Praise the Lord!

Blake and Grant arrived safely in Hohhot, and I was able to Skype with them late last night…..

…and then again already this morning!

When they answered my call this morning, they had visitors!!

The Samuels family!!!!

What an encouragement to my heart to see them and to be able to visit with them over Skype!

The guys will be meeting their guide at 10:30 p.m. our time tonight in the lobby of their hotel and Tate will be brought to them there!!

We are clear excited!

We also learned that they will not be able to visit Tate’s orphanage like we hoped.

I am thankful we do have some photos from other families who have been there.

Tate is just going to sleep for the last time in the orphanage. In the morning he will have a long ride to get to Hohhot.

I am allowing myself a lot of grace with my emotions today…..cause they are all over the place!

Please continue to pray with us!

Tate Owen, we can’t wait to meet you!!!

Here is our handsome Team Tate!!

All ready to go!

But first we had to say goodbye.

Goodbyes are never easy. Blake and I are not good at being apart.

After our goodbyes, I got the kiddos busy right away. We had popcorn and smoothies while watching a movie Kayla picked up at the library for us!

After that, we headed out for a walk!

Then it was time for some games! Eliza loves Sorry!

Before bed we all got on the speaker phone with Blake.

We kept busy today as well, with cleaning day, getting grocery, and mowing the farm.

We also have been watching the guys plane head across the world!

The guys made it safely to Minneapolis last night, had a quick nights sleep, and headed to the airport before dawn to check in for their first flight.

While they were checking in, a supervisor was called over about all the extra luggage with the donations for the Samuel’s family. We are praising the Lord that after Blake explained what the luggage was for, the supervisor allowed the guys to check it ALL, and for FREE!!!

When Blake and Grant landed in Los Angeles, their luggage claim receipts had to be scanned again as they checked into their next flight, even though they would not be collecting their luggage. There were questions about the large amount of suitcases again, a supervisor was called again, Blake explained it all again, and again it was allowed to ALL be checked for FREE!

Not only that, this supervisor checked it all the way through to Hohhot!! The guys don’t even have to claim their luggage while they sleep in Guangzhou Saturday night! Praise, praise!!

We are hoping that we can Skype with the guys when we wake up tomorrow morning, as they will have just arrived in Guangzhou.

You all, I have such an incredible peace about me right now.

I know it is because of the prayers so many are saying on our behalf.

The Lord confirmed how important it is for me to be at home right now, as Eliza has been terrified to be put to bed the last two nights.

She likes all of her people where they are supposed to be. Seeing her like this is breaking my heart. Please pray for our sweet girl.

I cannot thank you enough for the support you are giving us right now!

Thank you for all the comments, texts, e-mails, and phone calls!

Keep praying with us!

Today is the day!!!

Blake and Grant are heading to China!!!

Their travel will be long……a total of 51 hours and two overnight stays.

The guys will be in Hohhot, China, on Sunday morning at 10 a.m! (which is Saturday night at 9 p.m. our time here in Wisconsin!)

(*Thanks for this great photo and your prayers, dear friends!)

We are keeping our focus on Mr. Tate!!!

We have SO much love for you, our sweet baby boy!!!

We are so very thankful that our agency secured a guide for the guys overnight stay in Guangzhou Saturday night!

The guide will pick the guys up at the airport, get them to their hotel, and get them back to the airport on Sunday morning. What peace that gives us!

About one hour after the guide was secured yesterday, we received a card in the mail with the EXACT amount of cash we need to be able to pay that guide!

What an encouragement to our hearts!!!

What precious brothers and sisters in Christ we have!!

Don’t you love how the Lord works that way??!!!

We finished packing the suitcases this morning already.

We had a little helper….who wanted to sample every bit of food that was being packed!

A sucker seemed to work instead!

I have lots of little things packed to keep Tate’s hands busy! Hopefully he will enjoy them! He will have his own little backpack to carry on the plane home.

We sent Shaggy the bear too!

Our paperwork packets that need to be hand carried arrived by Fed Ex just as they were supposed to!

Praise the Lord!

We feel organized and ready for the guys departure. Thankfully, being organized is giving us a sense of peace!

And now for your part in our journey!! Our prayer requests!! New ones have been added!

Please pray with us!!

*For Tate, who may not know that we are coming for him

*For adding Tate to our medical insurance to be approved asap so we can start the referral process that will allow Tate the care he needs at UW Madison upon arriving home

Thank you all for your prayers!

This new journey is about to begin! The guys will pull away from the farm to drive to Minneapolis early this evening.

It is our prayer that they will be able to see the blog. So please leave comments if you feel led! It will be such an encouragement to them!

Our wait is almost over!