First post of our journey to bring Luke home!!!!! It's 4:30 am, unable to sleep, and already sleep deprived before we even leave home.  I have a feeling this trip will bring us all home very sleep deprived.
The day is finally here.  I can't believe it!  Our process started on March 27, 2012 when we found Min-Gi in Korea and decided that we wanted to pursue adopting him.  The Korean adoption process proved to be challenging with a lot of delays and a lot of changes during the process.  Our adoption went through and we were set to bring Min-Gi (Matthew) home until June 24, 2013 when we received a phone call that upon notification to Min-Gi's birth mother that he would be adopted and her signature was needed to finalize the process, she decided against signing him over to us and decided to go to the orphanage and take him home with her.  We were devastated to say the least, but it only put us on the path to this little guy.  I still pray for Min-Gi and hope that God is in his mother's heart and their reunion has been a good thing.
On July 10, 2013 we saw an adorable little boy on the special needs adoption page.  I fell in love the moment I saw him!  He was listed as LSC.  I told Steve then, "This is him.  Look his identification is LSC, "Lori and Steve's Child!" He was on a shared list, therefore, our agency could send us his file.  We reviewed it and pretty quickly decided this was our little guy and we wanted to start the process all over.  And start over is exactly what we had to do....new homestudy, new fees, new applications, etc.
And here we are, 16 months later.....leaving to go bring our little LSC (Lu, Shu Chen) home!!!!!!
Bags are packed.  When you start packing a month in advance you tend to bring way too much stuff so the plan of 3 suitcases has turned into 4 suitcases.  The 300 kids toothbrushes and the 300 dumdums will not be part of the return luggage, but Ellen's hoping for some cheap Northface or Uggs  to be brought back from our trip.
Our itinerary is as follows:
Fly from Charlotte to Chicago to Beijing today and arrive in Beijing at 7:45pm (China time) Saturday.
Stay night in Beijing.  Take bullet train on Sunday to Hefei, where Luke lives in an orphanage in that province.
Sunday afternoon arrive in Hefei, greeted by our guide and plans made for our meeting on Monday.
MONDAY, THE BIG DAY!!!!  Luke will be brought by the orphanage director and possibly a nanny to the Civil Affairs Office and we will meet them there.  From that day forward, he's with us!
Tuesday, back to the Civil Affairs Office for completion of paperwork and on that day he officially becomes a Yang!!!
Wednesday we are hoping for a visit to the orphanage.  We have to wait until Monday and ask the director but I'm really hoping that we will be able to go and see where he has been for the first 6 years of his life.
Thursday we have a free day.
Friday we fly to Guangzhou, where we are met by another guide.  This is the point where we will be with many other adoptive families.  Every adoption in China ends the final week in Guangzhou.  We already know of 6 other families that will be there when we are.
Saturday Luke has his Visa medical exam.
Sunday-free day
Monday, we prepare documents for the US Consulate
Tuesday is our Visa interview at the US Consulate, where Luke will become a US citizen...well, officially when he touches US soil will he be a citizen
Wednesday, as soon as we can get his Visa for the Consulate, which is usually around 3pm, we head back to Bejiing to catch the first flight out the next morning to get back home.  This will prove to be a hard little travel arrangement since we will be flying back to Beijing so late, arriving and then having to turn around and leave very early to fly home.  If not this, then we had to stay another day and I knew we would all be super anxious to get home, so decided to suck it up and hope for the best with three kiddos in tow.
With the time change, we leave on Thursday but also arrive home on Thursday....which means we lose a day and that turns into more lost sleep time...so the plan of the girls going to school on the Friday we return may not happen and they may sleep all day once back.

Lots of emotions today....
1- Being apart as a family for 14 days will be hard on us all.  Steve and I have never been apart longer than 4 day in the past 17 years, so this will be hard for us as a couple. I am glad that he will be here with the boys though, and things will stay as normal as possible for them.  Steve will miss his little girls though, I'm sure of that!!!
2- Taking a child, even if it is for good reasons, away from all he has ever known and completely changing his world has me scared and worried for him.
3- Being away from the place Michael took his last breath on the night of November 11th will be hard.
But life is not meant to be easy.  All through this process I have held onto that verse from the Bible when God says "Where I lead you, I will not forsake you."  I know God has led us to the place and I know that he will be right there with us through it all.