Wow! Time is flying by!!

I cannot believe we have been home almost 3 months already!! It has truly been 3 of the best months ever! Lauren and Caroline are so very, very happy to have their precious baby sister to play with, care for, and love. They are the most awesome big sisters EVER!! It is amazing how different it is this time around since we have so much help!

We have been having so much fun ever since we came home. Our camping trip was so much fun, and Halloween was great as well!!

Now, we are preparing to enjoy our first Christmas as a complete family of five. I am so excited! We have already had two wonderful family Christmas parties that were full of fun and precious memories. Tomorrow we will start out with our traditional country ham breakfast at our Aunt and Uncle's house, then that night we will bake Jesus' birthday cake and leave a piece for Santa. I think I may be more excited than the kids are!!

We are so thankful for everything that has taken place over the past five years. We are thankful that God's timing is always best. We think we need things NOW, but God always knows just what and when things are right for his plan. We are so thankful for his plan and for Sara being a part of it. She has truly made our family complete.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas celebrating the wonderful birth of our precious Savior!! Merry Christmas!!

We Made It Home!!!

Well, we did it!! 6 planes, 1 typhoon, and 1 train later we are finally home sweet home with our little sweet bundle and our family is complete. We are happier than we've ever been. In New Jersey, just when we were in line to board, our plane got delayed from leaving at 6 to leaving at 8. I cried! Then it changed to 8:30, then 9. I was having a heart attack thinking it was about to cancel, when they finally found a pilot and we began to board - praise GOD!!!! I was so upset because my wonderful family had planned a welcome home party at our house and I just knew it was ruined because it would be so late!! My sweet Mom just comforted me and said not to worry, that we would just figure things out and I just needed to get on that plane and get home safely, so that's what I tried to do!! Sara slept during that whole flight, so I was able to catch a little sleep too. When I woke up, I looked out that plane window and I knew that the lights I could see below were the lights of Nashville, TN. I just asked John to please hand me the tissues. Tears just streamed down my cheeks. I couldn't believe that we were FINALLY going to be home! He just smiled at me because he knows that I cry at everything, but when the wheels touched down, we were BOTH crying!! The word "thankful" can't even describe how we feel for all that has happened. We are just overwhelmed with emotions! When we got off the plane we had to quickly change Sara's clothes, then we walked down the path until we got to where our WONDERFUL friends and family were waiting at 10:30 p.m.!! I just cried and cried as I hugged everyone and they just loved on that sweet baby. After we visited for a while, most of us went back to our house and even though it was 1 in the morning, we still had our party!! It was great! They had the cutest cake for us, balloons, and signs!! It was so very, very sweet! I have the BEST family in the whole entire world!! They all worked together to give us the best welcome home party ever! I cannot thank them enough!! :) Thanks to ALL of you for all of your thoughts and prayers during this entire journey. I know that many of you have followed us through it all and we really appreciate it! I can't wait for you all to meet little miss Sara because she is so precious! :)

We take the train to Hong Kong TODAY!

Well, we've done so many things the past few days, and it is finally time to begin our journey home!! After four and a half years, we finally crossed our last hurdle yesterday at the American Consulate in Guangzhou. It was a bit emotional knowing that we are finally done. As we stood there with our right hands raised saying our oath, we knew that it was finally official, and Sara will finally be a U.S. citizen the moment we step into the airport in New Jersey. That brought tears to our eyes!! We can't wait to walk off of the airplane and know that Sara will have the freedom that our country provides! We have learned so much over the last two weeks, and we have truly come to appreciate the freedom more than ever and are SO happy that she will have that opportunity. It's easy to sit back and take it for granted until you actually spend time in another country for a short while and learn what it is like for them.

Well, on a lighter note, we took a pearl river cruise last night that was very beautiful. The lights of the city were so pretty! The food was not exactly homecooking, but I survived on the noodles and rice and just passed over the chicken feet! lol We are leaving today at 4:15 to take the train to Hong Kong where we will spend one night. Tomorrow morning our flight leaves at 10:35 for New Jersey! (15 and a half hours on a plane with an 8 month old baby!! YAY!!!) I don't really care though- I'll do anything to get home to my other babies!! After our 4 hour layover in New Jersey, we are Tennessee bound!!! Please pray for the trip because it's gonna be rough!! But that's okay because we can do it!! We love you all and can't wait to see you VERY SOON!!! :)

Only 3 full days left!

Okay, we only have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday left, and then we fly home Friday! We can hardly believe it! We have learned so much and had a lot of valuable time together! This time bonding with Sara has been more than amazing! Words cannot even begin to describe the emotions we have felt over the last 2 weeks. Adoption truly is a gift from God that is such a great opportunity for so many families. It has been exciting to watch the other families with their babies and see how much the babies have opened up and changed in only a week and a half.
They all seem so happy and just know how much their mommas and daddies love them already. It is just really neat how God has taken this trip and strategically planned it so that we got all of the hard part over with first, then just opened it up for us to see the reasons why we are here and let us appreciate being here rather than just complaining the whole time. We still really, really, really do miss our Lauren & Caroline, the rest of our family and friends, and Tennessee in general, but we have come to appreciate being here and enjoying the time that we have here. Thanks for the prayers and encouraging words that have gotten us to this point! We love you all and can't wait to see you all and share lots of stories and pictures very soon! :)

We are soooo thankful for Guangzhou, China!

