It's really here...

The bags are packed (mostly), the flights are re-confirmed, the dogs are off to the kennel in the am, the housesitter is set up... Are we ready? It's been just over 13 months since we sent our application in, just over 14 months since Lillie-Kat was born. For the last year, we have hoped, dreamed, waited, and waited some more. We are ready. Is she? I don't know. Soon she will be torn from all that she knows. Soon she will learn about her new mama and baba. While this brings me incredible joy, it also brings me incredible sadness. For her birth mother and father, for her foster mom who has cared for her for almost a year, for her beloved country, which loses a baby girl who will surely be a shining star. I have said before that I have trouble with "God-speak." I go to China not to rescue a child, but to get my daughter. I believe it was meant to be, and that we would not be drawn down this path without a purpose. There have been too many signs along the way, some subtle, some that rose ahead of me like beacons in the night. I learned a long time ago not to ignore my instincts, and my instincts take us to China, and to this special little girl. I am starting to wonder if my "instincts" have a name, but that is a post for another day. It is here. Someone told me that everyone will tell us our lives will change forever. She said to tell them "that's the point." Get ready, baby girl. All our lives are going to change forever. And that's exactly the point.