After the question, "How is it going?" the most frequent question we answer is, "What are you doing while you wait?" I think the easiest way to picture this is to think of what any other first time parent would be doing. One of my friends told me this week that she is "nesting" during this phase of her adoption. She said she is cleaning things out, throwing things away and just getting ready. I'm not sure I am actually nesting but we are definitely preparing.
Brooke's room is ready for her with very few exceptions. I do have to empty the toy box in her room. It has been my photo album storage for awhile. I'm looking for one more picture for on the wall yet too.
If you walked into Brooke's room today, you would see that it has become our packing zone. If we need to take it along and aren't using it right now, it is in there. It seems like we add to the contents for the trip daily. We are very limited on the weight of the things we can take. Our international flights will be fairly generous on how much we can take, but we will be flying between cities in China and can only have one 44 lb suitcase each on these flights. Even carry-ons are limited in weight but in most cases they are not weighed. We will pack as lightly as we can knowing that getting laundry done in China is quite easy and we want room to bring back some things from China. We do need to take a wide variety of extras along that aren't easily available in China. Western medications can be very hard to find so we taking medications for everything from pain to colds to stomach issues for both us and Brooke. We are even taking Fabreeze along as smoking is extremely common in China and non-smoking rooms do not exist. My allergies will not be happy with that!
I went to Goodwill on Saturday to drop off a box and came home with a whole bag of clothes for Brooke. I was so excited as they were really some nice items and at a great price. She is set for winter now and we will have fun shopping together for summer clothes once she is home.
In addition to the preparations you can see if you are at our house, there are countless details we are working on. Today we stopped and got additional passport photos taken that we will need in China. Dennis has been working on some of the electronics we will need like a VPN so we can post here while we are gone. We have also been organizing and gathering up the paperwork we will need to take with us. We've done some investigating of possible flights for the trip too and from China. And this past week we spent 3.5 hours in a phone conference with our agency going over many different details regarding our time in China.
We are hoping to be in China by the end of February. Please continue to prayer for:
1. Brooke's adjustments in the weeks ahead. She will leave her foster family and have a total change in language and culture as well.
2. Pray for us as we prepare for the trip and for our new roll as parents.
3. Pray for our health as we travel.
4. Pray for God's supply of the finances needed for this stage of the adoption.
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