Here we come Grace

OK, we have plane tickets, one night of hotel reservations, and our conscientious adoption agency working on the rest of the details.  We leave Spokane International Airport on Oct. 4th for a trip that will change the lives of so many.  Our's, Grace's, everyone we come in contact with and explain the amazing journey we have been on.  While I was waiting this past summer, I think I lost sight of the big picture and what our small part in it is.  I was consumed by each step of the process and lost sight of the final destination.  We are approaching the final destination, and I stand in awe of my God and His amazing plan.  We are going to get our daughter.  She has been growing in our hearts for so long now. We saw her March 26th and we have not been the same since.  We have seen how you can love someone so much, even when you have never met her.  We have cried over the fact that we have not received a single update during the process just so we could get a glimpse of the child that has stolen our hearts.  When I say we, I mean Mike, myself, Brandt, Holden, Wyatt, and Ainsley.  We are all so in love with our baby Grace.  Not saying there won't be challenges as we adjust to another little one running around.  Ainsley has the most to lose.  She is currently our princess, and only daughter.  She will be sharing a room, and the spotlight.  We have been showering her with affection, but we are also prepared for some challenging behavior.  The boys are all prepared to defend their sweet sister if people give her a hard time because of the cl/cp.  They will be her little protectors.  We are also praying every day that our baby girl will understand the love we are so excited to give her.  She has been institutionalized since she was born.  We want her to quickly learn what it means to have a mom and dad meeting all her needs and loving her all the time.  We want her to learn to love her siblings and understand what it is to be a Kelly.  We want her to fall in love with us, like we have fallen for her.  If you wouldn't mind praying that with us, we would really appreciate it.  So here are the details.  We leave Oct. 4th and fly to Hong Kong.  We will be there until the 7th, then we will go to Guangzhou, China.  We will receive our baby girl on Oct. 8th and she will be ours at that point.  We have to go through several paperwork steps to receive her passport and visa, and then we have an appointment with the US Consulate in China on Oct. 16th to finalize the visa process.  We fly out of Hong Kong on Oct. 18th and return to Spokane the 18th.  I plan to keep this blog updated with pictures and stories from China, so be checking while we are gone.
So, life of course continues here at home.  The boys are back in school and doing great.  They all love their teachers and have settled back into a routine.  I miss them.  Soccer is in full swing, cross country has started and Ainsley has started gymnastics.  Her ballet class starts next week.  MOPS drive thru registration was today.  We start meeting every other week next month.  So in the middle of all this, we will be plopping our new baby girl.  I am sure she will just fit right in.  She will understand the chaos that is our life :) .

The kids have started a new game after watching the Ellensburg Rodeo over Labor Day weekend.

We also took some time to go and visit Manito park and take pictures of the kids.  We don't order school pictures, we just take individual pictures on our own during the fall.  The kids did great and were, of course, the cutest kids ever.
We sold our Yukon XL on the internet last week.  It was the craziest thing.  We sold it to someone that didn't even come out and test drive it.  He had it shipped out of here and to his house in Kansas City.  And yes, we were very careful and overly cautious, but we were super relieved when the check cleared.  It was pretty cool to be able to sell it and get what we want for it.  Needless to say, we are now looking for a new car.  We need a vehicle that has two bench seats to fit car seats better than the two captains chairs we used to have in the Yukon.  We are pretty selective in what we want, but we are also being very patient.  We want to get exactly what we want.  It has been fun to look around for a bit.  Mike may have found our new car in Salt Lake.  He is going to be there tomorrow, so is going to look at it.  Other than that, life just keeps going.  Inside, I am all butterflies waiting for the day we will hold our new daughter in our arms.  We can't wait for everyone to meet her and love her.