We have had a busy few days so that when I have time to blog, I'm just too tired!  :)  On Tuesday, we went back for more paperwork and the official orphanage donation ceremony.  It sounds formal, but really is not at all!  We were there with about 6-8 other families who had adopted also and it was kinda like herding cattle.  :)  After that we just had a free day and we walked around town going into shops and buying a few things for Hannah. 
Yesterday we went to Hannah's village.  It was 4 1/2 hours one way....LONG DAY!!!  It was well worth it though. Her village is a very small, poor place in the mountains of Guizhou.  The orphanage director arranged our visit to her finding place.  And because our God is AWESOME, we were able to meet the lady who found Hannah.  She owns a small roadside store beside a school.  We were able to get a lot of our questions answered and it was truly amazing.  She said she came in one morning to open up, and she heard crying.  She looked and there she was...a little baby!  She said she couldn't believe it!  She was left in a baby carrier with a blanket and a bottle.  It had been raining that night and she was all wet.  Immediately, my heart went to Hannah's mother.  I knew then that she didn't want to give her up, but couldn't take care of her and her special need.  Hannah needed surgery and, no doubt looking at the village, she couldn't afford it.  I couldn't contain it any longer.  Tears began streaming down my face thinking about my sweet girl laying there in the rain, cold and afraid, thinking about her mother who was probably so upset to have to give her sweet girl up, and thinking of the store owner who didn't know what to do.  The store owner was a sweet lady in her 70's and I know Hannah's mom left her there knowing that sweet lady would take care of her until she could turn her over to the authorities.  The lady was so glad to see Hannah and immediatley grabbed her left hand (she has not left thumb) so that she could confirm it was her.  She said that she felt Hannah's mom lived in that village and that the news of "the Americans" adopting a baby girl abandoned at that store would be the talk of the village.  She assured me that she felt Hannah's mom would know that Hannah was adopted by "the Americans".  Words cannot explain the emotions I felt that day.  I don't think I will EVER forget it!  I know that my God worked all of that together for me, Erik, and Hannah!  I will be able to answer some of her questions one day that I know she will have.  I am so thankful for a faithful God who cares about the desires of our hearts!  All glory, praise, and honor go to HIM who sits on the throne!!  Thank you God for a truly AWESOME day!

Our sweet girl playing at the adoption center.

I know everyone is wanting to see pictures more than anything so I will put them first.

We went out sight-seeing a little today.  It was a foggy, gloomy, rainy kind of day and not a great day for pictures.  This was unfortunate because we went to some really neat places!  First we went to a beautiful park with a large lake.  The trees were so pretty and there was also the prettiest covered bridge.  There were people doing Tai-chi all around the lake and it was just neat to experience.  We drove to the top of a mountain in this same park and saw lots of monkeys along the way.  They were being fed by people on the side of the road so they would come very close with no problem.  At the top of the mountain was the Buddhist temple.  At first I was amazed at the beauty of the building, but soon noticed all the people and what they were doing.  We went inside and walked through the temple and there were people bowing down before these statues.  Not only men and women but children too.  My heart was suddenly so heavy for these people.  There is NO HOPE in these statues, but only in GOD ALONE!  There were several statues of Buddha and each stood for a different thing...some more respected than others.  I felt very burdened in that moment for the people of China.  Our guide explained that they only come to Buddha when they need help with something....he's not an everyday part of their lives.  It hurt my heart to know these people don't know THE WAY!  Please pray for the people of China!
This is one of the monkeys on the mountain.  I wanted Anslee and Jonah to see it.  They would not be very still for pictures.  :)
This was the outside of the Buddhist temple.  This was the only place we were allowed to take pictures. 

Again...foggy day but the lake was very pretty!
After touring this area, we went to a Pavilion in the middle of town.  It was built over 400 years ago and is the oldest original wood building in town.  It was amazing too!  The wood beams were huge!  It was built as an area of retreat for the Emperor in the southern part of China.
After our guide brought us back to the hotel we rested a while.  We then when and ate supper at Pizza Hut.  Yes, they have Pizza Hut in China!  It is actually nicer than the ones in the US.  Our guide, Benjamin, thought is was funny that we came all the way to China to eat a KFC and Pizza Hut!  LOL!  He doesn't know Erik very well!  :) 

Today is the last day that the people of China celebrate Chinese New Year.  Today is the Lantern Festival.  There have been people all over town today with balloons and toys.  The fireworks have been going off for about an hour now.  Benjamin said that it is tradition for everyone to be with family tonight and eat dumplings and participate in the lighting of the lanterns.  Hopefully before the night is up we will get to see some lanterns!
Tomorrow is our Gotcha Day!  We are so excited and a little nervous.  Our guide told us today that we should get to meet Hannah's foster parents, which would be awesome.  We weren't sure if we would get to meet them or not.  Hopefully we will have lots of pictures to share tomorrow!!! 

