Here we go!

It's finally happened....our big, beautiful, blessed day has arrived! In less than 8 hours we are boarding a plane for Beijing, via stops in Detroit and Tokyo, and will arrive Monday night around 10:30PM local time, (while ya'll are refilling your morning coffee!)We will be 12-13 hours ahead, depending on your time zone, and since I seriously doubt there will be any substantial sleep at the Tichenor's tonight, we will be walking zombie's. 21 hours of travel. It's a good thing some really smart person put together an itinerary which allows us to check into our hotel and go straight to bed, not to be seen nor heard until the next day, when we will begin our trip with a tour of Tiananman Square, the Forbidden City & the Summer Palace. On Wednesday, we will traverse the Great Wall and just "get down to business.. before the Huns.. arrive" (...yeah I know...but after 3 daughters and over a decade of Disney, I just can't shake the Mulan out of my head! I'm half expecting to encounter angry cartoon warriors on horseback!). After all that excitement, we'll board a late afternoon flight for Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong Province where our daughter resides, and fortunately for us, where Chinese adoptions are finalized. We'll check into The China Hotel, (a Marriot...yay for Western food!), where we will reside for the next 14 days, and despite the demands and exhaustion of the past few, we'll not be able to sleep a wink because the NEXT day, (Oh my gosh butterflies!) Thursday, September 16 ...is "Gotcha Day"! We will meet Kaylee for the very first time and I can't even begin to describe that moment without first experiencing it... but I know it will be amaziing. Every wall we've climbed and field we've ploughed and fight we've fought and river we've cried over the past year and a half just to get to that moment will all make sense, but probably no longer matter, because we'll have Kaylee. And God will begin to reveal this chapter of our story and we can not wait!  (Dave says it will NOT include me falling in love with 5 other kids while we're there and begging to bring them home, right?) No comment. The day has almost dawned, and still much to do in the next few hours.
Thank you all so much for your love & prayers! We'll keep you posted as events unfold!