Introducing Ling Xu Liu- Our Kate

(First two pictures are referral pictures, the rest are a few of the many updated pictures we have from Philip Hayden. The last one is our newest- taken last week!)

Now that we have LOA (I'll get to the story momentarily) I guess I can "officially" introduce our Kate. I know most readers know most of this stuff already, but there are a few "new" details that I can finally share!

Her Chinese name is Ling Xu Liu (Ling is her surname, Xu means sunrise, Liu means willow) Her American name will be Katherine MeiLing.

She is 18 months old (DOB 3/6/07)

She was found at 2 months old and brought to Shangrao Children's Welfare Center in Jiangxi. She lived there for another two months and then she was brought to Philip Hayden in Tianjin (where she is now-- known as Shia.)

Now for the LOA story...

The call came at 1:55, when I was obviously at school. I would've been in the very end of Bible class. Shortly after Bible ended, I went to history and emailed my mom to tell her that I would be a little late because I was going to the beta club meeting. (We use laptops at school and gmail is one of the few sites that isn't blocked.) About 25 minutes before class ended (3) I checked my email to see if Mom had emailed me back to tell me where she was going to pick me up. She had not mentioned that, but I did see a new message from her and next to it were the words, "Em~ IT CAME!!!!!! I JUST got the call!" Of course, I started hypervenalating. And I couldn't make it too obvious. My teacher probably would've thought I was playing a game or something. He was probably wondering why I was smiling so big. I honestly do not know how I made it through those last 25 minutes. Everything he said completely left my mind. Indentured servants, indigo? Who cares, WE GOT OUR LOA!!!!! I thought it would never come. I am still in shock. FINALLY... it's here!

So that's my side of the story. For Mom, it was (obviously) different. At 1:55, the phone rang. It was AWAA's number, but Mom had called Melissa on Thursday, so she thought maybe she was just returning Mom's call. I think Mom had lost all hope when not Melissa, but Amy (another FC) said, "Hi Pam, it's Amy. Melissa had really wanted to call you, but she's not in." Then she said it... "But I just wanted to let you know that we have your LOA!" I'm guessing there was a whole lot of screaming at that point! :)

IT CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We celebrated with Pei Wei. I have some pictures from our dinner, but they will have to wait. Right now, I just can't say it enough. OUR LOA CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Praise God from who all blessings flow!

Now I have loads of homework! Of all days! How am I supposed to concentrate when we just got LOA?!?!?!

Anyway... So what now? We should receive TA anywhere from 2-4 weeks. After that, we can start making our travel plans!!! Amy said to plan on traveling mid to late October. I'm hoping for mid (remember, our visas expire on the 22nd, so we have to be IN China by then!!) So, we are praying we will have our TA sometime in the month of September/early October!

So it looks like we will be traveling to China in October!!! I've heard China is gorgeous in October...