Bao Bao

A week from tomorrow, Lord willing, we leave for Beijing

to add this little guy to our family.

He looks up to the challenge, don't you think?

Life will change completely for him.

New: language, food, family, culture, school, smells, 

even a new name,

Alex LiBao, if he chooses to use it.

Alex/BaoBao is described as being self motivated, a good helper, ready smile, clever, energetic, talkative, gets along well with others, sometimes obstinate, loves to look at books and be outside, fond of listening to music, deep sleeper, active, concentrates and participates in school and his favorite toys are balls and stilts.

March 26 - we should get to Beijing.

March 27 - bullet train to Taiyuan, Shanxi

March 28 - Meet Alex

We hope to go to his hometown Yangquan during the week while officials get his passport ready.

April 1 or 2 we take the train to Guangzhou where the US consulate that handles adoptions is located.

We'll be there for around a week getting medical and visa paperwork done. 

April 9 we start the loooooooong flights home.

This will be the weirdest trip for me.  The boys are going along to ease the transition for Alex.  They'll help model relationships between parent and child and between siblings.  Also, kids tend to bond with kids faster than adults.  The girls are here and going with the Minnesota grandparents to see the Florida grandparents and taking in "Dizz -We - World" according to Emily.  So I'll be on a trip with kids...and won't be taking anyone ALONG TO THE BATHROOM!  In the land of squatty potties, I am blessed!  I can't wait to watch Kenton escorting multiple kids to the bathroom as I go solo!  Woohoo!    

I bet Alex will hate this picture when he's a teenager.

But since we have less than a dozen pictures to help him remember the first 7 years of his life, each one is a treasure.  

  

See the little treasure in the blue shirt and yellow shorts?

He's almost ours!

Lisa told Lena that this is the boy our family is going to adopt.

Lena said, "That's why he looks happy."

We hope she's prophetic.

Please continue to pray for Alex and all the changes that he's going to be experiencing, that God will continue to prepare his heart for a new home.