Family of five, ready to become family of six!!!!

Well.........We are frantically getting ready to go to China to pick up our new daughter! Between getting ourselves packed, and packing for three children who will be at their grandparent's for two weeks, one can easily get a little STRESSED! But, it is so well worth it!!!!

Please pray that the kids adjust to life without mom and dad for a couple weeks. Who am I kidding? They are going to have a BLAST! Please pray for mom and dad, as they will miss their 3 children at home in Ohio. Pray for the grandparents, too, as they are not used to 3 little ones all day, every day!!!!

Please pray that we have safe and non-complicated travels to China and back. Also, please pray for Ava (Xiao E), as she will have her life turned upside-down for a time!

We will try our best to post to our blog in China, but if we have trouble, we will try to send out some mass emails to let you know how things are coming. We will probably not be able to view our blog in China, so if you want to respond, you may email us at wetzel_paul@earthlink.net.

We leave early Friday (Feb. 3) and return Feb. 16 in the evening. We will be in Changsha, Hunan from Feb. 4-Feb. 12 and in Guangzhou, Guandong from Feb. 12-Feb. 16. We should be meeting Ava on the morning of Feb. 6 (which will be during the night of Feb. 5 for you all).

Thanks for your prayers!!!!!!

We leave Feb. 3!!!!!!!!

We have our travel arrangements and itinerary. We leave from Columbus on Feb. 3 EARLY!!!!!!!!!! WE will fly to Chicago, on to Beijing, and then into Changsha. We will arrive late Feb. 4. Looks like we will meet our new daughter on Feb. 6 in the morning at Civil Affairs! We can't wait!!!!! We spend the week in Changsha and then fly to Guangzhou on Feb. 12. This is where the U.S. Consulate is. We love Guangzhou. Shaiman Island is so relaxing compared to the rest of the trip. We will start our journey home on Feb. 16 EARLY, and we will arrive back in Columbus the evening of Feb. 16. Wow!!!! What a long day (that is really 2 days)!!:) We are currently waiting for our visas. We are starting the chore of packing, and repacking, and packing again! We also have to get the kids ready to spend 2 weeks at Grandma and Grandpa Rohm's house, so we have plenty to keep us busy until Feb. 3. Thank you for remembering us!

We got our travel approval!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are rejoicing that today we got the call from our agency that they received our travel approval. Our dossier made it through the red tape and has been approved. They are inviting us to go pick up our daughter!!!!!! Because of Chinese New Year, our agency is trying their hardest to get us there as soon as things begin to re-open! We will probably know our exact plans tomorrow or Wed. It looks like we will leave around Feb. 5 and have our last appointment on Feb. 14. Then we can begin our journey home!!!!!!!

We are beyond excited! We have MUCH to prepare. Not only is it a big ordeal to get our stuff together to go, but it is a HUGE ordeal to pack up our children's things for 2 weeks, as they will be spending their time at mamaw and papaw's house!!!!

Please continue to pray that things go as smoothly as possible. We will try to continue our posts from China, although there are never any guarantees that it will work!!! :)