Safe in our arms.....

Our Gotcha day started with a super yummy breakfast (previous post).  We then came back to the room and started to prepare.  We reviewed paperwork, packed a diaper bag & showered off this crazy humidity!  We then met our guide, David, and the other famlies downstairs to go over the official paperwork.

Mommies fill out paperwork....I am guessing because we have better handwriting:)

Signing our names and then had to stamp our fingerprint on each signature.

Even Wicket made an appearance to help wth some paperwork!

We then went shopping together at a local market called, Ren Ren Le- it means The Happy Place!  We needed to get some supplies for our hotel room- baby food, water, snacks, etc.

Amy, David & Brett

This store was quite interesting and had everything you could ever need!

 (photo bomb creds to Ryan Abell)

This was their "sweets" section!  Luckily nothing was in English or I might have been in big trouble:)

David convinced us to get a bag of these- Cucumber Flavored Lays.  

Surprisingly, they are very tasty!

We then came back from the store and there was this little surprise waiting for us in our room!

A crib in our room- this is getting so real!

We had a few moments to get our loot settled and then headed back out for some lunch before we went to get our kiddos.  David is amazing and took us to a great Dim Sum restaurant.  He ordered everything for us and it was so yummy!  And so cheap, it was only about $6 per person and we were so full!

it is Chinese tradition to use your first cup of hot tea to cleanse your bowl, spoon and chopsticks. So when in China...

Chinese spring roll with red rice paper

Our spread....until more came!  Again, oh so yummy!!!

And then 2:30 rolled around and it was time to go.  We all hopped on the van and headed to get our babies. It was only about a 10 minute drive.

Bus ride to get our girl!!!  Look at that excitement on his face!  Love.this.man.

(photo bomb creds to Amy Abell)

To be quite honest, there was a bit of confusion when we first walked in.  I think the combination of nerves and excitement got the best of us.  You see our friends, The Abell Family, are adopting from the same orphanage. They had the babies in a front room but would not allow us to go in. So when we walked in and peeked through the doorway we saw a little girl running around playing with the Abells son and immediatley thought that had to be her.  But I was confused......she was running?  Our last update said that she could only walk with assistance.  She had long hair?  The last picture they sent to us had her head shaved.  She looked chubbier and no birthmark.  I was confused and while Brett was video taping her, I kept saying that she looked different and he agreed.  Well turns out, it wasn't her!  

AHHHHH- I felt so silly. 

Then Amy said, oh look there is another girl back there and she looks familiar, where do I know her from.  I peeped my head in the doorway and in the back corner, there she was.  THAT was my girl!!

My first glimpse of Landry!

And her first glimpse of us!

We then had to go in a room in the back where an official checked our passports and explained what they call, the Harmonious Period.  Basically they give us 24 hours to spend with her prior to signing any more documentation.

She was not so sure.....

It was heartbreaking to watch as she got upset and you could tell she was in shock.

But then we broke out the suckers and all was right with the world:)  

Amy & her cutie son, Tyson.

We came back to the room and I fed her a bottle.  She was not so sure about Brett.  We thought it might of been his beard so while she napped, he shaved.  Farewell, Vacation Brett!

Turns out that was a great idea because now she thinks he is quite funny, as most people do!

We woke from naps, ate some dinner and played.  She really perked up and her personality came out! We skyped with Pop (Brett's dad) and the boys and then Facetime with JuJu (my mom).  She was so interested in them....it was very cute!  We were able to give her a bath, have another bottle and back to bed she went.......after I sat on the edge of the bed and rocked her for about 45 mins. (I'll call that 45 Minute Abs)  She stares at me so deep and I just love that she is already connecting with us.  She is still not so sure about Brett holding her but he can certainly play with her and make her laugh.

The feelings I have had today have been all over the board.....excitement, happiness, gitty and there have definitely been moments of fear and anxiety to be honest.  I hope to one day be able to articulate all that has been felt with pure honesty.  This is such an amazing experience and we are so fortunate to have her as our daughter.  God knew when she was formed that she would be ours! 

