Leaving for China in the Morning!

We left for Chicago this morning to pick up our visas at the Chinese Consulate. That went smoothly and now we are at the hotel. In the morning, we will be on a flight to China! The first leg is from Chicago to Tokyo. It would be great to see Japan for a couple of hours during the layover, but we do not have visas for Japan. After a 4.5 hour layover, we fly to Shanghai and arrive late tomorrow night. Or I guess that is the next morning here! It gets confusing with the 14 hour time difference.

The following morning, a driver will pick us up at the hotel and take us to the train station for a 6.5 hour train ride to Nanchang. We will stay at the hotel where we stayed when we met our little Victoria for the first time and became her parents. The following day, we will visit Victoria's former orphanage for the first time. After several hours at the orphanage, we will return to Nanchang for the night.

The next morning, we will take a train to Changsha. We cannot get the twins until January 14th (January 13th in the United States). Our contact in China has us scheduled to visit a couple of other orphanages before we get Annaliese and Aliza to meet orphans so that we can come back and find the boys and girls families. I will let you know about the orphans we meet in case you realize one of them is your son or daughter! :)

Thank you friends, for all of the prayers, encouragement and financial help to give 2 little girls a family! We appreciate everything so much!

Fundraiser November 17 to Help Bring Twins Home

Thank you so much to our great friends, Stephanie, Colleen, James, Dale, Sara, Gretchen, Todd, and everyone else putting this fundraiser together to help 2 little girls to no longer be orphans! We hope you can bring your friends and family to eat dinner and play trivia! If you can donate a silent auction item or put together a basket, or want to do anything else to help with the event, please let us know. Thank you on behalf of Annaliese Lingli and Aliza Lingyi McGowan!

Annaliese Lingli and Aliza Lingyi

We have received the Letter of Acceptance from China (LOA) and are hoping that the documents to adopt Annaliese Lingli and Aliza Lingyi will be rushed through quickly because of Annie's severe malnutrition. The twins turned 2 in September and we found out last week that Annie weighs only 17 pounds. Please pray that we can get the girls home very soon so that Annie can get the help she needs. Aliza, on the other hand, is 28 pounds!

Our biggest challenge is coming up with the money to adopt our little girls. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to help bring our twins home, checks can be made out to Lifesong for Orphans and mailed to us at:

Marshall and Michelle McGowan
3015 Leach Road
Rochester, IL 62563

Thank you for considering making a donation to get two precious orphans into a forever family!

Doubly Blessed

Millions of orphans around the world wait for parents of their own, but most will never know the love of a family. Our hearts break for the boys and girls who will never know what it is like to belong to someone who loves them dearly.

As you may know, we adopted Victoria Elyse nearly 4 years ago. She was born with the heart problems Tetralogy of Fallot and Pulminary Attresia. Ever since open heart surgery, Victoria has done great and we are so thankful that she is our daughter! We went into the adoption to make a difference in a child's life and to give her the love of a family. While this has happened, Victoria has changed our lives as well and she is an incredible gift from God.

Once again God is calling us to adopt. He has led us to be open to significant special needs and to consider adopting someone who would have a much harder time of finding a family.

We are excited to announce that 2 little girls in China won't have to wait much longer for a mommy and daddy! Our beautiful twins have been living in an orphanage since birth and we can hardly wait to bring them home. The girls are almost 2 years years old and their cribs are next to each other in the orphanage.

Lingli has cerebral palsy and cannot sit up. She can hold her head up while lying on her tummy and look around. We do not know what Lingli will be able to do, but we do know that her life in a family will be far better than the life she would have in an orphanage. Her twin, Lingyi, is healthy and active.