Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! LAST DAY HOME BEFORE WE LEAVE!!!!!

As soon as I woke up I had to check my emails as always and Barb sent me 3 emails sharing about how cute and big/little the babies are what size clothes their wearing etc. She said Nanchang is freezing cold! What's up with that? It's supposed to be like 50 something there. They had sleet yesterday.

For those who haven't been following our blog. Barb is a friend that is adopting a little girl from the same orphanage as Noelle! She's over there right now and we will be traveling to all the same places.

Here are some more pictures of her daughter Lauren....

EXCITING NEWS!!!

First of all Jen had her baby today!!!
Hannah Grace 7lbs 4oz, 19 1/4" long. Born at 8:38am.
Congratulations Nate and Jen!
We hope to see the baby tomorrow and take pictures.

Second.....we got our plane tickets, Travel Approval and AWAA shirts!

Noelle's Friend!

Congratulations Barb & Larry!
They just adopted their little girl. She was living in the same orphanage as Noelle for a little while. In fact we think we have a picture of them sitting together in potty chairs. Recently she's been in a foster home.
She's so cute!!!




We think Lauren is the first baby and Noelle is the third baby. Aren't they cute ; )

2 More Days!

We had our travel meeting this afternoon via phone & Internet. It was very nice to hear from all the families and Kristen (awaa travel coordinator) did a great job going over everything with us and answering all our questions. Thanks Kristen!

In my last post I mentioned we were over around 20lbs.....well, that's really not an option. We need to be closer to the 44lb. weight limit for each of us. So Robin and I re-packed and now we're only 1lb over.

Some dear friends that we haven't seen in years sent us an email that really blessed us so I wanted to post it.

Dear Tonya, Mike, and Robin,
First of all we want to say a very special "Congratulations" to you all.
We are soooo happy to hear about little Noelle! We know exactly how you feel about adopting this little angel as we felt the same when we adopted Cathy! God is just so good and you may be assured of our constant prayers for you now and forever. From her photo, we can see how beautiful she is..we love her name, Noelle. Jeff has given us your website address.. We love you so much and thank God for bringing you into our lives. We can't wait to meet her and see all of you some day. Thank you for this beautiful and inspiring website. God is smiling down on you from Heaven! You are all in the Palm of His Hand and yes, He had this all planned for you and for little Noelle.
She has a beautiful and awesome family.
May God bless you all with His love, safety and peace as you make this special journey with Him, to China.
We love you lots.
Love with prayers always,
Andrea and Ray Leonard

"I have a plan for you............"

Checked luggage is packed!

Well, today we finished packing our checked luggage. We are bringing 4 suit cases that weight a total of 151 pounds. It looks like we'll have to pay an additional 60.00 +/- for our first domestic flight in China because we are over the weight limit by almost 20 pounds (a little less). Tomorrow or Tuesday we'll tweak our carry on bags.

Three more days.....FREAKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Presenting the New and Improved Living Room!

We love our new couch! I am shocked that I have room for our recliner and rocker still and two end tables....granted they're small, but they fit!

Update on the cat....Rainbow went to the vet this week for her declaw instead of next week. She's doing good. She hated to ride to the vet, but on the way home she was on some pretty good kitty drugs and she didn't make a peep! I'm so glad we were able to get it done this week because she needs to use shredded paper in place of litter for 3-4 days and she has to take medicine for the couple days. That would have been too much to ask from a friend. Yesterday morning one paws was bleeding a little but she fell asleep and it hasn't bled again...that I know of anyway. Noelle has a cute soft little chair in her room that she got from Mimi and Papa and Rainbow LOVES to sleep in it. I wasn't letting her because I was afraid she'd tear it up, but now that she doesn't have her claws I've let her sleep in it. She was in it from 11:30 - 6:00 something crazy like that! But that's good, if she's sleeping she's not licking her paws and she's not supposed to be licking. How do you keep a cat from licking???? Can't figure that one out! We do have an E collar but there is NO WAY she'll keep that on!

Today we're packing our carry on luggage. Can you believe only 4 more days until we leave!!! Hang on Noelle, we're coming baby!!!

In Country Itinerary!!!

