Bye Bye Bama...

We are packed, the suitcases have been tied into big black trash bags (its pouring right now), and the house is clean and ready for us when we come home! I can't explain how excited we are! Though right now the stress is hitting home. My mom and dad are currently trying to figure out the carry-on situation and where to put our uber-importante paperwork. When we get to GuongZhou on Saturday, our guide Rebecca will pick us up and we will hand over our paperwork. (sigh) Then we begin the 2 week long process in China, and will meet Caelyn on Monday! I hope to be able to update this blog, but I'm not sure if that will happen. We'll see. :)

Please keep us in your prayers! Pray for safe and stress free travels! Well, we're leaving now! My mom is litterally calling me to leave. oops- now dad too!!!

In Him,
   Chelsey :)

Tickets and Pics!

My mom has been in constant communication with our Travel Agent for the past 3 days. We have finally decided to travel Delta and leave from Atlanta. What this means is that we will be driving to Atlanta Wednesday, January 20 (after school), staying in a hotel overnight, leaving from Atlanta at 7:30 am, Thursday January 21. Our itinerary (which we dont have yet) requires us to be in China on Saturday January 23, which is why we will be arriving in China on Friday late at night (which is good for jet lag!) Here are our Flight details:

Atlanta, GA -> Minneapolis, MI
Minneapolis, MI -> Tokyo
Tokyo -> HongKong
HongKong -> 2 hr train ride over to GuangDong
TOTAL: (about) 26 hours... (Not including time-change....)

So- with a 14 hour time difference, leaving Atlanta on Thursday the 21, will put us in Guangdong, China on Friday the 22. Thats a lot of earth to cover! :)

As you can see we are all very excited! We have recieved a few more pictures of Caelyn as well from Laurie (which are not on this computer, I will upload them later). We have multiple websites that my mom is trying out because we are not sure if Blogger will be available in China. Because of their government, many websites are blocked- Facebook is one (so we will not be updating our statuses for a while). I will also post the addresses to those sites.

Please PRAY for
1) school work to get done while we are in China. I am already losing what minimal motivation I had in school, simply because I have so much else that I could be doing (and would rather be doing- speaking of which I have to read 100 pages of 1066 by tomorrow...) I will be missing almost 2 weeks of school- which is a lot of work- especially Junior year at Westminster!! I will be writing my huge thesis/semester paper while in China... (though it is on adoption...)

2) Travel. I travel well. I've done it alot. However, I don't know how my family will handle having 14 hours of jet lag. I know its part of Travel, but we will be meeting Caelyn on Monday, January 25th, and none of us want to be "out of it".

3)And finally, we have 3 great praises!
First, thank God for providing some financial help! Some friends of ours have given us a BUNCH of skymiles! There were enough to cover all four of our tickets (round trip)! Caelyn's will be the only one we have to cover. How wonderful is that! Thank you Brian and thank you God! :D
Secondly we are meeting Caelyn on my mom's 45th birthday! How neat is that!? My mom loves telling people that (and tears up every time). We realized yeterday it was her "birth"day. haha
Lastly- we had a shower for Caelyn yesterday! I can't tell you how blessed we are to have so many gracious friends! It was a tremendous blessing! Caelyn has clothes for the next year ad toys for life! haha. Thank you everyone who helped out, came, or gave anything. We truly appreciate all of it! She's gonna be so excited!


Thanks!
In Him,
Chelsey :)

I-800? Article 5? Letter of what? WHAT?

This past Monday, my mom sent me a text while babysitting. It read: "Our file is in China! Already!" Now honestly, I had no idea what this meant. It was progress, so I sent back a short reply, "yeah!" but then began the endless text-talk discussion with my dad about what exactly that meant, what we had left, and when we get to go. All that to say, I think we decided that this is what's left:

~Article 5 Letter must be prepared and taken to the CCAA or ABAC (I'm not sure which)
~We will begin our wait for TA (Travel Approval)
~We will recieve our appointment with the Chinese consulate (in China)
~We will prepare final paperwork.
~We will plan our trip to China around the consulate appointment
~We will finally go to China to bring home Caelyn Yi!

So as you can see, we are not far away at all! It could very well be anywhere between 1-3 months now! So exciting! I can't believe we're so close!

Once again, I ask you to pray for us! Pray for Kris (he's doing a little better, but has now moved to a different treatment facility), and our visit to see him over Christmas. Please pray that we will be prepared both in heart, mind, and body to bring home Caelyn! Please pray that God will provide financially for the trip to China and any expenses included. Thank you all for your support! We appreciate your prayers!

In Him,

Chelsey :)

P.S. The date for the shower has been set, thanks to the lovely Melanie O'Keefe! :) We love and appreciate you!

DTC

We got an E-mail from Karla... I'm not sure when since we just got back, but I'll say a few days ago, saying we are DTC. Docier To China. This is fantastic news! Wonderful! And a week ago I would've been ecstatic beyond compare, but right now I'm confused! We are all set, but we don't have a child to adopt! This is where we look around and wait for God to call us. We have to trust that he will provide everything we need. Like I said, we're not giving up, we just have to wait. Adoption requires Patience, Patience requires Christ, Adoption requires Christ. Finally All those Logic classes apply haha. So here we go: READY. set. TRUST!

In Him,
Chelsey :)

Father's Day

It's Father's day and the same thoughts that I had on Mother's day are cycling through my brain. Once again, I can't help but imagine Xian on the other side of the world without a father. I wish she could have the same hope that we do in that her family and her father are on their way and will be there in God's timing. I do wish to tell my dad that he is truly appreciated. This time last year he and I were listening to an English/Chinese sermon in the local church (only for foreigners, passport required at door). I'll never forget that trip and how much we learned and I'm so thankful that he willingly went with me. THANK YOU DAD!

As far as updates from China- The orphanage tried to submit the girls to the CCAA, but it was "rejected" due to insufficient or inaccurate information. This all goes to show that God's plan is not our plan! Our Chinese contact, Lily, says this has been a recurring theme recently. The orphanage director seems distracted. Honestly, I am willing to bet that he is tired of us contacting him from so many different angles. He must think we have so many connections! (well, I guess we do...) Anyways- no REAL news.

Just a small update about Tigi- for those of you who were praying: We have reason to believe that she is safe, althoug the best way to know for sure is to hear from her, which has not happened. We are pretty sure that she is in Atlanta. However, because she is a legal adult and there was no "foul play" (in otherwords she disappeared of her own will), the police have discontinued their brief search and she is now one of the millions of illegal immigrants in America. I will continue to pray for her fervently until I know for sure that she is safe.

Thank you all for your prayers!

In Him,
Chelsey :)

Not much of Nothing

I've been thinking a lot about my future. I have a heart for China, but also for Orphans. I love children, and I love the gospel. I would love to go into full time missions, but I also want to be well educated, hence my presence at a 0.1-A Classical school in B-ham, AL (Westminster School at Oak Mountain- great school by the way!). So I am a little confused as to where I should go after highschool... I've thought about ESL, Seminary, Christian, etc. I don't know, and frankly I don't have to know right now. I'm only a JUNIOR! haha sometimes that seems pretty scary. Ok, so as you can see- this has nothing to do with the adoption, and I have nothing to say about the adoption because nothing has happened. It's slow moving as it has been the whole time. (sigh).

As I'm talking about nothing, I might as well ask you to pay :) :) :)
1)For Xian- that she would hear and believe the Gospel
2) For Fontana- ditto
3) For patience on my family's part
4) AND HOPE

Prayer is a powerful thing, so I mean it when I ask you to pray. God hears our prayers and he always answers.

In Him,
Chelsey :)