So Close!

My mind is full of so many things that it is hard to even begin this post.  We are so close to traveling to bring our two sweethearts home to our forever family.  SO CLOSE! 

Right now we are waiting for a piece of paperwork to be dropped off (we think tomorrow).  Then we will wait for two more steps (JUST TWO!!!):
1.  Travel approval from China
 and
2.  an appointment at the consulate.

That's it y'all!  That's it!  Then we can travel to China to meet these two precious boys!

As we wait to schedule travel we have a few prayer requests that we'd love to share with you. 

Nathanael:  Please pray for Nathanael as he will be without MomMom and Daddy for the longest he's ever been away from us.  Please pray for our plan for a family member to stay with Nathanael while we are gone.  Our plans A and B have both fallen through.  We want this transition to be as easy as possible on him!

Gideon:  He has a very difficult time with strangers.  He becomes extremely anxious.  Please pray that his orphanage staff will have shown him the photo book we sent.  Please pray that God will work supernaturally to calm Gideon when we meet him for the first time....because we will essentially be strangers to him.

Josiah:  Please pray that Josiah's transition is easy especially with sleep.  Our last update indicated that he takes a very long time to go to sleep and can be very stubborn about it.  Jet lag and all the travel we have to do within China could make this worse.  Please pray that God prepares him to sleep well and to adjust to his new family well.

Brian and I:  Please pray for safe travels.  We will be doing a LOT of it next month.  Will you pray that our connections are smooth and uneventful? (This is the MOST stressful part of traveling for me!)  Will you pray that we handle our boys' grief with grace and patience?  We've waiting so long to call them our sons, but they will likely be afraid and grieving.  They won't know who we are or that we love them dearly.

Finances:  We still have a large financial need.  We know that God can and will provide.  We are holding on to that faith.  He's such an amazing God and has provided just what we needed when we needed it.  He's used many of your prayers and gifts to accomplish this and we are so thankful.