Traveling To and our first day in China!

I know I am so late in posting but due to the fact we had a terrible time getting an Internet connect while out of the country, I am going to try to put everything into words now.

We left for China on Thursday, April 4th. Words can NOT adequately describe the long flight and layovers (due to weather) we had so I wont even begin to try. We arrived in Harbin at 2 o'clock in the morning on April 6th to ice and snow. Our poor guide and driver had been at the airport waiting on us for 5 hours! And they don't let them in the airport! If my memory serves me correctly, there was a lobby at the front of the airport where they waited and they was little to no heat in there! We were freezing so I know they were miserable! We finally made it to the hotel and collapsed. The only thing I remember from the drive was that everything had snow on it and it was deserted.

The hotel we stayed at was on the main street in Harbin. It was fun to be right in the center of everything. From our window we could see everyone coming and going. It was the tomb sweeping holiday weekend so people were on the square selling balloons, bubbles, cotton candy etc. Our guide for the day took us down Central Street and we got to see all the buildings and happenings. A very fun, unique street that must be walked if you visit.  As I stood and looked out our window, I could not help but wonder if our boy knew his family was so close? I wonder if they had told him that his forever family was coming to get him? 24 hours and we our wait will be over!

 

 

 After we finished walking Central Street, Starr took us to Walmart to buy some items. Due to limited space instead of being wide its tall. You have escalators that take you to the next floors. They are quite different from our stores here in the States. Major difference is the fish is just out in the open. It was fun to make SEVERAL trips there!

LAST Pre-Adoption fundraiser!!

We are 10 DAYS away from traveling to Chin@ to adopt Kyle!! Our wonderful friends at Under The Carolina Moon is helping us with our LAST pre-adoption fundraiser! I will be hosting a give away. Here's the scoop!

For everyone who makes a minimum donate of $5 to help us bring Kyle home, you will be entered to WIN 3 short sleeve shirts of YOUR choice from Under The Carolina Moon. (if you are out of state...we will ship to you for FREE!!!) This is a $50 value! The more you give...the more chances you get to win. $5 gets you 1 chance, $10--3 chances, $20--5 chances...etc! The chances are UNLIMITED

This is just a sample of the AWESOME shirts they have!

As a BONUS--for anyone who donates $50 or more..you will receive one of our travel shirts for FREE!!

Giving is easy!! Just look on the right of our blog and you will see a paypal button. All you do is click on that link and make a donation!! If you are a fan of Under The Carolina Moon, and found our blog from their facebook page, Please leave a comment on your donation that they sent you!

GIVE AWAY WILL END SUNDAY, MARCH 31st AT 10 PM!!!

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers! We pray God gives each of you a special blessing!

Love,

Charmon, Todd & Kyle!

Go by and check out all the great deals at Under The Carolina Moon!

http://underthecarolinamoon.com/

**** TRAVEL UPDATE 3/23/13***

We got denied gotcha day on 4/1/13 ...so now we travel on 4/4 and get Kyle on 4/8/13 *****

TA! TA! TA!

WE HAVE TA!!!!!  I am sitting here in awe at everything God is doing in our lives! Hopefully two weeks from today we will be in a hotel in China with our son! Hard to believe that this part of the journey is almost over! We have alot to do in a little amount of time but with God's grace, it will all come together! This weeks prayer request is still Kyle's heart and his understanding. Pray for him to have peace and know that we are his family. Pray there will be no confusion in his heart or mind. This mother wants to thank you from the bottom of heart for your prayers that are covering our son. You mean more to us than you will ever know. Don't forget we are taking pre orders for our travel shirts (see below post) We also have "Got Love" tervis tumblers for sale thanks to Kelly Apisa and "Got Love". 16 oz are $19.50 and 24 oz $23.50. I am working on our last pre adoption fundraiser and will do another post to tell you all about it!  Thank you again for your support and prayers! Almost time to fly!!!

Love Charmon

Travel Shirt & waiting on a little thing called TA

This is our travel shirt!! What do you think?? I think Kristen, Ashton and Angel did a GREAT job and we will be eternally grateful to them! We are selling these as a fundraiser for $15 each. Proceeds will help us complete the last leg of our journey to bring Kyle home! These are unisex and are preshrunk. They are a great quality shirt and at a great price! We will wear these on Gotcha Day and when we come home. If you are planning on meeting us at the airport, our group could all have matching shirts! If you are new to our journey, the scripture on the back of the shirt is what God gave us when I was trying to talk God out of adopting. (read first blog post to understand...too old,..too stressful..etc)The verse on the front of the shirt is what God used to let us know Kyle was OUR son! In case you are wondering, the heart marks the place where he is currently living...Harbin Chin@. We hope you like them as much as we do.