We had a pretty uneventful lazy day today.  We tried to talk with family and friends this morning through skype but unfortunately couldn't hear them!  We managed.  We then went and ate a wonderful breakfast here at the hotel.  They had some western dishes like bacon, sausage, and eggs (although they were scrambled with tomatoes) and eastern dishes like fried rice and noodles.  It was really good.  We ate a lot for breakfast so we could skip lunch.  We decided to go out a little (out guide Benjamin was not with us so we didn't venture too far).  We walked around the streets close to the hotel and went in a couple of stores.  I don't think we've ever had so many people look at us...and not just look...stare.  We would just smile and keep going. We then went to KFC tonight for supper.  All of their chicken is spicy but it was good.  They had fries there that tasted like McDonald's fries so I was happy!  Tomorrow Benjamin is picking us up and taking us for some sightseeing so tomorrow will probably be more eventful.  He also told us today that on Gotcha Day (Monday) we should get Hannah around 2:00 pm China time which will be around 1:00 am at home.  That will probably be the longest morning EVER!  I will post some pics below of our day.  We miss all of you...especially Jonah and Anslee!!  We love you guys very much and think about you all the time!! 

  This is a picture of our hotel from the outside.
These are pictures taken at a park right across from our hotel.  Everything is starting to bloom here and is so pretty!  We sat here this afternoon and watched kids play.  The didn't really know what to think about us!  :)
Guiyang at night.  It's actually more lit up than this pictures shows.  It's prettier at night than during the day.
We just want to say thank to all the likes and comments!  It's very encouraging to hear from you guys!  Love y'all!!

Well everyone, we made it!!!  It seemed to take us like 3 days to get here!  We flew a total of 21 hours!!  We also had 2 four hour layovers but we are finally here!  We are staying in a nice hotel, but the city of Guiyang is not really what we expected.  I guess we expected it to be like the US where there is a "good" part of town and a "bad" part of town, but it's not really like that here.  Our nice hotel is sitting in the middle of the town and wow....well, you can look at the pictures and tell.  We are stared at a lot.  I guess they don't see many Americans.  I can't imagine how we'll be stared at when we get Hannah....and American couple with a Chinese child!  Our guide, Benjamin, met us at the airport and brought us to the hotel.  He got us all checked in and left.  We suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of "OH MY GOSH".  It was then that we realized, we're on the other side of the world...we know no one....very few people here even speak our language!!  These are times that we are reminded to totally rely on God!  Too many times in our day to day goings on we take a lot for granted and handle a lot "ourselves".  Let me tell you something though....we are totally out of control of things over here and again we go back to the fact that God called us to do this and through Him we will overcome!  We had a good breakfast this morning at the hotel and the staff was really nice.  There are a few staff members who speak limited English so we were able to communicate with them.











We are very excited about seeing Hannah!  When we came into the room today, they had the baby crib set up and it just made things seem so real!!  They moved our Gotcha Day to Monday morning so it  will be Sunday night in the US.  We're not sure exactly what time yet, but we'll try to share as soon as we know.  Please continue to pray for her heart to be open to us and to understand that we are there to make her a forever part of our family.  We just pray for a quick attachment! 

Not sure why the bedding says "wolf" but ok.....it's clean and soft!
Believe it or not...this was Erik's first meal in China.  We ate at the airport in Guangzhou.  He DID eat it!  :)
This was our meal on the airplane (China Southern).  It was pork under all those mushrooms.  It was actually pretty good.
Erik's reaction to the airline meal....he ended up eating most of it though.  He didn't touch the breakfast they gave.  Lol! 
This is what you look like after 21 hours of flying....we were still smiling though.  Yes...Erik's smiling!
This is our room.  I was standing in the widow to take this picture. Our room is smaller than what we thought.  Where you see my reflection in the glass, that's our bathroom and yes....you can see straight through into the bathroom!  Glad we're married!! LOL!

I'll post more pics later.  We plan to go into town today and do some shopping.  I'll try to take some while we're out and about.  We love all you guys and thanks for all the encouraging words!!

I'm excited to say this will be our last post from the USA.  We are all packed up and ready to go.  Erik's parents brought us up to Atlanta tonight to spend the night so we are staying close to the airport.  I am hearing the airplanes flying over now and I'm not sure if it's a good idea to hear them all night or not.  They are making me nervous!  :)  We were able to get everything packed into 2 checked bags, 2 carry ons, and 2 backpacks.  We are praying we have not forgotten anything!  :)