"Expect great things from God.  Attempt great things for God."- John Baillie

She is sound asleep now.  Brett and I both woke up about 30 mins ago and are now wide awake!

Tomorrow we will head back to the Civil Affairs office to finish our paperwork:)  Hopefully I can fall back asleep for a bit more until it is time to wake up.

xo- Kelli

It's like Christmas!!!

It's about 8 am here local time.  We were up at 6 as we just could not sleep late....too excited!  We threw some clothes on and headed down to grab some breakfast. We ran into another couple from Georgia that are adopting as well....so fun to have all of these new friends!

Also, I just figured, ehhh, we're at a hotel.....so that will mean "hotel breakfast."  Well, this was anything but your regular hotel breakfast:

A huge spread of sweets with fresh honeycomb!

Steamed Buns- yummy!!

Salad, fried rice, noodles, omelette stations, fried chicken feet (which Brett tried...blehhh...almost made him sit at another table), stir fried veggies, and more......

Cereal bar with "Frosties" & "CoCo puffs"

Awesome fresh fruit bar with fresh juices

Honeycomb with the letter M on it....they must have known that the Munkels are here!  So weird because the first pic I took of it did not have an M in it.

Donuts....not quite like American donuts but pretty good!

Brett's plate- he tends to be more adventurous with his selections (check out the 2 orange/green things....presereved eggs....blehhhh)  Where as I think it is fun to taste things that we have in America to see the difference.

Well we are counting down the hours until we see our sweet girl.  Our guide David last night was very informative about the area and has seen our children many times. He is the one that gets all of the updates, pictures, videos, etc. for us.  Two things that stuck out from our conversation last night is that this Province is very big in Sugar Cane.  For anyone that knows me, knows that I have the biggest sweet tooth ever......I think I could live on gummy bears, sweet tarts, popsicles & fruit. 

Coinsidence.......I think not.

Also, Beihai City where Landry's orphange is located, is a coastal town.  David told us that the orphanage takes the children outside the gates quite often to enjoy this city.  This is very rare as most children really do not leave the property....some have never even seen grass.  He said that Landry has actually been to the beach many times!  Again, for anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE the beach.

Coinsidence again.....I think not.

Come on 2:30!  This mama is ready for my SWEET little BEACH girl!!!!

xo-

Kelli

One more sleep!

One more sleep until we meet our precious daughter.

One more sleep until we become the Munkel family of five.

One more sleep until there is one less orphan.

Y'all the emotions that I am feeling right now are crazy.......I am just so excited to see her and my eyes fill with tears when I think about that moment.  That moment when we first lay our eyes on her.  That moment that she is safe in our arms.  That moment when she is loved and spoken for.  All in His plan.

one.more.sleep.

We are sitting at the Hong Kong airport right now getting ready to board our flight to Nanning, Guangxi.  Side note......Our plane just got struck by lightning....like right in front of our eyes.  Luckily we had not boarded yet but it delayed our arrival by about 3 hours. But we are here.  Safe.

Hong Kong has been great!  We made the best of it with the pouring rain one day and then million percent humidity on Sunday.  Here are some highights from our trip.....

Lobby of our hotel- had the most beautiful flower arrangements I had ever seen.

Touring Hong Kong in the pouring rain.......we rode a double decker hop off/ hop on bus.  The top deck of the bus was flooding with water and we kept having to pick up our feet to miss the wave!

Our veiw from Victoria's peak.......I am sure that with better weather it would have been amazing!

Lanterns in Man Mo Temple- the oldest building in Hong Kong

Incense burning in Man Mo Temple

My favorite shot of our HK adventures- we were venturing down market alley and came across this guys.....literally five minutes later we passed him again and he was up and working.

Delicious Egg Tarts from Honolulu Cafe

And yummy pineapple bread from Honolulu Cafe

The 7 eleven had every flavor of milk you could of imagined.

Delicious Spicy Beef......and man, do they mean SPICY!!!

