Gabriella Mary Mei: The Friedman Family Fall 2008

WE ARE NOT HOME YET!

Not Home Yet
By Steven Curtis Chapman

Pilgrims longing for a home
From one who walks with you
On this journey called life's road
Is is a long and winding road

From one who's seen the view
And dreamth of staying on the mountain high
And one who's cried like you
Wanting so much just to lay down and die
I offer this, we must remenber this

We are not Home yet
We are not Home yet
Keep on looking ahead
Let your heart not forget
We are not home yet
Not home yet

So close your eyes with me
And hear the Father saying, "welcone home"
Let us find the strenght
Ia all His promises to carry on
He said, "I go prepare a place for you"
So Let us not forget

We are not Home yet
We are not Home yet
Keep on looking ahead
Let your heart not forget
We are not home yet
We are not home yet
Keep on looking ahead
Let your heart not forget
We are not home yet

I know there'll be a moment
I know there'll be a place
Where we will see our Saviour
And fall in His enbrace
So let us not grow weary
Or too content to stay
'Cause we are not home yet
Not home yet
So let us journey on

We are not Home yet
We are not Home yet
Keep on looking ahead
Let your heart not forget
We are not home yet
Not home yet

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China Itinerary

January 3, 2008 Arrive @3:35 pm Beijing stay at Days Inn Hotel & Suites

January 4, 2008 Orientation meeting 10am and afternoon Acrabatic show

January 5, 2008 Visit the Great Wall and Cloisonne Factory

January 6, 2008 Visit Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Hutong Tour

January 7, 2008 Fly to Nanjing. Stay at Grand Hotel. Receive Gabriella in the afternoon. (this is Jan 6th back home my 41st birthday!)

January 8, 2008 Adoption registration and notarization

January 9, 2008 Free day

January 10, 2008 Visit Zhan Yuan (Ming Price Old Garden House)

January 11, 2008 Recieve all the documents. Fly (16:10-18:20) to Guangzhou. Stay at the White Swan Hotel.

January 12, 2008 Medical exam in the morning.

January 13, 2008 Free day.

January 14, 2008 Visa appointment

January 15, 2008 3:00 p.m. Go to consulate to take the oath and pick up visa.

January 16, 2008 Fly to Hong Kong. Tour Hong Kong stay at Disneyland Hotel.

January 17, 2008 Disneyland all day

January 18, 2008 Depart Hong Kong arriving in San Francisco at 8:35 a.m.

Travel Dates For China Are In!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Official! We have finally recieved our Travel Approvel, or Travel Invition, as it is also referred to, and our US consulate appointment is on Jan 14, 2008. We will leave our home on Jan 1st and begin our journey with an overnight near the SF INTNL Airport. We will leave (SFO) on United on Jan 2, 2008 at 11:05am. We arrive in Beijing, China (PEK) on Jan3, at 3:35 pm. We will head to our daughter's Province, Jaingsu and land in the Capitol, Nanjing. We will be there on Jan 6, 2008. We will be handed our little Gabriella (Aimei Lian) on either the 6th or 7th. We stay in her province to complete the adoption for China then we leave to take care of finalizing the US adoption portion in Guangzhou. We will arrive in Guangzhou, China sometime before our Consulate date which is on Jan 14th. We will leave Guangzhou and hop over to Hong Kong on Jan 16th, 2008. We will be there for two days and then leave Hong KOng back to San Francisco USA on Jan 18th at 12:50 PM and land at 8:32 am on the same day! So you see we have most of our travel complete and the in Country travel for China is still being arranged. You may check back for a post I will title: Final Travel Arrangements. Thanks for visiting our blog and joining us in this journey to Gabriella.

Our Family's Journey to China and back for Gabriella MaryMei

We began our journey of adoption to Gabriella MaryMei on October 6, 2005. After watching the episode of "Extreme makeover, Home Edition" with Ty. A family from Montana had adopted 3 teens and shared thier love of Christ with them and made them a part of thier forever family. These teens gave personal testimonies of what these parents had provided for them and the hope and since of family they now had. Our daughter, Hannah, looked at us and said, "Oh, Mom, we have to adopt. We have to share God's love and our family with someone so that they know God wants them to be a part of His family too. If we don't they will never know." This as you can imagined started the ball rolling to never stop. We had talked about it before but timing was not right. Now we could no longer say this was for someone else to do. It was clearly for us. We talked about it, prayed about it and it remained clear, IT WAS FOR US! What a journey so far. We have prayed and sought guidence from God as to where to go and how to proceed. We arrived at the decision to use Bethany Christian Services and after starting our pursuit to adopt we have changed countries once and considered over three Children of Promise. One from Russia and two from China. We now have settled in on China and are currently logged into China April 4, 2006. At the time we were told there would be a 8-9 month wait for our referral. Now we are told it has increased to 14-15 months. After the referral there is a wait to a travel date of 7-10 weeks. This is all varies and the only thing we can count on is for it to all change. We trust God's timing is perfect and we wait on His devine appointment. We hope you visit our site often to catch up on our latest news. We also encourage you to ask questions and share it with others, as just as Hannah said to us, "We have to.." Maybe this is also for you. If not you then who? Please prayerfully support our journey and we will also be in need of financial support for final travel and arrangements. While it can be expensive we have already witnessed God's ability to produce funds needed. may God bless you and your family now and always. Kevin, Hayley and Hannah