Coleman Family Website

At times during the long arduous year of paper chasing, money collecting, adoption red tape and waiting I felt defeated and questioned myself as to whether or not Hannah was really meant to be ours. This was the roughest adoption journey that we had ever taken. There were delays and hiccups all along the way. There were times when I felt like we were never going to have all of the money together and that we had taken this precious little girl off the list only to not be able to fulfill our adoption plans, but God had bigger plans. I should have never second guessed myself, because if God leads you to it He WILL lead you through it. He was Faithful to follow through with the desire he put on our hearts! On September 4th at the civil affairs office in Changsha, Hunan province, we were blessed with another precious gift from God, Miss Hannah Li Chen Coleman. Let me tell ya Folks, she was worth, every minute, every penny, every tear, every heartache and every headache. For every minute, for every penny, for every tear, for every heartache, and for every headache, I saw God’s miraculous hand at work! It was by God’s Grace that we have our daughter/sister and Hannah has her forever family. God put it on the hearts of Complete strangers to donate to our adoption cause, to those of you who stepped up to the plate to help us, and to those of you who offered your prayerful support, we will be eternally grateful. Thank you to all of you. Your love was felt so strongly when we truly needed it the most!

We came home from China on September 14th, 2006. Hannah has not even looked back, she is loving, sweet, and well behaved. (for the most part) ;o) It was obvious that she had been well prepared. She said hello MaMa when I met her. I asked her in Chinese what her name was and she whispered Hannah Li Chen Coleman. She knew her photo album (The one I sent to her with pictures of each family member and pictures of our home inside and out.) from cover to cover and could even point out her bedroom window in the picture of our home. A dear friend of mine, Helen, who is from China, wrote in Chinese on each picture describing who or what the picture was. It was obvious that the album had been looked at numerous times as it was falling apart. I had prepared myself for the possible meltdowns and horrific grieving but it has just never happened. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop but the more time I spend with this little sweetheart, the more I realize that it is probably not going to happen.

As soon as I figure out how to add pictures, I will put some up for all to see. She is such a little cutie! Thanks again and God bless.

Monday, Sept. 4th, we received our precious Hannah Li Chen, She is just precious. She is so loving. So far the only thing we are having a problem with is she doesn’t want to share her mamma with her sister. She goes to bed each night very well, she eats everything in sight and has already learned two words, BUBBLES and PRETTY.

Tuesday Sept.5th we went to the Civil Affairs office and signed all of the adoption papers and she is Ours!!!!!! Now we just have to pick up her passport and final decree on Friday.

We leave for Guangzhou on Saturday, Sept. 9th. This is where we will get her Visa to leave China and enter the USA. I can hardly wait for everyone to meet her!

Yesterday, Sept. 2nd China time, we flew into Changsha from Beijing. It was a pretty smooth flight. We will receive Hannah on Monday early morning!!!!! I am so excited and so is Autumn!!!! We will be calling Daddy when we get to our room so that he can hear her sweet voice!!! Even if it is crying and screaming!! ;o) For those of you who pray, please pray for our meeting. We will keep you all posted on our journey.

I am amazed at how quickly this month is flying by. We got our travel approval on August 1st and I figured the month would drag but today is the 24th and it has really gone fairly quickly. We leave next Wednesday, August 30th. I am so excited. Thanks to the generosity of many in the adoption community we are set to go and don’t have to eat saltine crackers in a 1 star hotel room. Thank you to all of you who helped!!!