Adoption Itinerary

January 17th - January 30th

Thursday, Jan.17th Depart for Beijing flight# NW2966

Friday, Jan.18th Arrive in Beijing flight# NW11

Saturday, Jan.19th Beijing Sight-Seeing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, & Summer Palace (Lunch & Dinner Included)

Sunday, Jan.20th Church service & Great Wall (Lunch & Beijing Duck Dinner Included)

Monday, Jan.21st GOTCHA DAY! Morning - flight to Jiangxi Afternoon - meet Noelle NiShuai Davis!!

Tuesday Jan.22nd Civil Affairs Appointment

January 23rd-24th Paperwork, Sight-seeing,& Shopping

Friday, Jan.25th Flight to Guangzhou

Saturday, Jan.26th Medical Exam

Sunday, Jan.27th Fill out Consulate Forms

Monday, Jan.28th Consulate Appointment 10:00 am

Tuesday, Jan.29th Pick up Child's Visa

Wednesday, Jan.30th Depart from Guangzhou Flight# NW10

This is so funny!

I can't remember when I have laughed so hard! Maybe it's really not that funny and I'm just overtired. You'll have to let me know :)

Any woman who has ever tanned before can relate. Even if they haven't tanned "this" way.

These are gifts from the Butlers!

Thank you so much Melissa! I love them and I know Noelle will too :)

Mike has been practicing his video editing skills and this is his latest project. This is leaving our house and driving Robin to school/church. Nice job hon!

Robin says "crap" at the end of the video because she forgot the vinegar at home for her science project :)




Hey Amy W....my cat is about 6 years old and I will let you know how she does!

Well, today has been fun! I bought a huge sectional and ottoman! And it's going to be delivered on Wed. the 9th.

Right now we have an old couch that may look pretty but actually it feels/sounds like it's going to break in half anytime anyone with any weight at all sits on it. We also have a matching chair and ottoman that goes with it that actually isn't too bad but we'll have to part with simply because we won't have any room left once this new couch get here.

Mike and I were vegging as usually one evening a couple of weeks ago. Mike laying on the couch and me sitting in the recliner, Robin hanging wherever she can find a spot. Usually on her dad. Anyway we said after we get Noelle we're all going to be fighting over who gets to hold her. And Mike said since we need a new couch anyway he thought we should get a sectional so the whole family can sit together. Isn't that sweet : ) Of course there was no arguing coming from me that sounded great!

On Tuesday we had to go to town and stopped into Tuffy Bear (where we seem to buy all our furniture) and looked to see what they had and sure enough we found something that all 3 of us loved.

Well I went in today and bought it! It's an England 7300 sectional and the color is vintage bronze. It's very pretty and I also ordered two passion suede chocolate pillows and matching ottoman to go with it! They are going to deliver the couch on Wed. and the ottoman and pillow will come after we get home from China.

I'll have to post before and after pictures of the living room. It's probably going to look like an airport terminal. We will literally have no room for anything else once that 's here. You're probably wondering why get such a big couch if you don't have the room. Well, our plan is to build an addition ..... we hope this year. And then our current living room will be a dining room. And once we build we'll have a huge living room with lots of space. So we figured we'll just get a big one now and we'll be all set later! Makes sense doesn't it?

So with getting a new couch just before we leave I had to make an appointment for our cat.
Yup you guessed it.....we are having her declawed. There is no way I'm going to buy new furniture and leave and let her tear it to shreds! We've talked about having that done anyway because sometimes she gets snappy with Robin and will scratch and we don't want her doing that to Noelle. So the next week and a half are going to busy and that's wonderful! It will help make the time go by fast! Before we know it we'll be off to get the baby!!!

The last picture is what Rainbow does when we're not looking. This is why she is having her claws out before we go. Here are our before pictures....

We have our plane tickets!!!

It's official we are now the proud owners of tickets to China!

We will leave Bangor, Maine on Jan. 17 and fly to Detroit, MI.
We'll have a short layover and then we're off to Tokyo, Japan. This will be a 13 hour and 25 min. flight.
We'll have a 55 min. layover and then off to Beijing, China! We'll arrive there at 9:15 PM!

On the way home it's the same .... Guangzhou, Tokyo, Detroit, and finally Bangor!!!

