June 13th, 2016

We are so excited that we are now Barnett party of 5!!  Today was nothing but amazing.  We headed to the Civil Affairs Building at 2:00 today.  The first have of our day was the longest day of our lives.  We got to the building and they told us to sit down and wait and they would call the first family up when it was time.  We were informed that the kids were there.  A few minutes later they said we would be first.  By the time we walked over to the middle of the room she was walking out with her nanny.  It was so amazing to see her for the first time!! 

She was reluctant to come to us, but I picked her up anyways. 

She went back and forth to John and I and only cried for a little bit.  Her nanny came over and talked to her and reassured her that we were her mommy and daddy and she calmed down.  She also loved eating puffs!! 

We asked her nanny how to say big sister. We had the picture book out to show her Sydney and Claire and when the nanny said big sister she immediately pointed to Sydney and Claire's picture!!   You can tell that she was loved deeply by her nanny or grandmother as they called her.  The lady standing next to me had taken care of  her since she was a little baby.  You can tell she loved her as her own.  The lady beside John was another nanny from the orphanage.  We will be forever greatful to these ladies who are literally Angels on Earth. 

We are both in awe of how well she is doing.  Even our guide said she would probably melt down once back to the room or after a bath, etc.  She fell asleep in my arms on the way back from the Civil Affairs Building.  We came to the room and she slept a bit and then woke up.  No tears just really quiet and very intently checking out the entire room.  She  has just been taking it all in since then.  She studies John and I often and everyting around her.  She is enjoying playing with her toys that we have and is 100% content sitting in my lap.  She always wants us to hold her.  She is already reaching for me to hold her and cries when I leave the room.  She even took a bottle.  She has figured out how to use the special bottles we have for her due to her cleft lip and palate.  She is one smart little girl!!We are praying we continue to move forward and attachment will happen faster than normal.  We are both in awe of how well God prepared her little heart for us.  It truly is amazing!!  Here is a picture after a bath and into some pajamas. 

 



She is perfect and we are 100% in love.  Praising God for sending us on this journey.  His plans are always better than ours!!  She is sound asleep between John and I now!!  Praying we all sleep soundly tonight!!  Goodnight from China!!



June 12th, 2016

First I wanted to share all of the items we packed for Grace for the trip.  I cannot believe they all made it to China! I am praying we will have everything she needs once we have her tomorrow.  We know it will be a tough day and we want to make it as easy on her as we can!!

I cannot believe she will actually be wearing these sweet little outfits and playing with these toys tomorrow!!  We made it to Guangzhou today!!  I was so proud of us.  We road a train, a bus, another train, and a taxi to make it from Hong Kong to Guangzhou!!  It was quite the adventure and we are so happy to be in one place for the next 10 days!!  When we got to our room we had a big surprise!  A sweet little baby crib next to our bed!!



John and I are so excited for tomorrow we can hardly stand it.  Praying we get some sleep tonight.  We are meeting in the hotel lobby tomorrow (Monday) at 2:00pm (which is 1:00am OK time) to take a van to the Civil Affairs Office.  There we will get Grace Mei Barnett.  She will be in our arms forever!!  The next post will be of pictures of her.  We still cannot believe God did this.  He is so good!!

June 11th, 2016

We made it to Hong Kong!!  So thankful to have that flight over with.  It was brutal.  Grabbing some dinner and headed to bed.  Praying we both sleep all night after not much sleep on the plane!!  We will have our girl in less than 48 hours!!  We will be up early and are going to take the bullet train to Guangzhou!!  Praying we can navigate the train stations and end up in the right place!!

June 9th, 2016

Hello everyone!!  I cannot believe this is finally happening.  I have been working all week on gathering items for China!!  We have to take everything for the baby, which has been some work trying to think of everything we will need!  I feel like I am giving birth in China:).   We want to tell everyone thank you for all of the love, support, and prayers you have given us!  We feel so blessed to have so many people supporting us during this journey.  It truly has been amazing!!  God has blessed us with an amazing group and we would not have made it without each of you!!

June 6th, 2016

I wanted to share a picture of our sweet girl!!  

Here is a picture of our precious Grace Mei!!  She is 20 months old here!  29 inches long and weighing a whopping 16.8 pounds!!  We are 100% completely in love!!  We cannot wait to have her in our arms forever!!

June 6th, 2016

Hello Everyone!!  It has been a crazy few weeks at the Barnett House!!  We are so excited to finally be preparing to leave for China.  I will update you below on all that has happened over the past few weeks.