NOT so delicious steamed bacon and fermented cabbage....I am still not sure as to WHY Brett thought this would be a good idea but will make sure to monitor his ordering in the future:)

See.....1 million percent humidty.....my hair was straight when we left the hotel!

On Sunday morning we ventured to Kowloon to have breakfast here at the Australian Dairy Co.  We had read a ton about it and supposedly it was a place to not miss.

  The line to get in was crazy but moved pretty fast because one thing we have learned in China is that if you are a party of 2, you will most likely be seated with another party of 2!  

So here we are in our sweaty goodness eating with our new friends, who pretty much ignored us.  I swear this place is like the Asian Varsity.....lots of yelling, rushing ad hovering so you eat and get the heck out!

They are famous for their scrambled eggs......I have to admit, they were pretty darn good!

And then this came.....still not really sure why.  Macaroni noodles, chicken broth and ham.....hmmmmm so weird.

We strolled throught the markets.

Saw some interesting art.

Bamboo scalfolding

The big city!

We finished up Hong Kong meeting up with our new friends, the Abell Family.  Amy and I met through our agencies FB page and quickly figured out that our kiddos are in the same orphanage.  Turns out, our paperwork processed at the same time so we are traveling together!  They are pros as this is their second adoption so I am looking forward to spending time with them and having her fill my cup of questions.

We just arrived at our hotel and are hoping to catch some zzzz's if we can get the excitement of tomorrow out of our heads.  We are meeting our guide, David, in the morning to prepare for Landry's arrival.  2:30 is our appointment time to get her!  So please pray for the Munkels tonight!  Hopefully when y'all wake up tomorrow she will be in our arms.

xoxo

Kelli

Here we GO!!!!!

Well, we just got to the airport and are having a little bit of breakfast before we board our first flight to Seattle. Then we are Hong Kong bound!  We will spend a few nights there and then fly to Guangxi Province Sunday night and then pick up our girl on Monday:)

Landry Leah, you are loved and spoken for.  You have a mommy, a daddy and 2 awesome big brothers.  You are surrounded by love.

We are so feeling the love from all of you and are overcome with the thoughtful prayers that have come our way this past 24 hours......the calls, texts and FB posts have been amazing!  I have been super anxious these past few days and a tad bit emotional but this morning I woke up ready with peace on my heart.

This has been an amazing journey and I just can't believe the time has come to grow our family.  This journey has been a true testement to God's grace and his mighty power.  We all have things that stir in our heart and they may be big scary things.  But, when we choose to be obedient to Him, there is nothing greater than the freedom that fills our hearts.  I am seriously in awe of how this has come together over the past 18 months and then people that have walked in to our lives. 

So don't bury what's stirring......trust Him.....grow in His name.  Be the change!  Be different!  Be love!

So stay tuned - this is going to be an AMAZING 2 weeks!  I am sure there will be very big ups and very big downs but all in God's plan.

Thank you all for being so supportive!  It really takes a village and we are so grateful for the gifts of you in our lives.

xo-

Kelli & Brett

LOA!!!

As most of you know, we have been going through the adoption process since January of 2014. Although we were matched with Landry in January 2015, we couldn't really confirm anything until we recieved our letter of acceptance from China.

There is always that "what if" thought that lingers through your head....

But today we can tell that thought goodbye because as of today we are  LOA!!!!!

Our Fed Ex guy was a trooper to take a selfie with me this morning!
(please excuse the no makeup & messy hair)

Official Stamp of Approval on our LOA

We immediately reviewed the documents, signed them and I was on my way to our local Fed Ex to overnight the documents back to our SW in Birmingham, AL.  From this point on we are set to travel in about 8-10 weeks.  So by end of May we should be headed to China to get our girl!!!


Last week we were also so excited to get an update from Helen that Landry had recieved part of our care package:

A toy for her, treats for the nannies & a thumb drive that they can
download pics of her for us to have.

We also mailed out a few things from us here but that will take a few more weeks to get to her:

The boys made her a bear & we made her a family photo book!

