The story behind our TA.....
Once upon a time, long, long ago a young couple decided that their family had grown up waaaaay to fast... in fact the kids grew up and became older than the parents, I'm sure that's how the story goes.  Bricks began to fall from the sky, planks flew across the plains.... they were struck by how loud soft God spoke to them. both. at. the. same. time.  through the mouth of a youngish pastor.... (hee hee -fine, he's young, real young, but he has like, um, 5 kids! so how young can he be?)
This crazy loving couple pursued the adoption of a couple of cuties without any hitches, hangups, problems. cough and in record time, because they were so blessed, they brought home these 2 cuties in less than 8 months.

life is good
smooth
easy
ok, we got a new normal on!

time passed by......
the papa retired and the mama gave up worrying about getting it all done when the papa thought it was time to adopt again.... at this point the mama went berserk, and put her foot down.
THIS LESSON:  When you think God says "no" he could be saying "not now", when mama says "no" she's probably definitely saying, "in a minute"

fast forward another year....
Mama's heart softens b/c the new normal is really rather easy.... for some reason.  Maybe being a faithful servant is the best thing ever!

Mama and Papa pursue their next adoption and again, in record time paperwork was collected, counted, copied, stamped, submitted and filed.

On Friday, Jan 20, the last workday before Chinese New Year, at approximately 7:55 the parents walked upstairs to tuck the kids into bed, say their prayers and climb down the creaky stairs again to settle into the evening routine of surfing and quieting down for the evening.  .... "I guess we're not hearing from the agency until after Chinese New Year." came from papa's mouth - "Oh, yea, well, I had a glimmer of hope that we would hear before offices closed for the week." came from mama's pity-partying mouth.
sit down
turn on device
jaw drops
email arrived.... 7:55 ON A FRIDAY NIGHT before Chinese New Year closed down all offices in China FOR A WEEK!

immediately contacted my in-country (in this country, not China) specialist.... an adoptive mom who has her thumb on the pulse of paperwork expected time lines. I text her something like; "Are you busy? I got this weird email" and proceeded to tell her, then forwarding her the email.  Apparently our Agency people got word that our TA was on it's way and they needed to know if we were able to fly within a week of finding out our consulate apt.  OF COURSE WE CAN FLY - and probably with our own arms at this point..... we would just have to wait until offices opened up in 10 days to learn our next steps.

We had to wait the weekend until we got notice that our TA was officially in hand (whose hand I don't know)  And since offices were closed we would have to wait until this past Monday, January 30th to get possible further information -
meanwhile.... there are some friends of ours (a youngish pastor and his lovely wife with 5 kids, one of those kiddos is waiting for them .... IN CHINA!)  They didn't receive the weird Friday-before-offices-closed-email - but did receive the Monday morning, all Chinese offices are closed, you got your TA email.
We hadn't gotten ours yet.....
until a little later in the day.....
but no one would know travel dates for a week when the offices opened up again.
It was going to be THE LONGEST WEEK EVER!!!

well, that's not true, and ya know why?  BECAUSE since getting our Monday, January 30th email containing our consulate apt and knowing that we're flying to China in a week has now made this week THE LONGEST WEEK EVER!!!!

I don't want to wish my life away - I learned that lesson a long time ago, like when my kids became older than me b/c I wished them older and more independent (that's a tricky one, we want them independent, but not totally 'no I don't need you' independent!)

So when someone asked me this past weekend if we got our TA, my response was, "I think so......"
yea, I can be that bad with information.  Good thing the papa is handling all the travel stuffs..... just tell me where to be and what time....
what? plane leaves at 6:17 IN THE MORNING?  oh boy, that's early!