We are currently on day 10 of the wait for our TA. (this is your Travel Approval from Chin@, telling you that it is OK to come into their country and get YOUR child!) Never has such a short abbreviation meant so much!! This one little paper is all we need to go get our boy!! Without it....we wait...and wait....and wait!! No flights or hotel rooms can be booked, no itineraries made, nothing you can do but WAIT! Wait is not something I do well so this is driving me insane! I try to occupy my time with packing, making list, getting everything organized, raising the last of the chunk of money we still need and drive everyone around me crazy LOL. You cant put your phone down because you are constantly waiting on a call to announce that it FINALLY came! Then when the phone never rings, you want to throw it as far as you can! HOWEVER you can't because you are waiting on it to ring! LOL its a vicious cycle I tell you!

Please continue to pray for our funds, our SPEEDY TA and most important for Kyle! Remember we have the paypal button at the right of the page. If you are interested in a shirt, you can email me at charmallen99@yahoo.com , comment on this post, or send me a message on facebook.

Thank you everyone for your support and I pray the next post will be to tell you the wonderful news of TA!!!

Love & blessings
Kyle's Mom :)

PS we may have not received TA this week, However we did receive a few new photos of Kyle! It was from another Harbin dad at his son's birthday party.

THANK YOU to Isaac's dad for sharing! I hope our boys will always be able to stay in touch!

Waiting on a couple of miracle's

We are on to the next step in the process! Our paperwork has been picked up from the US Visa center in Chin@ and has been sent to the C3WA to issue our Travel Approval ..otherwise known as TA. Once we get this approval we then send a request for our Consulate Appointment...CA..the consulate appointment is the last step you do while in China@. I am not sure what all is involved in the consulate appointment. All I know is that the appointment is made two days after his physical and we have to stay for 48 hours after that appointment before we can come home. Once we have this appointment scheduled we are ready to book flights and go get our boy!!!

NOW here is the tricky part and the 1st miracle we are believing God for...
Because of the 'Tomb Sweeping" holiday that is coming up, the government offices will be closed April 4th--6th in his province. They have agreed not to hold our adoption up because of this holiday, but allow us to go ahead and get Kyle during this holiday. HOWEVER they must have our travel approval two weeks before the holiday to get his passport processed before the holiday. SO we need our travel approval by next Thursday!! Most are coming in 12 or more days.

The next miracle is we still need to raise around 20 thousand to cover the cost of flights, orphanage fees, in country travel, food, hotel, guides, drivers and tips. We know that God has brought us this far and will not let us down. We have been able to link a Paypal button on the right side of the blog if you would like to donate to the cause. NO amount is too small!! Every dollar add's up. TRUST ME! I have sold little debbie's, drinks and K cups at work for .50 to $1. My fellow co-workers purchase their snacks and drinks from me to help bring Kyle home. We have raised over $150 doing just that. So every dollar adds up! Please feel free to share the blog on your facebook page and ask your friends to do the same. You never know who will read the blog and God will guide them to donate.

PLEASE continue to pray for Kyle. That good will keep him safe. That He will will his little heart with love for us before we even get there. That he will have peace and know that he is loved more than anything. Pray there will be no confusion and he will have an easy transition.

As always, thank you for taking your valuable time to ready our little blog and follow the journey to our Great reward named KYLE! We love you all and thank you for your support and prayers!

Thought I would share some lyrics to the song "Big enough"..the song I keep singing to myself!

" I don't wanna box you in
You've been doing big things since the world began
Sometimes I just don't wanna believe
That you're big enough - but you're big enough yeah!

I don't wanna box you in
You've been doing big things since the world began
Sometimes I just don't understand that you're big enough
But you're big enough Jesus"

 

Love,

Charmon & Todd

Now I know!

