though she has no idea who Casper is. We attended her first Fall Festival at Tate Elementary school this past Saturday. We got to meet her classmates, teachers and even watch the principal kiss a pig. We went down the "Haunted Hall," which was pretty scary and Megan loved it. She even helped one her little friends get through.

I am doing my best this week to prepare the office for my absence. If all goes well, we will have our best sales performance of the year and they will kick me out for weeks at a time more often :)

This will be a busy week of wrapping up details and making final preparations. We hope that two weeks from tonight, we will be cuddling our new baby! We continue to covet your prayers and will keep you posted as we get closer to the "Big Day".

Peace
Matt

We're Booked!

Happy Monday! After hours......and I mean HOURS on the phone and Internet with Delta Airlines over the course of 4 days, we FINALLY have our airline tickets booked through Delight Travel! We were hoping to use Frequent Flier Miles and one road block led to another. I keep waiting for the phase of the process that will go smoothly and easily, without a hitch! We gave up on FF Miles and then turned to the Travel Agency that Great Wall (our agency) uses for their travel arrangements. And, here we are! We are booked....we'll be ticketed next week.....and on our way on November 5.

In our travel planning, we were hoping to include some special time just for Megan. We will depart Atlanta on Wednesday, November 5 and fly to Hong Kong (arriving on Nov. 6). We will then stay at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel for 3 nights enjoying Hong Kong Disneyland together for 2 days! Their Castle belongs to Sleeping Beauty - what fun! Megan is beside herself excited and we have already checked out every ride and attraction on the Park Map. It will be a fun time for the 3 of us to share. As we looked at the photos and the map on the Disneyland website she kept saying, "Look, there are China people like me!" She will be amazed when most everyone looks just like her!

We will then depart Hong Kong on the Train bound for Guangzhou on November 9. We will get settled into the White Swan Hotel and have Miss Madelyn in our arms on the 10th or 11th - I am hoping for the 10th :-) We will then take care of daily paperwork and processing, some shopping and touring and head back to the States on Friday, November 21. We should touch ground in Atlanta at 6:05pm. Searfoss, family of 4 headed to Big Canoe, Georgia! That will be a truly blessed day!

We thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers and will keep you updated as we have more information.

Until then......God bless and much love,
~L

What an Angel

Hi. We are still waiting on our US Consulate appointment dates so that we can make our final travel arrangements. We hope to have that information tomorrow. We are so fortunate to have a new friend in Guangzhou named Ann. She is going to take us shopping while in China and show us some of the places most tourists don't get to see. She also has a connection with our orphanage and was able to get some updated pictures for us. What a blessing this is. The wait at every turn has become so frustrating but looking at this precious face makes it all worthwhile. We are not sure exactly when these were taken, but they are recent. One of the pictures shows Madelyn with one of her caregivers. These are amazing women that really love these children. We are so thankful for them. We cannot wait to get there and hold this sweet little one for ourselves.

We continue to covet your prayers as the journey continues!

We're Almost There!

We received our Travel Approvals and Passports complete with Visas this week. We are really close to making our actual flight and hotel reservations. The Government offices in China have been on Holiday this past week so no official appointments could be made. (Really......one more hurry up and wait!) We hope to have our final Consulate appointment scheduled this week so that all other arrangements can be made. We have been working on our packing list and made great progress on Madelyn's room yesterday. The crib is back together and it's looking like a baby will soon be here! Not soon enough!!! We continue to be anxious, excited and filled with anticipation as we await this new chapter in our lives. Megan can't wait to go get "her baby"! Thank you for sharing this joy with us.