Hello! Well to quote another family friend as they prepared to travel to China….here we go again! What a joy it is to have the opportunity to bring an orphaned special needs little girl home, to give her love and hope.

Some things never change - the paper work is incredible.
As we methodically organize and prioritize our packing list to China

As each day passes, we have a laundry list of things that we need your prayers on…

Safety and good health for the whole family - including Hadassah.
… that we do not get exposed to the H1-N1 (Swine-Flu) in our travels (especially on the international flights)
… for Noah and Hannah who are staying with friends back in St. Louis.
… that Hadassah will test negative for TB
… the two families Noah and Hannah will be staying with while we are away (for their health and comfort etc...)

Safety and attention to detail on ALL our documents

Making the scheduled flights and clearing customs (INS)

The ability to communicate with Hadassah (Wang Yue Su)

Official travel dates for purchasing tickets

Packing, packing, packing!!!

And last but not least - our airline tickets…it seems prices have skyrocketed since we last traveled back in spring of 2005. At that time we were offered an adoption fare that made travel reasonable. Currently those airlines that do offer adoption fares are cost prohibitive (they are like 4X the cost). As it stands it will be better to purchase restricted tickets and just pay for any changes. However, if someone who was so moved and willing to use their American Airlines (AA) rewards miles (it seems initially that AA has the better flights/price) to help us out and just in case you're wondering...it would take 70,000 for a RT ticket - that would totally unbelievable.

We are so blessed as we start off once more on a journey of a lifetime.