We have not added to this blog since Thanksgiving at the cabin. It is Christmas Eve morning. A lot has happened in the past few days.

A week ago we got an email from Kathy at Small World telling us that many things had fallen into place quickly and that we had to be perpared to leave on Saturday, Dec 27th. Since then we've been in a real scramble trying to get prepared for the trip, leave the kids for two weeks, and come home with a 2 year old.

It's been fun to see God's fingerprints on all of this. We had hoped and prayed both to complete the adoption by Dec 31st and to be able to accomplish all of this within a year of the time we started. In the end, we will complete the adoption in China on Dec 31st AND be home on January 9th, exactly one year to the day that we first saw pictures of ChaoChao and agreed to adopt him.

We leave Richmond at 6AM Saturday and connect in Atlanta to a direct flight to Shanghai. In Shanghai, we have to transfer to another airport (2 hours by cab) to fly to Zhengzhou the same evening (Sunday) that we arrive. We will get the hotel late Sunday. On Monday morning, someone is meeting us to give us instructions. We believe that we will get Jacob sometime on Monday. We will stay in Zhengzhou until Friday completing the paperwork needed and waiting on his Chinese passport.

Friday, January 2nd we will fly to Guangzhou where we will file the paperwork at the US consulate to apply for Jacob's US visa. This will be complete by Thursday and will we return home on Friday the 9th, arriving back in Richmond at almost midnight.

As Christmas is all about The Child, we are grateful in this season for our new child who will be with us soon.