May 19th:  Article 5 was picked up at the US Consulate in Guangzhou and was couriered to the CCCWA or the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption

May 20th:  Article 5 received at the CCCWA

May 24th:  God showed off again big time on this one.  We were told it would be 1-2 weeks.  We were expecting 2 and praying for 1.  We got it in less than a week.  4 days with 2 of those days being a weekend.  We applied for our Consulate appointment today as well.  Our entire trip is based of our appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou.  This is were Grace's Visa will be issued allowing her to board the plane back to the US!!

May 25th:  We received confirmation for our Consulate Appointment.

We are so excited that everything went much faster than planned.  We will be leaving for China on June 10th and will have Grace in our arms forever on June 13th!!  The crazy thing is that June 13th is my brother who passed aways birthday.  God is so good!!  He is giving us this amazing gift on his birthday!!

Please keep us in your prayers.  For safe travels to and from China.  For our girls to be OK while we are in China.  For them to feel at peace and enjoy their time here while we are gone.  Please pray for our sweet baby Grace.  We know she is going to grieve and have a hard time in the beginning, but we are praying that she knows she is loved and safe at all times.  Please pray that she will bond faster than normal to both John and I.  That we will be able to communicate the love we have for her despite the language barrier.  We know God has this, but it breaks our hearts to know our sweet girl is going to go through so much loss losing the only life she has ever known.

We will be doing our best to keep everyone updated while we are in China through posts on the blog!! Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support through this journey!!  We would not have made it without you!!

5/16/16

Hello Everyone!!  I have been meaning to post for a long time now and just finally got the time to sit down and do it!!  So much has happened since the last time I posted.  We have been busy just keeping up with all of the paperwork to get our girl here as quickly as possible!!  I am going to list all of the dates below of everything that has been happening.  This should catch everyone up on where we are!!

April 4th:  Applied for PA (pre-approval); submitted paperwork including a care plan
April 5th:  Received PA and applied for LOA (letter of Acceptance); this is a BIG step because this is China saying that she is our daughter; this was suppose to take 3-4 weeks
April 11th:  Receive LOA; God showed off big time on this one with us receiving it in only 6 days
April 13th:  Applied for our 800A; this is immigration approval for our daughter specifically; we have already been through immigration once to be approved to adopt; this was suppose to take 3-4 weeks
*While we were waiting we applied for our Chinese Visas.  We received this back before immigration approval.
April 28th:  Received 800A approval in 15 days; once we receive 800A our approval is sent to the National Visa Center and we begin waiting on our Cable Letter
May 2nd:  Filled out our application for our DS260; this is more paperwork to bring Grace home; once she lands on US soil she is an automatic US citizen
May 3rd:  After a phone call and an email we received our Cable letter in an email
May 4th:  Got our final update and pictures of Grace from China.  She received our care package and now has a photo album with our pictures.  Our sweet girl gets to see us every day!!  On the update we found out that she is 29 inches and 16.8 pounds at 20 months.
May 5th:  Article 5 drop off;  This is a big step.  This is our Immigration approval, DS260 confirmation and Cable letter being dropped off at the US embassy in China.
May 9th:  Received notification that our Article 5 pick up date is May 19th.
May 19th:  Article 5 will be picked up in China and couriered to the CCCWA (Chinese adoption authority); after this we will be waiting on our TA or travel approval.  Our agency has told us to expect 3-4 weeks on this one, but we are praying for no more than 2 weeks.  To tell you the truth I am praying for 1 week.  After this a lot of people travel about 2 weeks later.  So yes we will be booking all travel arrangements approximately 2 weeks before we go:).

We are beyond excited to be so close in bringing our little girl home.  We have been painting and working on moving Sydney upstairs because Grace will be in her room.  John brought home the changing table and crib, which feels so strange, but exciting to have in the house.  We have also met with an amazing ENT who walked us through the first 3 surgeries Grace will be having.  We will have 3 surgeries the first 6 months home.  Please continue to pray for us!  Pray for our hearts and minds to be able to rest during this exciting time.  I have been running on adrenaline since we received the referral on April 1st and need to be able to rest.  Please be praying for a safe and smooth trip to China.  Pray for our amazing girls Sydney and Claire to be at peace with us being gone for such a long time.  Also John and I to be at peace with this.  We have never been away from them for more than 7 days.  Also of course be praying for our sweet Grace Mei.  That God is preparing her little heart for us.  That she will feel loved, safe and comfortable in our arms.  I am still in awe everyday that God has sent us on this journey.  I know he has everything planned out in his perfect timing.  Praising him for choosing us to go on this journey.  Ready to have our girl in our arms forever!!!!