Road Trip!!

I will do my best to describe what transpired in a 54 hour time period. (Don't worry...I'll try to condense it a little) :)
I picked up my niece Bethany at 3pm Monday and we headed to Sacramento to stay over night. Tuesday morning we walked my last 2 documents into the Secretary of State office at 8am and had them certified. We were on our way to SF by 9am to get all docs certified. Yippeeee!!
We arrived at the consulate at 11:30 and they called my number at 11:45. The lady began going over my docs with a fine tooth comb. I hadn't noticed that she laid one aside. When she was done with the pile she handed my AZ certified marriage certificate back to me and told me to take it to Los Angeles. My heart just sank. If they did not authenticate everything, I knew we would not get our dossier in until Feb due to Chinese New Year. That could really delay travel.

The lady kept telling me it was no big deal. Just take it to LA and they would authenticate it for me. I told her my whole Luke story and how far we traveled etc. She didn't budge. She kept saying the same thing and I kept repeating the same thing back to her. I just started sobbing. I was heart broken. How could I have missed this rule? Why should I pay double to "rush" authentication, stay over night, and not leave with a complete, authenticated dossier? I began to just pray and pray (even out loud sometimes which probably freaked her out) :) She finally called her supervisor and explained the situation to her. The supervisor looked at me and said, "Don't worry ma'am........I hep you" Those were the sweetest words I'd ever heard!!!

She told us to go downtown to the notary, county clerk, and secretary of state to have our marriage certificate recertified. It was noon...........the consulate closed at 3pm and we had NO idea where we were going. A nice "German" guard at the Chinese consulate gave us directions to downtown and we were on our way with document in hand. I turned the car on and our "Luke" song was playing. I couldn't believe it!!!! I took it as a sign from God to KEEP GOING!!!

We were treated very rudely at the SOS office so we headed to City Hall. They had a notary and a county clerk that were very helpful. We took our document back to the SOS and they certified it this time.........no problem. We drove back to the consulate and made it with one hour to spare. They accepted it this time. WE WERE FINISHED!! (almost) ;)

Bethany and I celebrated at Bubba Gumps on Pier 39. It was a blast. I still had a little fear that they would find something wrong but just kept praying and feeling God's presence.

We were back at the consulate at 9am and they handed me those precious 11 documents. THEY WERE ALL AUTHENTICATED!!! We walked to Kinkos/Fed Ex and made our copies. We prayed over that precious pkg and our dossier was officially on it's way to AWAA on
Jan 18,2006!

We had a good 8 hour drive home but I felt incredibly grateful to our Heavenly Father for His many provisions. His mighty hand was the only thing that could have gotten those docs done so quickly. We hit the biggest hail storm I have ever been in. Then it began to pour down rain. We drove out of the storm and saw the most beautiful rainbow!!! Talk about goosebumps!!!

It was soooo good to see Mark and the kids. I had missed them tremendously! I went to bed just thanking God and of course praying for our dossier to arrive safely and get approved by AWAA. (funny how Satan still was trying to put doubts in my head).

AND NOW FOR THE GREAT NEWS...........................Allison called from AWAA at 8:30 this morning. Our dossier had arrived and been approved by AWAA. IT WILL HEAD TO CHINA ON FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2006!!!

What an incredible journey to share with Luke.

What a mighty God we serve!!

Thank you all for your prayers. You have no idea what they mean to us. Everyone keeps asking the obvious question. "So, when are you going to China to get Luke?" I'm not sure how to answer this one. We had originally hoped for March but it's looking like possibly April. We'll just have to wait and see.

I'll keep you all posted!

Love,

Elizabeth