We received UPDATES!!!!

We just received some updated information about our little Graycn. We have 2 new pictures!!! Oh, she is so beautiful!!!! Wade and I are just in awe that God has made her just for us! :) WOW!!!! How blessed we are!! The kids are so excited and counting down the days - even though we don't have any "specific" dates, yet. We received news today that our Visa's are in the process of review and that we should receive our passports back sometime on Tues! Yee-haw.......I think that is the end our our "mailing" of paperwork! The next paperwork project is to ensure that we have all the necessary documents and copies required - not going to be too "convenient" to just "turn around" and get anything we have "forgotten" :) ha!

China is starting their New Years celebration today - Happy New Year, Chen Yan Xiu!!!!!!! It sounds like the governmental offices could be closed until the end of the celebration (2/28). We are not sure how much progress will be made in regards to our consulate appointment in Guangzhou. We are praying that they got a lot of work done before the holidays, so all they will need to do is "contact" our agencies when the holiday is over! :) :)

~Keep praying!! We are thoroughly enjoying this part of the wait - how fun it is to have a little face to pray for!!!!! ;) :) :)

Visas and Parties

This week has been busy with getting our visa applications mailed- mailed with prayers to be delivered by Tues am. We mailed them to San Francisco where a courier will hand deliver them to the Chinese Embassy in California. They will then return to the embassy, pick them up when they have been completed and express mail them back to us! We need to have these documents in order for us to enter China. After the visas are complete, we then wait for an "invitation" to travel. Along with this invitation will be our date of departure, itinerary, and our "gotcha" date!!!!! EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! We are sooooo enjoying this "birthing" process!

This week, we also had a HUGE celebration in the Godshall family - Haydn (our little "Boo") turned 6! On Wednesday, he had his first "in school" party with homemade cupcakes and sprinkles. Later that night, he and Blayne were able to participate in an awards ceremony for karate. Both the boys moved up from white belts to yellow belts! They are so cute practicing together in the house. Blayne does a great job of explaining and ensuring proper positioning when teaching/supporting Haydn. We topped off the "celebrating" with a delicious peppermint/chocolate blizzard from DQ! (Yum!!!!)

Tonight, was the "official" b-day party! Balloons, snow, pizza, coloring books, pasta, cousins, more pizza, pop, dessert pizza, cinnamon rolls and a little salad - now that sounds like a party to me! Thanks, Pizza Street!!!

We are so looking forward to a long weekend! The kiddos have big plans for just "hang'in" (our favorite past time!)

Thanks so much for your comments, words of encouragement and prayers! We are so grateful to share this with you!

Have a great weekend! :)

Making some progress ~

This week has been so full of "new" things. Wade and I started out the week with downloading our Travel Packet II and getting back into the swing of the old "paper chase" :) We found ourselves on our knees praying, signing papers, getting them notarized, faxing, withdrawing $ from the bank, praying some more, shopping for care package goodies, emailing responses, phone calling for confirmation before mailing, mailing, praying, researching, meeting fellow travelers, 1 hour phone conferencing, praying and most of all - giggling all the way around town!

We are soooooo excited and can't believe it is finally here! Blayne, Paytn and Haydn are showing their Graycn's pictures to everyone who will pay attention :) She is so loved! Today after school, we were driving and talking about all the specific things we have individually been praying for in regards to her over these last 37+ months. It was so cute to hear each of them rattle off such details - everything from hugged and kissed to full and happy to fun and gentle to feisty and sparkly! I shared with them some of Daddy and Mommy's prayers for her: that she would be sensitive to others, a bright light in a room, someone that makes others smile and feel comfortable, a gentle leader, confident, humble, know how to love and receive love - giggle from the bottom of her toes - our prayer is that she fully enjoys the life that God has given to her and that everyone around her finds her joy contagious! The kids were so cute and quiet - I looked in the mirror at the 3 of them and Blayne's eyes were sparkling. I winked at him and said "God has gathered together all of those little details and wrapped them up with a beautiful bow that is labeled "Graycn" - He has been listening to each of us, and has perfectly built her for our family and while He was doing that in her life, He has been doing this same process in each of our lives!"

Love to each of you - please pray that our package makes it to Graycn and that the nannies are willing to take pictures of her first home. We probably will not be able to visit her orphanage, so it would be nice to have these photos for her when she grows up.

We finally have a blog set up to share our "journey" with you!

Special greetings to so many of you! We have such exciting news to share! Our long wait is almost over! We should probably start with a quick clarification of the name you see as the title of our family's blog. We have decided to change Loghyn's name to something that represents the past 37 months of our life - "GRACE" - a sweet definition I recently read states "Grace is favor received from God." Our hearts smile at the numerous moments of "grace" we have individually experienced throughout this wait. Wade and I have watched our children truly "grow in the grace of God." Not many can say that at the age of 10, 8 and almost 6.

As many of you know, when we started this journey, we had only $48.00 in our savings account, had just put our first child in a local Christian school, had only one income with no chance of financial growth and yet God was calling us to do something so great- but humanly impossible! In July of 2005, we felt such a pull at our hearts for adoption. We had no idea where it would lead us. We signed our adoption papers on November 19, 2005 and buckled our seat belts for the ride of a lifetime!

We hope you will enjoy hearing about the path we have traveled so far, and we will try to update you on the things to come!

We need your prayers - although the "wait" has been a slow process, we have a lot to do before we leave for China in 4-6 weeks! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

Love to each of you!
The Godshall Family