Last Post From Louisiana

It is now the night before we leave. We're leaving Monroe tomorrow at 7:00am. We are tired, but excited, and very ready to be there. My plan is to update our blog regularly while we're there so you will all know what's going on with us.

Please send positive thoughts and prayers our way. For our journey and for the transition our little girl is about to go through. She has no idea Mommy and Daddy are on the way.

'Til next time.....

Bella's Playroom

She's not even here yet and she's taking over the house! :) That's OK though. Since Bella quickly outgrew her bedroom, we decided to make one of the guest rooms a playroom.

Nothing fancy, but I am proud of it. Only two weeks ago it was a full bedroom.

Pictures of the nursery, and my other shower, are coming soon. It's been a little hectic around here.

A Little Video

I got a new computer and discovered something I can do on it. Enjoy...it's my first film. :)

If it can happen...

it will happen to us. The Chinese Government has changed part of their process for adoptive families during the final and official appointment in Guangzhou (the last stop on The Smith Family World Tour). Our paperwork may now not be worded correctly to bring home our child. I've been dealing with this since Thursday. I just e-mailed the Consulate in Guangzhou with all of our information and hopefully will hear back as soon as they're open Monday (Sunday night, our time).

I am so exhausted from the prep work to travel. I'm now looking forward to the 27 hour flight. I get to sit and read and knit and nap for 27 hours and not have ANYTHING that has to be done? Heaven!

NEW PHOTOS!!!

I recently heard about the most amazing company, http://ladybugsnlove.com/. It is a company that will place a phone call, on your behalf, to your child's orphanage and gather as much information as possible about them. You're limited to 10 questions, but their updated measurements are also included. They also try to get you photographs of your child. Kelly, the owner, is awesome and she worked very quickly to get information on our precious Chen Zi Yu. She is also a [recent] adoptive mommy and answered some travel questions for me.

Today, we received an e-mail from her with these priceless photos:

We believe these photos were taken this week! We know we're going to see her soon, but we both really needed to see this precious face again.

We learned she's 16.5 lbs and 27.9" long. She has two lower teeth and two upper teeth. Her head is 18.1" and her chest is 18.89". Her foot is 3.9" long.

We're just so thanksful to Ladybugs 'n Love for their service. We were talking about our angel over dinner and said we'd pay everyday is we could have photos of her.

Finding Ad

In China, all abandoned children's picture and information are placed in the local newspaper. This is a way to locate the birth parents. We were fortunate enough to find a company to help us locate Bella's ad. I wanted to share her sweet picture.
It's just our guess, but we think she's a week or two in this photo. Isn't she just precious?

Updated Travel Plans

Since I last posted about travel, a few things changed. For the better; no big deal. We are now officially leaving July 16th at 7:00am on American Airlines. We'll go from Monroe to Dallas to LAX to Bejing. We'll arrive in Bejing on July 17th at 11:55 pm, their time. If you figure it up, in our time, we'll be leaving July 16th at 7:00 am and arriving July 17th at 10:55am. That's a looooong time to be on planes. I guess we're going to truly learn the meaning of "cabin fever".

We'll be coming home on July 31st. We leave Bejing at 10:55am, and arrive in Monroe at 8:50pm. Somewhere in there we'll lose a day; that's why the flight home doesn't appear to be as bad. Trust me; we're sure it will be. :)

We'll be happy to have you all meet us at the airport! It's a Friday night, so there's no work the next day.