T.A. T.A. YAH! T.A.

Yesterday we finally received our Travel Approval (T.A.)! We are so excited! Next week we will get our itinerary and we hope to leave on March 11....only 11 days away! If we are able to leave on the 11th as planned, here's what our itinerary would look like:

Day 1 (3/11) Depart to Beijing
Day 2 (3/12) Arrive in Beijing. Settle into our group hotel
Day 3 (3/13) Tour Beijing on our own
Day 4 (3/14) Tour Beijing on our own and meet other families in our travel group as they arrive.
Day 5 (3/15) Beijing Cultural Tour: The Great Wall, Tian'an Men Square, and the Forbidden City.
Day 6 (3/16) Travel to Mason-Kate's province (Dianjiang) for "Gotcha Day". Mason-Kate will meet us at our hotel after we arrive!!!
Days 7-11 (3/17 - 3/21) Bonding with Mason Kate, sightseeing, and all of the official paperwork.
Day 12 (3/22) Travel from Dianjiang to Guangzhou.
Day 13 (3/23) Mason-Kate will have her medical exam.
Day 14 (3/24) Consulate Appointment.
Day 15 (3/25) Tour Guangzhou and pick up Mason-Kate's exit visa in the afternoon.
Day 16 (3/26) Morning departure from Guangzhou back to the USA!!!!

For now, we are unpacking what has been packed for weeks because the weather has changed....and we are updating our house with the color pink....we never knew there were so many shades of pink! The boys have enjoyed telling everyone that we are leaving in less than two weeks (probably). We enjoyed a fabulous baby shower given in Mason-Kate's honor last night....we have some really great friends! In an attempt to have Pryce at least try Chinese food, we are going to celebrate at a Japanese steakhouse (long story, but he won't know the difference). Thank you all for your prayers and we hope that you will enjoy following our journey to MK.....it sure has been a long time coming!

BRC&P

Pink, Pink, and More Pink

We just wanted to show you a few pictures of Mason-Kate's room. After several weeks of hard work (and a lot of pink paint), we finally finished the project. Special thanks goes out to Richard Worth who added the finishing touches! It has definitely been an adjustment for the boys with all of the "girly" decor. They're definitely not used to it!

R & B

The Stork Has Arrived!!!!

Well, not exactly the stork that you had in mind, but on January 22nd (Ryan's birthday), the Fed Ex man delivered our letter of confirmation from China. This letter states that China officially recognizes us as the parents-to-be of Mason-Kate! Now all we have to do is wait on the travel authorization and we can set our travel plans.



Here's our "stork"!

R & B

Here she is!

We are all proud to announce the referral of our daughter and sister, Mason-Kate. Yesterday we received a call from our agency stating that we had received our Letter of Confirmation. This is a document from China stating that the Chinese government recognizes us as Xue Mei's family.

The family celebrated by going out for Italian at The Garlic Clove (thanks for the wonderful dessert Jeff!) and then we all went to Build-A-Bear. The boys proceeded to build two football player bears and have been playing their version of the Super Bowl all night.....go PATS! Then we all picked out a bear for Mason-Kate, had it lightly fluffed and stuffed with four hearts, one for each member of her forever family! We are thrilled! We hope to travel sometime in March.

Chinese Name: Xue Mei

Date of Birth: January 15, 2007

Referral Date: December 7, 2007

She is described as an extrovert, active and can be a little impatient at times.....sounds like she will fit in just fine!

Thank you all for your support and prayers! This is such an exciting time for us all!

B, R, and boys

Hello Everyone!

Hi everybody! Welcome to our site. We're just getting started, so bear with us. Pretty soon we will have updates on Mason-Kate and our upcoming trip to China! So come back and visit when you can.

B & R