This is so exciting! I can't believe this is really happening! Two weeks from today!!!

Mimi bought this pretty pink chair for Noelle for Christmas and Robin bought Noelle this ladybug doll! Isn't she cute!!

We have our CA!

Dear Traveling Families,

We are happy to announce that we have received Consulate appointments for all families on January 28 at 10:00 AM. With the appointment confirmations we are now able to confirm concrete travel dates. Your group will depart for China on January 17 and will return home on January 30.

We are working hard to finalize all international flight arrangements and will be contacting you tomorrow or Friday to review and confirm your international flight itineraries. We will send you a copy of the international flight itinerary that we have on hold for you via email as soon as we have them completed.

Please hold all questions concerning flights until we contact you in order to allow us to secure all arrangements is the shortest timeframe possible. If you are booking your own flights, please review the "International Flight Guidelines" email and be prepared to review your tentative flight itinerary with a Travel Coordinator. Please wait to finalize your reservation until that time.

We look forward to talking with you soon. Happy New Year!

Grace and Peace,


Kristen Hussa
Travel Coordinator

A beautiful first day of 2008!

This picture was taken this afternoon right in front of the house. We just had a storm yesterday that brought about 12 or so inches and tonight and tomorrow we'll be getting another 10-14 inches! Let's just pray the storms hold off when it's time for us to leave for China.

We are so excited to see what the Lord has in store for our family this year! Our first blessing this year will be traveling to China to bring home our baby girl! It looks like that's about 16 days away.....but who's counting right? : )

Actually come to think about it our first blessing could very well be adding a new niece to our family! Jen is ready to have Hannah any day now! She went to the hospital last night with contractions, but they stopped after a while so they sent her home today. We're praying it's soon Jen! We know you're ready!

OK, this may be a strange thing to post on a blog.....this is for all my friends who pray! My breasts especially my left one has been very painful for about two weeks now. I've been popping pills to help with the pain every 4 hours for over a week and it's not helping at all. So I broke down and went to the doctors yesterday and she felt lots of lumps and ordered a mammogram and ultra sound to see what's going on in there. She said the fact that it was painful was a good sign. But anytime you have lumps or pain in your breasts it makes a person uneasy....well it does for me anyway. I have my appointment tomorrow at the hospital for the mammogram and ultra sound so would you please keep me in prayer and pray that everything looks normal. She did say that I have fibrocystic breasts and went over some things that I can do to help. Basically diet and lose about 60 pounds! I know that Satan would like nothing better than to put fear in me right now. This is supposed to be a time of excitement as we are getting so close to traveling. Which it is, but I want to be feeling better by the time we leave.

Happy New Year to all of you!
Love, Tonya

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can't believe it's January 1, 2008!


Happy New Year Robin & Noelle! We love you!

Ian and the Jungle Book

TRAVEL APPROVAL!!

We are sooo excited that our travel approval came today! We were totally not expecting it because AWAA offices are closed. Apparently a some guy Ryan went into the office and while he was there a package was delivered and our TA was there!!! Also our friends Kyle and Angie's TA was there too! Congratulations Hendrens! It'll be soon now!

He wasn't able to answer any of our questions because he doesn't work with the China program. He called the Asia coordinator and asked her what to do and she said to call and try to set a CA date with us. The dates they gave to pick from where Feb. 4TH or 5Th or Jan. 28Th or 29Th. I was a little disappointed it wasn't earlier in the month, but I'll take anything in Jan! So it looks like we'll probably leave Jan. 17Th! Three weeks from today! Which would mean getting Noelle on the 21st!

He also said that she was a beautiful little girl.....does that mean they sent an updated picture of her? I forgot to ask.....I'm so stupid sometimes.

We'll be celebrating tonight! Keep praying for all of us please!

Love, Tonya

Some Christmas pictures

This is Tonya going on and on about Noelle's name...

....actually this is us practicing our video uploads for when we are in China getting our baby!!!

Yes, here it is the day after Christmas. We've been having a wonderful time this week with our families just relaxing and hanging out. However, our hearts are with Noelle far away on the other side of the world. Hopefully, when AWAA opens back up on Jan. 2nd we will get some wonderful news about our TA!