The Countdown Begins!

We are going to China.    *insert deep breath, happy dance, panic attack*   Then repeat.

I've been a very, very bad blogger lately.   So much (great) stuff has been going that I've simply not had much time to sit down and type out my thoughts and feelings.  Besides, my thoughts and feelings change approximately every 16 seconds, so what's the point, right?

We received our travel approval on Monday.    It's basically the formal letter from China officially giving us the "green light" and inviting us to come and get our son.


Our "Official" Letter!

Then just 3 short days later, we booked our airline tickets.   Whooooweeeee!     We are leaving Oct. 4th and will arrive in China on Oct. 5th.    We will meet our son on Mon, Oct. 8th, just 2 days after his 3rd birthday!     We will arrive home sweet home on Fri, Oct. 19th.   If you're doing the math,   that means we're leaving in less than 3 weeks.  Yikes!
Travel guy at the adoption agency said the earliest we would travel to China would be November 1st. HA!    Little did he know that NONE of my kiddos arrive on their "due date". Both of my girls were born a month ahead of time, and our little man is following the Rice family delivery protocol.  

Is this really happening???!!     I have had that deer-in-headlights look for the past few days.   Just when I check off a few items off of my massive to-do list, I add a few more.    So bear with me these days, people.  I have the attention span of a goldfish.

Another thing I realized is that I never really formally posted more about our son's name.   When we got the referral letter, quite frankly, I couldn't pronounce his name.   Liu Nian.   I kept saying it out loud:  Looo-ne-in?   Lou-Neon?  Li-AN?     Hmmm- LIAM????    I like that!   So, I went online to my handy dandy name finder and looked up the name Liam.    Come to find out, Liam is short for WilLIAM.  Who knew?!   I love regal names.  And William is such a timeless classic. Since the orphanage named him (not his birth mom), we really didn't feel the need to keep his Chinese name.  He is becoming a part of our family heritage, so we chose Gentry for his middle name.  That's his daddy's, grandfather, and great-grandfather's middle name!   So, there you have it:   William "Liam" Gentry Rice. 

I pinky-promise that I'll be better with the updates over the next few weeks before we leave!    My goal is to post pictures and daily updates while we're in China.  When we're away, my dear friend Stacy will be my blogger every day if I don't have access to the rest of the world.

As I've read through the ups and downs of this journey, God's hand in all of this is so clear.    I hope that you'll take a look back through those posts and see just how He's worked out every single detail for the good of all involved.   Just like they've always said, hindsight is 20/20.   

Stay tuned!   The fun times are just beginning!