Consulate Appointment and Plane Tickets

We have our consulate appointment confirmed - January 27th. So we will actually come back on January 30th. We also purchased our plane tickets yesterday. We will be flying from Wichita to Chicago, and then into Beijing. And on the way back we will be flying from Shanghai to Chicago, and then into Wichita. Now we are waiting for our agency to send us an itinerary for the in China travel arrangements. After we receive that we should have all arrangements made!! Now we have to make sure we can fit all our stuff into 4 suitcases with each suitcase weighing under 44 pounds. I think we have some fine tuning to do!

Travel Approval

Our travel approval arrived yesterday from China. Our agency has estimated we will leave on 1-14-10 and return home on 1-29-10. They should have confirmation on our consulate appointment either tomorrow or the next day. That will determine for sure when we will travel. We are so close to getting Raegan!!!

Updated Information and Pictures

We sent a care package to Raegan at her orphanage last week. The lady who sends them out also calls the orphanage to get updated information on the babies. Today we got updated measurements and two new pictures. We were so excited to get these!

Her updated measurements are:

Height 26.8"

Weight 17 pounds

Her weight of 17 pounds is probably not accurate. Most of the time the orphanages weigh the babies with their clothing on, especially in the winter. As you can tell from the pictures it looks like Raegan has on several layers of clothing. Most of the orphanages don't have heating so they bundle up the babies to keep them warm.

This makes us even more anxious to go get Raegan.

Dena

Raegan's Name

Raegan's name will be Raegan Faye Elizabeth. Each of these names has special meaning to us.

Raegan: The Rae in Raegan is in honor of our dearly beloved father, father-in-law, and grandfather, Ray Robertson. He passed away in November 2002. We miss him every day, but even more so when we have reasons to celebrate such as Raegan's referral. He loved Marshall and Madelyn so very much, and found special joy in spending time with them. We know he would have felt the same for Raegan.

Faye: We are especially blessed that both of our mother's middle names are Faye. We are able to name Raegan after these very special women who are so important to us. Our children mean the world to them and they are anxiously awaiting Raegan's arrival. She will know unlimited love and care from her grandmothers.

Elizabeth: All of our children have a second middle name. This name is a Biblical name that has special meaning to us. I'm sure most of you know but Elizabeth and her husband were unable to have children. They prayed to God and he blessed them with a child.

Visa Application

Friday we got our Visa applications sent off. We had to send a visa application for each of us, pictures, passports, paperwork for our agency, and of course money. But we are one step closer to going to China. I have been busy going through all the stuff I have collected for the trip over the past three and a half years. Now I have to start eliminating things we really don't have to take. We can each take one checked suitcase weighing 44 pounds or less. Also, we can each carry on one personal item (such as a backpack, purse, or laptop bag) and one other small suitcase or bag. Our only problem is that we ALWAYS over pack when we go on a trip.

Hope everyone had a great weekend -
Dena

More Information

We received Raegan's translated medical and growth history on Monday so we know a little more about her. Here is some of the important information:

Chinese Name: Jiang Jing Li
Orphanage: CWI of Pingjiang County, Hunan Province
Her medical report was all normal.
She is described as a deep sleeper, enjoys music, and is quiet.

We returned our acceptance paperwork on Monday and our agency will send it to China on Friday. We received an e-mail from our agency today stating they anticipate we will travel in January. Our next task is to get our paperwork ready and sent out for our visas.

We will keep everyone updated on anything new.

Dena

It's a Girl!

We received our referral today and we are so excited! Here is the basic information we got today:

Birthdate - May 10, 2009 (almost 7 months old)
Measurements on 8-18-09
Height 60 cm
Weight 11 lbs

She is from Hunan Province

We should receive more information from our agency when they finish translating her referral packet. We will keep everyone updated with anything new that we receive.

Shawn and Dena