We leave in Five Days!!!

This past weekend has been filled with shopping, doing laundry, and packing to get ready for our trip. So far, I have all the kids stuff packed so I now I just need to work on my clothes and all the "extra" things we need to take and thankfully my husband packs for himself. The kids only have about 3 outfits left for the week cause everything else is packed. :) I have also packed the kids back packs as their carry on bags so they have to use plastic sacks as their school bags for the rest of the week. Sorry kids! I hate to wait until the last minute to pack.

I can hardly believe we leave in FIVE DAYS for China. Our plane leaves at 7:05 am out of Des Moines, IA on Friday, January 29th. We fly to Chicago and then leave Chicago at 10:35am and fly straight to Shanghai, which is a 13 hour flight. We will spend the night in Shanghai Saturday night and then fly to Guangxi province on Sunday the 31st. Guangxi is the province Lilyia is in. We will get some rest on Sunday, and then Monday, February 1st is our "Gotcha" day. We will meet Lilyia on the morning of February 1st. Between the time change and my nerves I don't think I will be getting much sleep the night before. I am so incredibly excited as well as a bit nervous. I can only imagine how I will feel while we are sitting in that room waiting for her to come in and meet us.

WOW-13 hours on a plane with 3 kids (4 kids on the way home)-fun times! Even though it will be difficult with all the kids on the plane and with the jet lag, I am still so happy we are able to take them. This will be such a great experience for Alyson and Austin and I feel in my heart that having Parker there will really help Lilyia bond with all of us, since they are the same age. We have a picture of Lilyia up on our wall and every time I say to Parker, where is Lilyia he goes right over to the wall and points. He carries her picture around and kisses it too. It's so sweet! Alyson and Austin are so in love with their little sister and they can't wait to go to China. I think for her to see other kids and see the way we love and are towards our other 3 children will show her right away that she can trust us and that we are going to love her just as much. This is what I am praying for anyway.

So, we count down the days...in less than one week we will be holding Lilyia in our arms! I can hardly type that without tears coming to my eyes.