Picture Info.

Sorry about some of the mistakes in the post with spacing...still trying to figure out the layout.

As for the pictures that were posted here are some of the labels (starting from the bottom pic going up):

1) Andrew sleeping at LA prior to our flight to Hong Kong

2) Andrew enjoying the ice cream!

3) Eric and Luke (the Catholic priest)

4) playing Uno with Eric

5) Time with Eric and foster siblings and foster parents

We will keep posting as we can!

We're in China

LONGEST
FLIGHT EVER!!
As I type
this, we are on our flight to Hong Kong.
We’ve been on this flight for 9 ½ hours!!!...and still have 6 hours to
go!!! L
This is such a hard part of the journey!
Andrew’s loving it though. He’s
on his 3rd ice-cream…don’t know how many juices…maybe his 4th
movie, and I don’t know how many trips to the bathroom! He’s so cute.
(He’ll love me for saying that.)
Several hours ago he said, “Have you ever had this much fun past
midnight?!” I don’t think I’m having as
much fun as he is, but I have to say, Cathay Pacific has the best service and
plane features drinks and snacks, etc.
and yes, we’re in economy seats.) This
airline had the itinerary we needed, and although their adult tickets were
slightly higher, their kid tickets were cheaper than others, so it evens out to
our benefit...(especially since we have to add 2 extra kid tickets coming
home.) J

UPDATE ON
SKYPING WITH BRANDON
The Lord
provided and we were able to skype with Brandon the night before we left. This was our first contact with him and it
went great! He had a translator with him
and felt comfortable to ask several questions.
It really eased some of our fears and left us feeling encouraged. We meet him in person on Tues. Mar. 6! Can’t wait!
MEETING ERIC
AT THE AIRPORT!!!
Eric (along
with Luke…a Catholic priest) met us at the airport! Then we got to go to Eric’s home and meet his
foster parents and a few of his foster brothers! It was great!
We played Uno together, had tea, and got to see his bedroom. Eric was shy about initiating conversation
(due to his limited English) but seemed very comfortable playing Uno with
us. It was a great start. We have plans to visit his school tomorrow,
along with the baby home that China Little Flower runs. We’re more than ready to crash and have a big
day tomorrow.
We’ll try to
post again soon!
Thanks for
praying!!!

Skyping with Brandon

Good News! We get to skype with Brandon, our son in Shanghai, the one we have had no contact with. We got an email from China saying he is back at the orphanage and would we like to skype? It is currently set up for Sunday evening 2-26-12 (our time). He will have a translator. We are praying that this will be a positive "first meeting" that will put him at ease. If he has any big questions or concerns, we are praying that he will bring those up so that we can address those. This is one more answer to prayer!

We leave in 2 days! Would appreciate all prayers as we do last minute things!

TRAVEL DATES...One week will lift off!

These dates have changed multiple times, but we finally have solid plans and tickets purchased!

TRAVEL SCHEDULE:

Feb. 27 - Leave from DFW at 7:05 PM

(You can literally follow our plane if you go to http://flightaware.com/ and input our airline and flight number:
American Airlines #2477 from Dallas to LA (departs 7:05 PM on Feb. 27)
Cathay Pacific #881 from LA to Hong Kong (departs 12:15 AM on Feb. 28) "the red eye!"
Cathay Pacific #6888 from Hong Kong to Beijing (depart 9:00AM Feb. 29)
***Note: China is currently 14 hours ahead of central time. After daylight savings time, I think they will be 13 hours ahead. :)

Feb. 29 - Arrive in Beijing at noon and meet Eric at the airport!...when we look and feel pretty!!
Mar. 1-3 - Visit China Little Flower (the organ. that runs Eric's foster home, 5 other homes, and a baby home), visit Eric's foster family, friends, and school, and do a few Beijing tours with Eric.
Mar. 4 - Take a train with Eric (and his escort) from Beijing to Taiyuan (the capitol of the province he is from...Shanxi province)
Mar. 5 - Officially "receive" Eric and formalize adoption in one day (expedited process)
Mar. 5 - Fly from Taiyuan to Shanghai (Eric is now formally ours!)
Mar. 6 - Receive Brandon!
Mar. 7 - Formalize adoption! (Brandon is now formally ours!)
Mar. 8-9 - Relax and maybe tour a little of Shanghai (with our friend Wei!)
Mar. 10 - Fly from Shanghai to Guangzhou
Mar. 11 - Free day
Mar. 12 - Medicals and TB testing
Mar. 13 - Free day
Mar. 14 - Check TB results (pray for good results so it won't delay our trip!)
Mar. 15 - Consulate Appointment
Mar. 16 - Pick up Brandon and Eric's visas and start the long trip home!
Mar. 17 - Fly "backwards" in time and arrive home on Jaiden's 6th Bday! :)

Whew...I'm tired already! We've already had some "glitches" and are stressed to get ready in time. Please pray for peace, for finalization of a few loose ends, for sufficient packing, and most of all for Brandon and Eric to have peace and courage!

