We have our baby girl!!!

Sorry it's been so long to post, but I've had trouble accessing the blog from here. We got Ana Kate on Sunday night and she cried at first and didn't want me to hold her...but by the time we left the orphanage she was fine and fell asleep on the way to the hotel. She is about average size for a 9 month old and today we discovered that not only can she pull herself up and stand on her own....she can even walk a little. She is becoming very attached to her Mama and she's into everything! She mimics everything from clapping her hands to waving bye....she is such a smart little girl. Each day she's with us we see more and more of her personality as well as her dimples. She is absolutely beautiful. Here are some pictures of the first night we had her and one from the giving and receiving ceremony this morning.

We're in Hong Kong...

Our flight to Vietnam leaves in about 2 hours. The flight from LA to Hong Kong was SOOO long. We barely were able to sleep, so we are very tired and desperately want to take a shower. I guess that will have to wait.

So in about 12 hours or so we'll have our baby girl! I sure hope she sleeps well tonight because we're running on empty right now. I have a feeling we'll be so excited to have her in our arms that it really won't matter....even if she keeps us up all night.

We'll post again once we have Ana Kate.

We're in LA......

...waiting on our flight to Hong Kong. We'll be here for a while since our flight doesn't leave until 11:45 (pacific time). We're hanging out, reading email, and posting to the blog. Thanks to everyone who called or emailed wishing us well and sending their prayers....it means SO much to us. I'm sure it will be quite a wirlwind once we arrive in Hanoi and I'm not sure when we'll be able to post, but I will do my best to update everyone as soon as I can.

And we're off....

We are currently sitting at the airport waiting for our first flight. Since we have a long layover in LA I might post again from there.

I just found out that we will go directly to the province when we land in Hanoi....so that means we will get Ana Kate on Sunday!! YEAH!!

Leaving tomorrow....

We have our visas and we're ready to go!! Well, I still have a few more last minute things to do, but we're basically ready to go. Sunday morning we'll be in Vietnam and Monday we'll meet Ana Kate!! I can't wait!!!!!!

Travel Plans...

We are still working on the travel arrangements but at this point it looks like we'll be leaving on Friday afternoon. That means we'll arrive in Hanoi on Sunday morning. I think we will stay one night in Hanoi and then travel to the province on Monday. When we get there we will finally get little Ana Kate!! If all goes well and everything goes as planned, our giving and receiving ceremony will take place on Tuesday. I will do my best to post something every day.

So far we've been busy making travel plans, cleaning, packing, and shopping for last minute things. I made a 'staging' area for all the packing in Ana Kate's room and I've included a picture. It's quite a mess now, but by Thursday we'll have it all neatly packed into two suitcases and two carry-ons....at least I hope that's all we'll have.

We finally got it!!!!!!!

After 43 days (28 business days) we finally got our approval to travel!! We received the email last night and we can't wait to go get Ana Kate! I am guessing that we'll travel to Vietnam within the next week. I will post again when I have more details. YEAH!!!!