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.  :)

Purple, Purple, Purple!  Can you tell that's Anslee's favorite color?!?  The girls will be sharing a room (at least initially) so we let Anslee lead the way with the decorating.  She wanted her walls purple, so that's exactly what Daddy did!!  He worked very hard painting the walls, trim, and the new bed. Thanks Daddy!  It's not completely finished, but it's as finished as it will be for now.  We can't wait to bring our Hannah home so she and her sister can share this newly decorated room!  Here are some pictures:

Another step in the right direction today.  We received the news that our Article 5 has reached the CCWA!  Next.....travel approval!!!!  We've been waiting to get to this point for so long and it almost seems unreal and a little overwhelming!  We're very thankful that we have had friends recently travel to China and more friends who are currently in China!  We know they'll be able to help us out with what we need to do.  We are also praying that we get to travel with some new found friends, the McDuffie's.  Erik has been working on the girls room.  He has painted walls, trim, doors, hung things on the wall, and put the baby bed together. I'll post pictures soon.  We are getting things ready for our newest little girl!  We so thankful for Jonah, Anslee, and Hannah and cannot wait to have them all together under one roof!  God has blessed us so much and we are thankful to Him!!

"No one is holy like the Lord,
for there is none besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God."
1 Samuel 2:2

Good news!!  We got some awesome updates today!  Hannah will be 2 years old in March and we weren't sure if she was even walking.  We know now that she is!!!  She is walking everywhere!!!  It was so sweet to see her walking around the orphanage today.  She has the sweetest little face and chubby cheeks.  I can't wait to swoop her up in my arms and kiss, kiss, kiss her!  She is pretty small though.  I had been saving Anslee's clothes from about 12 months thinking she would not need clothes that small, but according to her measurements, she would be wearing 9-12 month clothes!  Wow!  I have got to dig back through my stuff to see what I've got that size if anything.  :)  We are so excited to be close to bringing our sweet girl home!  We love her already in a way that is hard to explain.  God has put a love for her in our hearts and we are honored to be chosen by God to be her parents! 

On Saturday, December 29 we got our 800 Approval!!  Yea....one step closer to bringing Hannah home!  This has been a VERY long process for us and at every turn it seems to get slower.  We seem to be delayed by one thing after another, but, we know our God is in control!  We have prayed through this whole process that we will be submissive to Him and His timing.  After all, He is the One who called us to this process.  We are only His vessels.  Now, I'm not going to say that is has not been hard to wait...but....we are learning to trust God more and more with each step.  Whenever I get discouraged, I look at my sweet Hannah's picture and KNOW that she is our daughter!  I know that no matter the timing, she will still come home and be a part of our family for the rest of her life!  Thank you God for calling us to be a part of this awesome adventure!  It's truly humbling!


This is the most updated picture of our sweet "Hannah Grace".  I can't wait to hold her in my arms and kiss her sweet chubby cheeks!  :)  Oh how my heart is being tugged to China!!