Well we have our travel plans made. Autumn and I leave via Northwest airlines on August 30th. Our flight will have only two stops, it goes from Kansas City, to Minniapolis, to Tokyo, to Beijing. We will arrive in Beijing late in the evening of the 31st. Sept. 1 we will visit the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and walk around Tian An Men Square. Our hotel is within walking distance of the Tian An Men Square. It’s a lot to take in in such a short amount of time, but definately worth it. We will fly to Changsha in the afternoon on Sept. 2nd via China Southern Airline. Changsha is the provincial capital of Hunan. All adoption work is conducted in the capital city of the province the child comes from. Mr. Li, our guide will meet us in Changsha. We will stay at the Grand Sun City Hotel. From what I understand it is a Beautiful hotel. We will receive Hannah on the 4th. Her adoption will be finalized in Changsha and we will receive her passport the friday before we leave her province. We hope to visit Changning while we are there to see where she is from. We all fly to Guangzhou via China Southern on Sept. 9th. This is the city where the US Consulate is located and the child’s entry visa is issued. We will go to Hannah’s Medical appointment(Required by the US Consulate) at 9:00 a.m. early Monday morning, Sept. 11th and on to our Consulate appointment at 11:00 the same day. Hannah’s Visa will be ready on the 12th after 3:00 p.m.. We will fly out of China Via Northwest Airlines again headed for home on Sept. 14th. On the way back we stop in Tokyo, Detroit, and then on to Kansas City. We will get in in the evening of the 14th.
Please pray for travel mercies for us!

Well folks it finally happened we got our travel approval today!!! YIPEEE!!!!! Doing the Snoopy dance in Kansas! We will travel from August 30th - Sept 13th. We will get Hannah on Sept 4th! Sweet Girl, Momma and Big Sis are coming to get you!

Well friends, it is day 64 of our Travel Approval wait. We are anxiously awaiting our turn to go to China and bring Miss Hannah Li Chen home from China. The average wait from the time that documents are logged in at the China Center of Adoption Affairs to the time the family receives travel approval is about 2-4 months. I have been tracking the dates and time frames on a group called Waiting Children China (WCC) the average this month so far is 82 days. My hope was to get her before school starts but it doesn’t look like it will happen. A package was received on July 17th by our agency from the CCAA but it didn’t have our TA in it. I was really in hopes that it would be in there as that was our anniversary.

Dan came home from Louisana on Friday evening. His training is done, he passed his course with flying colors. He is now a licensed Train Engineer. He is so smart. He had to memorize a whole book of rules and was run through the rigors of testing. He also had to drive a similator train which was very touchy. He got a 98 % on his similator and a 95% on his written test. To quote Sheriff Woody, “Way to go Idaho!” My husbands career with the railroad has taught me so much about trains. I am amazed at how hard those things are to drive. There are so many variables. I know I couldn’t do it! I am so very proud of him! The Children are Very Proud of their daddy too! We Love you and are so happy that you made it home safely! I thank God for keeping Dan safe for us while he had to be away from us! We continue to pray that God will watch over and protect Hannah for us until we can bring her home!

Well we said good-bye to daddy today. He is off to Louisiana for three weeks to complete his engineer training for the Kansas City Southern Railway. He will not be back until July 22nd. Caleb and Autumn have been crying off and on since he left. It is so hard to tell him good bye. While he is gone, we will celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary on July 17th. I was hoping to have travel approval as an anniversary gift but now I doubt that will happen. I was informed by our agency that there are two other families ahead of us. I keep reminding myself, God’s timing is perfect.

We are Patiently waiting at this time. We do not look for travel approval for at least another month. If I had my way I’d be on a plane headed for China right now. I was at the drive through window at the bank last week, June 7th, while I was sitting there I was thinking, where have all the ladybugs gone? I haven’t seen any lady bugs. No sooner had the thought left my head and I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. There landing on the bank teller call button was a beautiful little red spotless lady bug. Talk about timing. I don’t know if she had any real significance or whether she was God’s way of reminding me that he hears even the smallest of our hearts desires. The lady bug is considered by some cultures as a symbol of good luck, good news, a sign of good weather and an asset to the garden. In the Chinese adoption culture she has been adopted as the mascot. One of the beliefs is that if she lands on you and then flies away the direction she flew to is the direction you can expect good news from. Well that being said, she climbed onto my extended finger and flew away East. China is considered in the East so I’ll take that one! Maybe I’ll get Hannah’s updates! Have a great day!

The average wait for Travel Approval a.k.a. TA is 50 days. Our wedding anniversary is somewhere around the 52nd day. TA sure would make a nice anniversary gift! I could live with that! But if it would like to come early, that would be fine too. We requested that China expedite our file due to Hannah’s age and her medical condition. We’ll keep all of you posted! In the mean time, I am waiting for an update of measurements and an updated picture, hopefully one that shows her teeth. I have yet to see her teeth. Please join us in praying for a quick TA.