We are on our way!!!!!!

"Warp speed, Scotty". If Captain Kirk was here, that is what he would say. Because, we have received our travel approval from China and we received our US consulate appointment date. So, there is nothing holding us back from travel. Except, of course, for the 10 million things we have to do before we leave. Here are the details: On Monday we received a phone call from our agency that our Travel Approvals arrived. We were shocked and delighted. Then Karla, our agency facilitator, told us that we should receive confirmation of our consulate appt in the next few days. She called us and told us that we have an appt at the US consulate in Guangzhou on Sept 26. So, guess what? We will be home before Lily and Kate's 1st birthday on October 5. Praise the Lord for His answers to specific prayers. We will celebrate their birthdays as a family.
It looks like we will be flying from Bham on Sept 12 or 13 and arriving in Beijing on Sept 14. On Sept 18 or 19, our daughters will be placed in our arms for the 1st time. I get chill bumps just thinking about it. Then we will spend a little more than a week with them before we return back to Birmingham on September 28. Yeah!!!
Be in prayer for us with all of the remaining details as we have a lot to do before we can leave. Pray for our hearts, our marriage, our daughters, and the Lord's protection and provision for all of our needs. We are grateful to receive encouragement from so many of you. We have felt loved. Lily and Kate, see you in a few weeks!!!

Waiting for our travel date

We are, not so patiently, waiting to hear when we can go get the girls. China has to approve our travel then we will get an appointment with the Consultate in China. As soon as we know this date, we will scurry to get our plane tickets. And off we go! We are praying to get them before their first birthday, October 5. We've got a lot to do in the interim - like change the nursery for two babies instead of one, buy cute little matching outfits and figure out which are the best twin strollers and twin accesories. We are having a blast showing off the pictures. They get more beautiful to us everyday. It is truly amazing how much you can love someone you have never met!

Where are Lily and Kate now? An entire map of China is on the left. Look for the city of Chongqing.(Look below the word CHINA, and slightly to the right) The right picture is a picture of the Chongqing municipality. Lily and Kate's orphange is in the city of Youyang, which is in the Southeast part of the Chongqing municipality. It is approximately 10 hours away from the city of Chongqing.

More information

Our girls Chinese names are You Fu Xin and You Fu Jing. They were born on October 5 (a day before my birthday!) It appears that they are very healthy and have been well taken care of. They are at the Youyang Social Welfare Institute in the Chongqing Municipality of China. Based on the limited information that I can find on the web (too bad I can't read Chinese), it appears to be more of a rural city. The orphanage is only a few years old and adoptions have only been occurring for a few years from this location. We will be staying in the large city of Chongqing and they will bring the girls to our hotel. Can't imagine what a tearful and crazy day that will be. Our prayer and hope is that we will be able to travel to become a family before October 5 so pray that along with us. It appears that there is a temporary slow down in China to receive consulate appointments. October is not a good time to travel to China due to many reasons. Plus, we want to go get our girls now!! We will be traveling with a few more families from our agency and look forward to a wonderful experience.