Tonight my heart is full of anticipation!  On one hand I am a little nervous about flying (this is not my fav) but on the other hand I think about what I'm flying for.  My sweet girl is waiting on the other side of the world and this Mama WILL get to her...whatever it takes!  I pray that Hannah's heart will be open to us and she will know that we are there to love her and take care of her.  I also pray for her foster parents whom she has been with for almost 2 years now.  I cannot imagine caring for a child that long and then just giving her to people I don't even know.  I am very thankful for what they have done to take care of her until we could get there to get her.  I pray that God will bless them!  I also think of my sweet Jonah and Anslee.  Watching them ride away this afternoon with my sister was a little hard....their sweet little hands waving all the way down the driveway.  They have both been so understanding through this whole process and I am thankful for them.  I talked with them tonight and Jonah was a little sad.  I talked with him and calmed him down and then had to have a cry myself.  Anslee sounded so grown up on the phone.  It's her nature to nurture and she will take care of her brother.  I thought she was going to be the one who had the harder time but she is being strong for her brother.  I love those two kids so much!!

Ok....I've got to stop or I'll be crying the rest of the night.  :)  I said I would post a pic of our finished product of packing.  Below is a pic of our luggage.  (Erik thinks it's a little crazy that I'm posting this pic but whatever.)  God bless...we love all of you...and look for our next post from China!!!!

We are getting ready for our big trip!  Things are coming together quickly and I feel the pressure!  :)  Not really...it's all good!  I have about 5 lists that I need to get together into 1.  It's a very exciting time around the Collins household.  We were introduced to the people we will be traveling with (introduced through email that is).  There are people from all over coming together to adopt precious children.  It's amazing to meet these people and hear their stories.  Our God is AWESOME!  He has called us to do such an AWESOME thing and He has also done the same for people all over this country!  We will get to share this stage of our journey with people we never would have met any other way.  We are looking forward to meeting all of the sweet children that meet their forever families!

We have a lot of packing to do this weekend!  Laundry first...lots of laundry!  Even though Jonah and Anslee are not going with us, I have to pack them for Grandma's.  I have been waking up early every morning for over a week now with my mind just going back through the list of things I need to get done!  Don't forget this...be sure to talk to this person about that....remember to pay this bill....and how do I possibly make my suitcase weigh less than 50 lbs?!?!  With all of this left to do, I still cannot get Hannah's sweet face out of my head!  I am SO ready to get my baby in my arms and hold her there forever!!  Erik and I are so blessed and God is adding another blessing to our lives!  We are so thankful!

I took a picture of my "stash" that I have in one corner of our bedroom.  I've been throwing things in rubbermaid containers for several weeks now just trying to keep it all together.  The other day Erik said, "you know you can't take those containers with you don't you?"  I said....I'm not THAT big of a redneck!  LOL!  Can't you see me coming up to the airport with my rubbermaid containers for suitcases?!?  :)  It would be funny.  I should have played along a little better and said,  What....I thought this would be best!  :)  Here is my stash now....I'll try to post an after pic when we get ready to go.  Happy Packing!

We confirmed our travel plans tonight!  We will be flying out of Atlanta Wednesday afternoon, February 20th and will return on March 6.  We are so very excited!  We will be flying from Atlanta to LA, LA to Guangzhou, Guangzhou to Guiyang.  We'll leave on Wednesday and arrive in China on Friday...hehe, sounds like a long trip!  :)  I am trying to get things together and am so ready to see our sweet Hannah face to face!  I would like to say a big thank you to our friends Matt and Keisha.  They have helped us tremendously throughout this entire process and have blessed us again today with sweet gifts!  I know that Hannah will LOVE her new baby that looks more like her than any doll I could find here. 
Please pray for our kids while we are gone.  Anslee especially is having a hard time with us leaving.  She is my sensitive child and loves to be with her parents.  She is very excited about having a sister but is not sure she wants us to leave and go get her.  I think she will be fine once we're gone because I know the grandparents are going to spoil her rotten! 
Thanks everyone for praying for us and for the sweet comments.  It is so encouraging to us!  We will post our China itinerary as soon as we know something...that way you can know what we're doing at all times.  :)  I can't wait to hug my little girl and have her safely with us.  It's been a long time coming!  :)  We're coming sweet girl!

Yes....finally....after ALL this time we finally got our travel approval today!  Praise the Lord!  We are now waiting on our consulate appointment date to be confirmed so that we will know exactly when we will travel.  We should know in the next day or so.  :)  We should travel later this month or possible early next month at the latest.  It seems like after having 17 months to prepare and plan that I wouldn't feel suddenly overwhelmed at this very moment!  I am super thankful that we have awesome friends who have walked with us through this entire process and are there to say, "what do you need or what can I do? and simply saying, breathe!"  :)  God has blessed us in so many
ways through this adoption process and we are thankful for the people He put in our lives to share in this journey with us!  We absolutely cannot wait to get our hands on our little girl and hold her in our arms forever!  We are praying that God prepares her heart to be open to loving us too.  Thank you all for your prayers and support and we love all of you!  We will update as soon as we know our definite travel date...stay tuned.  :)