Meet Landon! Gotcha Day-present

It took a couple days for us to settle down and fiddle with the VPN enough to update the blog.
First and foremost, thank God for what we have experienced over the past 2-3 days. As you all know, we fell in love with this little guy through pictures a few months ago, but nothing could have prepared us for the feelings of love and joy we have experienced in such a short time. Words can not express.
Landon was at the pickup location when we arrived and we walked in to him standing there waiting for us. He has had an exceptionally easy time (compared to what we feared). There were a few tears on his part (tons on our part-lol) and other than obvious fear for all the newness of the surroundings he was doing well enough to eat and sleep through the night on the first night!
He is about where we expected him to be developmentally and other than being 21.5 pounds we could not be more pleased with his appearance and health. He is a champion eater. We snipped a larger hole in the nuk bottle and he downs 8oz in no time! This little guy is a fighter and trooper!
He has even been super easy to travel with over the past two days of acquiring applications, etc. from various government offices. Today we traveled to Zhoukhou (his home city) to apply for his passport. The drive was 2 1/2 hours each way! He was a live wire on the first leg of the trip but slept almost the whole way back.
Now that we have the VPN working I will try to post again soon.
Continue praying for our travel. We all need to stay healthy and survive three more plane rides, one of which is almost 13 hours!!!
God has big plans for this little man!
We love you,
Danl, Dedra, and Landon  

Beijing Bound

I am thinking about hiring out baggage packing services. Each of our bags met the weight limit! One bag was 50 lbs exactly and the second was a meager 49 lbs. First miracle of the trip! Lol!

Travel is happening tomorrow! Landon, we are on our way!

Travel to China in two weeks!!! Landon, here we come!

Our Adoption Journey Continues:
4/4/14- Soft LOA (Letter of Acceptance)
4/7/14-Hard LOA (Letter of Acceptance)
4/12/14- 1st Care Package sent
4/12/14- CCAI's fees 3rd prog fee and post adoption fee and BLAS
4/15/14- Fees received at CCAI
5/6/14- Visa pick up and mailed to us
4/28/14- I800 approval
4/24/14- 2nd Care Package sent
5/19/14-Article 5 pickup
6/3/14- Travel Approval
6/4/14- Consulate Appointment Confirmation
6/20/14- Fly to Beijing
6/22/14- Fly to Zhengzhou
6/23/14- Meet Landon Brennan Qianli Hall

LANDON!!!

Hold on, to me as we go 

As we roll down this unfamiliar road 

And although this wave is stringing us along 

Just know you're not alone 

Cause I'm going to make this place your home....

Our journey started many years ago and through years of wishing, dreaming, and praying Danl and I have decided to being the adoption process.

Time line:
May 8, 2013 MCC
Scanned and mailed paperwork Thursday, May 16 to CCAI
Friday, May 17, 2013 approved by CCAI and downloaded home study packet from Harmony.
Sunday, May 19 typed all day!
Monday, May 20 returned paperwork to CCAI
Wednesday, May 22 got username and password for CCAI website
Friday, May 23 birth certificates, etc. arrived via UPS. Danl spent the evening writing his bio.
Saturday, May 24 Danl spent half the day sorting and organizing paperwork. He put everything in a binder and shipped it off to Harmony!
9/25/13 Danl, Dedra, and Chloe' travel to get fingerprints in Nashville
10/1/13 government shutdown (seriously!)
10/31/13 1800A approved
11/5/13 received I800A in mail
11/6/13 Danl took documents to Frankfort to get KY Secretary of State certified
11/7/13 Everything is notarized and taken to the county clerk!
11/8/13 Dedra and Chloe' headed to Nashville to get Secretary of State certified
11/9/13 Fedex to Caring Hands
12/27/13 DTC
1/3/14 LID
1/29/14 emailed CCAI to review the file of a beautiful baby boy. Received file within a couple hours!!! We think he is perfect!
1/30/14 Spent the entire day on the computer and in communication with Kristen (official adoption advisor) to submit file for a doctor review recommendation.
1/31/14 Doctor advised to ask for update.
1/31/14-2-/7/14 Chinese New Year (seriously!)
2/11/14- Could not wait one more second! Called to claim our boy and received update (photo and 2 videos!!!) and within 4 minutes (yes, that says 4 minutes!).
2/11/14- submitted LOI

Tons of happenings....

First blog post in two years! What could make a person wait so long? Laziness? Procrastination? It's called...I have a J-O-B that keeps me crazy busy. English teachers grade too many papers...

But I am posting to share good news. 36 months after putting our house in Kentucky on the market and it is SOLD! What's next? Who knows?

I completed my three year evaluations this week! Tenure anyone? Yes. Thank you. Have I been teaching in Tennessee for three years already? Where does the time go?

Baby Cole is due and our family is over-the-moon awaiting this next event. Big brother Nolan is the light of our lives and I can only imagine the joy of nephew x 2!

The school year is starting soon and...

I got a job!

God blessed and on Monday, July 14, I got the call. I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade English at Karns High School.

If you ever question how God works, here is proof that He is looking out for us and has a hand in our move to Knoxville. Our townhome, which we leased in June, is located less than 5 minutes from the school. Of all the high schools in Knoxville we could not have leased a home in a better neighborhood any closer to Karns High School! I wouldn't have believed it if it hadn't happened right before my eyes.

I will post pics of my classroom as soon as I get it finished!