URGENT: Eric's good friend needs a home!!!

Eric's friend, Ming, will be left behind. China will only let us adopt 2. Who will step forward and adopt Ming? Will you? The director of Eric's foster home says, "Any news on a family for Ming? He’s so sad that Eric is leaving." :( That just breaks my heart! Please pray with us that a family will step foward to adopt Ming. He sounds like a great kid. I believe he is 12 years old. And we'll get to meet him (in March) and take pictures and video. If anyone is interested, please let me know. I can send you more pix too! And I can put you in direct contact with the foster home director and you can ask whatever you want! Remember, we have even been skyping and emailing with Eric, so this is a situation where you would have access to a lot more info. than usual! It's going to break my heart to leave him behind. I would LOVE to be able to tell him he has a family coming for him!! Please pray for Ming and for his family to feel the nudge!
We are guessing this picture of him is "a year or two" old because we have seen more recent pics of him. There is more info about him on wonderfulwaitingkids.webs.com you will have to join (which is VERY simple) then look at the shared list boys.

BIG NEWS: THE HOODS ARE EXPECTING TWINS! :)

If you haven’t been receiving our occasionally email updates, you may not know our big news. Here's a brief recap to bring you up to speed...

In Jan. of 2010 we felt the nudge to consider adopting an older boy through the TX foster care system. We had 5 children at the time (3 bio. and 2 adopted from China), so we already knew the blessing adoption can bring...but also knew it needed to be bathed in prayer. As is the case in many life-changing decisions, we have found that prayer AND taking one step of faith at a time is the way to discern God's will. So we took the first step...and the next step...and the next step...all without knowing if we were meant to actually adopt any more children, let along an older child this time. Even when our home study was completed and approved (in Aug. of 2010) we still felt like it would only be confirmed by whether or not there was a match that we felt was appropriate for our family. We searched and waited and prayed for many potential matches during the next "9" months. Some of the potential matches we had felt like miscarriages. Adoption is not an easy journey. But living the life of an orphan is not easy either. So we persevered and prayed. Then in the spring (of 2011) God orchestrated some events that ended up redirecting our journey. (Someday I hope to share that thrilling story with you.) On June 3rd, 2011, while dabbling on a China Waiting Child web site, I found our son! Mike was out of town on a business trip, and I sent him the following email late that night:

It's 1:00AM and I am thinking of you. :) Hoping you're asleep, but realizing you might be having another short night. Yes, the computer was still on...as I have quite a story to fill you in on. It just may be that even though we are apart tonight, we might be conceiving our next child...June 3rd, 2011. Remember that date. Would the Lord be so gracious as to allow us to be in China 9 months from now?!? I'll fill you in later. ;)

Well, the Lord GRACIOUSLY has us on track to be in China approximately "9 months later"! But better yet, the Lord has allowed us to be a part of something we can only do with His help...adopt 2 boys at once! They are close in age to Andrew (our middle child), so although we feel like we are adopting twin boys...it will really feel like having triplet boys! Let us introduce you . . .

*Eric Ethan Tianqing Hood*

is 11 years old, is in the 6th grade, and is 8 months younger than Andrew. He is currently in a foster family in Beijing and likes to play soccer. Although it is quite unusual, we have had the amazing blessing of emailing and even skyping with him over the past several weeks. We even sometimes find him online and get to use QQ (it's like Chinese Facebook) to chat with him!

*Brandon Elijah Fengmao Hood*

is 11 years old, is in the 6th grade, and is 3 months younger than Andrew. He is currently in a foster family in Shanghai and likes soccer and basketball. We have not had any direct contact with him and are praying that his foster family is effectively preparing him for this huge change in his life.

Orphans in China don't have much hope for a future, but in order to be adopted, they have to be brave enough to say "yes" to leaving all that they have known to go to a big unknown. We are praying they will be brave enough to follow through on their decision to be adopted. May the Lord, the Father of the fatherless, provide for their every need every step of the way.

TRAVEL PLANS: We are currently waiting for our TA (Travel Approval) which should come sometime between Feb. 16-24. We are still estimating we will get to travel sometime in (early) March.

If you want to be on our email group in case of urgent prayer requests or the inability to post from China, you can request to be on our email list. Please let us know if you would like to do this at: mjaaa97@yahoo.com