Well, we made it to Guangzhou yesterday around 3:30 or so. It was one of the best feelings so far of the whole trip. I think it comes in 3rd, right behind the McDonald's fries! When we were driving into town and discovering the differences between here and Nanchang, we were beyond excited! We didn't hear constant horn blowing or see total filth everywhere! What a great feeling! Just when we thought we were happy, it got even better...we turned the corner and saw our hotel. We realized our hotel is right beside McDonald's (I already had a heads up on that one) AND has a Starbucks right inside!!! The whole bus was so excited! The others in our group couldn't get their bags down there fast enough to get to their Starbuck's! Today we went to Shamian Island and had the medical exams done. That was an absolute madhouse, but it went well. It was EXTREMELY crowded because today was the first day it has been opened since the Autumn Moon holiday. We had to wait forever, and there were people everywhere. Now I just hope we didn't pick up any germ souvenirs while we were in there. It was funny because when the Americans would finish and leave the building, you would see them start taking out wetwipes and wiping everything down. Sara weighed 17.7 ponds, and she did great!! :) We are about to leave at 4:30 to go to another meeting where we will turn in more paperwork for Sara's visa. Busy, busy, busy!!! Well, we are now more than halfway done with our journey!! It started out rocky, but now it's getting better!! Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers!! Please continue! We love you all and miss you! :)

Your prayers are working!

Thank you so much to all those who have been praying for us on our journey! We had a much better day today! We went on a long walk to a department store and bought a few clothes for Sara. I had to buy some warmer things since all I brought was summer stuff, and today it is actually cool. I had to get a sweater because I had already gotten the evil eye from several people and perhaps cussed out by others (who knows) about her not being dressed warmly enough. I'm ready now though! $70 later, we have 2 new long pants outfits, a hat, and a sweater. We can do this!! After we left there, we discovered the second best restaurant in China...Pizza Hut! Oh yes-it was delicious! Not quite as good as the Big Mac the other day, but great! The lady we ate with was a bit disturbed though, because her seafood supreme pizza that she thought only had shrimp on it, had little pieces of octopus! How funny is that?! On the way back to the hotel, we passed several little stands (very dirty) set up grilling and selling God only knows what , but I think it was some type of rodent. It appeared to be an entire animal (boneless) and it was very small, so I'm thinking a rat. That is just disgusting. People were just eating them on sticks! In my opinion, some things were not meant to be eaten by humans! YUCK! Well, we are very happy tonight because tomorrow morning we are flying to Guangzhou which should be a lot better. It is a bigger city with a lot more shopping. One of the other ladies and my friend Angie have both been there, and they both said that it was much better than here. Well, I'd better get off here and get to packing. Thanks again for the prayers and keep them coming! There really is power in prayer you know! I love you all and miss you bunches!! :)

6 down, 8 to go!

Well, we've made it 6 days, now there are only 8 more to go! We have today and tomorrow in this province, then Friday morning we fly out to Guangzhou. I think it is supposed to be better there. I am trying really hard to be positive, but I am having a hard time. I so want to go home! It just gets a little frustrating when you don't understand why people do things so differently, why things are the way they are, or what anyone is saying. I think God is trying to teach me to respect other cultures for who they are and understand that everyone is not the same. It's okay, though, because we can do anything for 8 more days, right? We have seen many beautiful places, though. We went to the People's park yesterday, which was really pretty. Sara slept through most of it! We only got scolded once by a few older women, and that was because the sun was in her eyes. Thankfully, our guide, Mary, was with us, and she talked to them while we just kept walking. I really don't see how we raised Lauren and Caroline to be 9 and 11 (lol)! I almost went back to the room this morning on the way to breakfast because I forgot to put her socks on her and was afraid I would get scolded, but luckily nobody said anything! It's only the older generation who ever says anything. The younger people are usually very nice and always brag on how beautiful she is. Some people just look at you like you are a freak, and you know they are talking about you, but most people just smile. It's easy to tell they don't see a lot of Americans in this province. Oh-we did have our second best experience so far...McDonald's! We have been soooooooo hungry it's ridiculous! John went in and bought us 3 combo meals! I was eating like 4 fries at a time on the bus! It was like heaven! McDonald's never tasted so good! Well, we really are doing well, and I don't mean to sound like a complainer, but I'm just a little homesick, that's all! I'm ready to see my girls at home and the rest of the family!! There is truth in the line "There's no place like home!" I love you all and miss you bunches! Please keep the prayers coming because we need them now more than ever!! :)

It's official!

After several interviews, signatures, and very scary bus rides in China, this precious baby is officially Sara Gail Langford! What a great feeling it is to know that it is now final! Now we still have a long time to wait here, but it's on things like her passport, medical exams, etc. She was absolutely fabulous today! We had a very long morning in a very hot and VERY HUMID city , even Wal-Mart, and she never fussed a bit! Speaking of Wal-Mart, let's just say that all Wal-Marts are not created equal! Here they have live turtles, fish, frogs, eels, you name it, you can buy it basically. And if smells make you a little sick to your stomach, you probably don't want to go! Oh my-very different!

We are so in love it is ridiculous! We just can't wait for Lauren and Caroline, and everyone else for that matter, to share in this joy! Well, enough talking your ears off; I'm going to go now and enjoy this baby a little more! Thanks again and keep the prayers coming! You have no idea how thankful we are!! :)

Oh what a feeling!

Oh what a feeling it is to finally hold and love on the daughter we have waited four and a half years to meet. The emotions that John and I are feeling right now really can't be put into words. We are beyond grateful to God for making us wait as long as we have. Sara is a gift that is simply amazing! She is such a little angel, and we cannot wait until her sisters can get their hands on her. They, along with the rest of the family, had a fit when they got to see her on Skype today.

She did so great when the nanny placed her in my arms. She didn't cry until we left the group and started to get on the elevators. Once the tears started, she cried pretty hard for about 30-40 minutes straight. John finally got her to stop by walking her and bouncing her. After she stopped, she hasn't cried since then. She has smiled and laughed at everything. She just seems so happy! We are so very excited! Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your prayers and support throughout this entire process. Please continue for the next couple of week and pray that we have a safe journey home.