Thanks to my amazingly computer-adept son Peter, who is 12, we are now ready to start our blog about our new daughter Catherine Fu Juan who we are bringing home from China in JUNE!!! We named our blog "Pure grace...From God" because her name means "pure" (Catherine) and "graceful" (Juan) and we truly feel she is our precious gift from God as is His "pure grace", which we receive fresh every day through our saviour Jesus. He has been so faithful to lead us through this journey of adoption to bring our daughter home! I am so excited about sharing our adventures with you as we travel to China to bring her home. And an adventure it will be! The entire Krol clan is going to hop on a plane and fly 14 hours (not too bad really, I was thinking it might be closer to 20), spend over two weeks in China (a trip to Nonnie's used to seem like a big deal), and then fly home again another 13 hours (coming home I have just learned there is a tail wind...thanks God!). If you know us well, you know that we are definitely NOT an adventurous group, so this is WAY out of our (MY) comfort zone, but we are trusting in the Lord to make our "crooked paths straight" and our "rough places smooth"!
Today we received confirmation of our Consulate Appointment (June 14, 9am) in Guangzhou where we will finalize our adoption and get Catherine's Visa to enter the US. Hurray!!!! Now we are ready to make our reservations which the wonderful people at the travel agency have already efficiently done. Looks like we can fly directly from Dulles to Beijing which will be wonderful. Our other option would be through Newark with a 5 hour layover there which did not appeal at all. Soooo, we are leaving May 30th, arrive in Beijing on the 31st with a day to recover a little bit and then we receive her on the 2nd of June! WOW! Can't believe it is finally going to happen after 2 1/2 years of waiting!
All the kids are so excited about their new sister and the BIG TRIP! We got next to no school done today (for those of you that don't know I home school our three boys 12, 8, and 6) with all the excitement of deciding on reservations and Mom trying to finish filling out our applications for Visas. We have a few weeks to finish up our year, though, so I think we'll be fine. Peter, Patrick, and Christopher are all such great students that I jokingly (and not so jokingly) tell people they are home schooling me :) And they truly are! They teach me new things every day, and I am so grateful for the blessing of being able to teach them at home. As preparations unfold here I will try to keep everyone posted. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for this journey of a lifetime! Blessings, Christina