From this point on it is GO time to get ready!
Go time for more paperwork, visa applications, article 5, shopping lists for our trip, getting the boys settled & taken care of, getting her room ready and time to get packing!

Please pray for a continued smooth process over the next few weeks as we tackle some additional paperwork to get us ready to travel.

#bringhomelandryleah

xoxo- Kelli

Waiting....

Everyone that has been through the adoption process says the wait can be painful.  Like, a deep in your heart kind of pain.

Surprisingly, I have been pretty cool as a cucumber throughout this process...until today. IT HIT ME.

I am not sure why but today I woke up longing to have her here more than I ever have.  My heart hurts that she is not with us and the tears are flowing.

I am ready for her to be with us. I am ready for us to be a family of 5 all under one roof.  I want to have this face waking us up in the morning, sitting at the table with us for breakfast sneakily feeding Ellie, crawling all over and getting into everything and probably making the boys scream for destroying their latest Lego masterpiece.  I want that and I want it now.  I want her home. 

Right now we are waiting to receive our LOA (Letter of Approval) and once that is recieved we are about 2+ months out from traveling. I happened to get on our agency's FB group page today and saw that a few other families that had the same LID as us recieved LOA on Friday. So I know that I am just stewing in my "pity-full-ness" today of  "Why didn't WE get LOA yet?" 

(insert foot stomp and pouting lip).

What part of His plan am I not trusting?  I should just be at peace with where He is leading us but my flesh is driven by a bit of anxiety today that they are about to close for a week for Chinese New Year and that will put us at a delay even more!  Does He not know that???  Ha!

Funny enough, I have this verse on a post it note on my bathroom wall and read it every morning:

Don't worry about anything; 

instead, pray about everything. 

Tell God what you need, 

and thank him for all he has done. 

(Phil 4:6)

Well, today I need to SOAK in this verse and perhaps put the post it note on me to wear throughout the day!  I need to stop filling myself with worry about His timeline and convert all of that worthless energy into obedience-filled-absolutely-positively-trusting Him.  

So, if you will, please join me in prayer for 3 lil' letters......LOA.

xo-

Kelli

Introducing Landry Leah Munkel!

Here she is...

We recieved her file on 1/8 while at Chik-Fil-A with the boys.....luckily it was Alpharetta Elementary Night.  So while the kids were busy playing and getting tattoos (fake, of course) we were "those" parents sitting at the table with our heads buried in our cell phones reading through pages and pages of her file. We both new instantly that this was our Landry Leah and both had tears in our eyes!  

The Chik-Fil-A manager walked by and was like....

"Are you guys texting each other?"  

We were like, "No, we just found our daughter!!!!"  

(So technically the CFA manager was the first to know, sorry mom and dad!)

On Friday 1/9 we had to be in Peachtree City for adoption training, so it was a whirlwind morning to get her file over to Brett's mom (retired nurse) and our pediatrician for review.  We waited and prayed all weekend!  On Monday morning our pediatrician called us (on her day off) and reviewed the file with me.  Nothing came back alarming and we really didn't have many questions. We already knew she was ours!

On Monday afternoon we worked to get our paperwork back to our social worker so that our Letter of Intent could be sent to China.  It was sent on Tuesday 1/13 afternoon but we weren't able to share until we had PA (pre-approval) back from China.  Confession.....maybe we shared a little...I just couldn't stand it!

We have been busting at the seams since then with this secret so sorry to those of you who I lied to last week!  But ask away because today...

We got PA!!!!

She is about 16 months old right now and is the Province of Guangxi.  We still have a few months before we can actually travel to her and bring her home so please pray that the process works smoothly from here on out and that all paperwork is processed quickly.  Please pray for her that she remains safe and healthy.  Pray for our hearts as they now ache here wanting to be with her right this moment.  Pray for patience.

Also please pray for her birth mother.  Pray that God will put peace in her heart and that she will have a sense of comfort to know now that her child is safe and loved.

Oh, SO VERY LOVED!!!!

xo-
Kelli