Before I started this blog, I had read and followed A LOT of other journeys. I always wondered why once everyone got closer to the end the post seem to be few and far between. Everyone would blog over even the smallest things at the start and then everything ran in to one post in the last stages. WELL NOW I KNOW!!  Everything is so crazy with I800,PDF,Cabled, Visa app's, flights, what to pack, where to stay, do's and dont's while in country, getting things ready at home, how to fly into and out of country not to mention the in country travel! And lets not forget how in the world are we going to come up with the THOUSANDS still left to be paid in six weeks!  uuggghhhhh to say that it is overwhelming is an under statement!  So for all of you that do read this blog...here is my update on everything that I have not had time to blog......

Chinese New Year! What a special time! People question .."he is going to be an American now...why are you going to celebrate that with him"? Well let me explain. Put aside all the books I have read that teaches you that  ignoring ones culture may be interrupted as you do not except them as what they are and that you are trying to turn them into something else. But let me tell you what I experienced. We went to a local Chinese restaurant with some close family friends and all of their blessings from China. (I love all those babies dearly!) Each child had on their silk Chinese outfits. They were so stinkin cute it was crazy! But here is what is truly amazing. The owners and his wife came out to see all of them. As is custom for CNY they gave each child a red envelope with brand new money in it! Even though they live in the US (and have for quite some time) they took the time to go to the bank and get BRAND NEW money for these children because that is what is custom! Not to mention they gave 14 children $5!! It MEANS something to them! Those adoption hormone's kicked in (YES they are a real condition!!) and I was crying at the table. To know that the culture and customs of their country is so important to them and that they still carry those on and that they wanted to share that with these children, who are thousands of miles from their birth land,  touched me. (FYI they did give all the American born children one too) To think that next year OUR son will be able to participate in this tradition humbled me. I cant not wait to teach him about his homeland and the customs/traditions!

Update on our journey...we have our I800 approval (homeland security clearance for Kyle) and he has approval from the National Visa Center. All of this information has been forwarded to China. Our agencies in country coordinator, Richard, dropped everything off to the appropriate agency on Tuesday. This step takes two weeks NO MATTER WHAT, so it will be picked up on March 5! Once we get that, we wait on our Travel approval...then WE BOOK FLIGHTS!!! so we are in the final countdown!!

Please remember us in your prayers! We have a lot of planning to do. From hotels to flights to packing. Pray we don't forget anything and that we will get the best rates. Also that we will travel when God wants us to. Continue to pray for Kyle's heart and prepare it for us. This little guy has alot of change coming. Even though it is for the better...all he will know is that some strange white people, who talks this weird langauge is taking him away from everything he has known. Also we are in need of the last of our adoption funds! God has brought us this far and I know he will not let us down. Just hard for me not to focus on the HUGE mountain!Thank you for your support!!

One last note..I finally figured out how to add a paypal button for donations. Now all you have to do is click on the paypal icon and you can donate to our adoption fund!

Thank you for taking the time to follow our journey and most importantly for you love and support!

hope you enjoy the photos of the kids at CNY and of Kyle celebrating CNY!

LOA

IT'S OFFICIAL!!! We are LOA!  (we signed papers stating we agree to except Kyle as our son) Now the document is on its way back to our agency and then off to China it goes! We now have to get Homeland security clearance for him to come into the US. That paperwork will arrive in TX tomorrow! Once all that paperwork goes through (it is taking about a month right now) then that clearance goes to China and we get what they call an Article 5. Once we have that then we get a TA (travel approval) from China and we book flights!!! So we are looking at anywhere from the end of March (which will be a miracle) through May to travel. It all depends on the Dept of Homeland security and the Chinese New Year holiday in China. So here's hoping for a quick turnaround.

Once again, it is hard to describe this whirlwind of emotions I am experiencing at this time.
 *Excited that we are another step closer to being with our boy.
*Heart broken that for 2 years of his life Kyle was with a foster family. He was removed from his "family" in October when his paperwork was being finished. So he is sitting in an orphanage thinking his "family" didn't want him anymore. (On a positive note, this is a blessing because he wont have separation issues once we get there)
*Nervous/worried because we still need ALOT of money before we can travel.
*Overwhelmed because there is ALOT to get organized/bought.packaged and purchased before we leave.

BUT I do know that God has this ALL in control and everything will come together. He has been in complete control this whole process and there is not a doubt in my mind that he will see it to completion.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!! Please continue to pray for his heart and his understanding. Also for the paper chase that is going on right now.

Love to all
Charmon