Psalms 126:3

"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!"


We've Been Waiting:

Making our Way to Miah:

We are very close to receiving out TA (Travel Approval) WHOOP, WHOOP!

April 23: All Hague adoption paperwork is complete. US Consulate will issue our Article 5 to China (CCCWA) within 10 days.


Happy Referral Day: February 21, 2013
(we waited 1 year, 6 months, 20 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes

LID - March 26, 2012

DTC (dossier to China): March 9, 2012

USCIS Approval: February 13, 2012

USCIS Fingerprinting visit: February 7, 2012

Dossier completed: January 2012

Chinese Consulate mailing: December 2011

Paper-chase began: August 1, 2011

Talk to our Agency: July 2011

Decision to begin the journey: Father's Day 2011

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Ah, Back To The Beach . . .


We spent the last few of the holidays in Carlsbad, California. We spent a day at Sea World and had wonderful Mexican dinner in Old Town, San Diego.  Our favorite past time though, was at the beach.  Our hotel was situated just across the street.  It was heavenly . . .





My prince for 25 years! 
Liliah wanted to take our picture.  We have a few bloopers, but these are her best.  I love that she took our picture




















She saw me writing in the sand . . .
She was very proud of her success. It surprised me . . .

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Little Penguin Loves The Snow

We got boat loads of snow over past couple of days and have been home bound for 3 days.  We have found some fun things to do....like baking and cooking yummy meals, putting away our Christmas decorations, lots of art projects AND......              


Our first time sledding as a family.  Daddy got our little tobogganer going from the top of our driveway
She's fearless

And I greeted her at the bottom . . . .Mama even took some rides down with her! We had a ball!
Watching the birds feeding from the house has been activity that we have all enjoyed.  We have large groups visiting us daily and I put new seed out daily.

 
Out in the garden



She was a helpful little penguin playing with Maddy and shaking off all of the snow from my prized Japanese maple trees
First snowman made at our home
D A N C I N G with G L E E
Welcome to our home, Frosty!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Happy 3rd Forever Family Day

It's hard to believe it has been 3 years since we became a family in China!  It now feels as if we've always been together. We are beyond blessed to be able to call you our daughter. We will always remember the day we walked into each others lives....how are hearts were changed and expanded beyond anything we could have ever imagined.
Sweet things about you at 4.5 years:
*you are 28lbs and 36" tall and wear a size 3T
*after most meals, you exclaim, "Mama you make a good dinner!!!
*you have a sense of humor, like the other day you pulled a clean pair of underwear over your head and said, look a new pony tail holder!
*you talk about Mei, Mei a lot and how you are going to love her and teach her stuff.  You ask if she will have black hair like you?
*after every bath, you ask, "will you how'd me a yiddo bit."
*you like to make up your own songs
*you want to put "lipstick" on when you see me putting mine on..I oblige :)
*you still ask to be rocked in the chair at times
*in the past few months, you like to pretend like you are a baby and make baby sounds
*you love to shake your booty at us which always makes us giggle
*you must have your 2 blankies and pillow with you wherever you are in the house and in the car
*when I ask you if we are blessed, you will say, "yes because of God/Jesus is in our heart and He made us a family!

Update on our journey to Mei, Mei this week: we submitted our I-800A application to the U.S. Immigration office! What a relief to be at this point and have that completed. Hopefully in the next few weeks we'll get an appointment to head to their office for our fingerprints.  We also sent off the last couple of documents to our State and a package to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco.  We now have about a 6-8 week wait for the US government to give us the final approval so our dossier can get into our agency's hand and then off to China!  This week we will be complete and submit our waiting child application for our agency.  We can be listed on their waiting list for future referrals while the balance of our paperwork is going through the system.  The unpredictable part is the wait for the referral.  There are many families ahead of us.  We hope to be matched and get to see her face by summer and going to China by the end of this year! Lord, let it be so...AMEN!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Nana & The Park


While on vacation we went to the park with Nana ..and got silly.


It was a lovely, sunny day













 Mom, I loved  sitting in the park with you and chatting.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Happy New Year!

Carlsbad Beach, California


We spent some time boogieing the night away with my mom and nieces, Katherine and Taylor


The guys stayed downstairs and watched movies


Can you tell who had more fun??


The girls getting their groove on!  Katherine and Taylor, thanks for bringing the hats and noise makers . . .

Intermission time . . .

We fit in a game of Yahtzee before we rung in the New Year.  This was Liliah's first game and she rolled 2 Yahtzee's and beat her Nana (and everyone else) with a score of 426


Ringing in the Year of 2012 - thanks girls, we had a blast . . .

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Huntington Beach, CA - AHHH!

 
We are enjoying our vacation in sunny southern California!  Huntington Beach is my childhood/teenage stomping ground!  My mom spent many Saturdays in the summer taking her girls to the beach.  We'd get in our cute little bikinis, pack a picnic lunch and head off to play in the surf and sand.  I cherish those days and the memories I have of them.

Familiar sights

 
She loved digging through the sand and pitching it over her head.  We just tried to stay clear!
  
Time for sandcastle building



Time to head to the water and introduce her to . . .

sticking her toes in and running away. . .

Loving my time at the beach.  Thank you sweetie, for catching these moments.


Feeling the pull of the tide . . .


I love this picture of her .  We were hunting for seashells for our sandcastle.

 We finished our day by heading to the pier in the background and grabbing burgers from Ruby's.  We soaked up the sun over our lunch and people watched.  It was the perfect day! 


Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas Morning

The girls on Christmas morning!

Big presents first!!! Daddy bought me a t-ball set
 
Then off to the next one!

A box full of art supplies . . .

Early morning portrait . . .

It was the best Christmas ever!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!  We did not do Christmas cards this year.  We have been very busy with Mei, Mei's paperwork.  We are so excited to receive our completed Home Study.  That means we've cleared our state requirements to adopt.  We also had documents certified by our state and just sent the paperwork to the Chinese Consulate today. In the next week or so, we will submit our special needs application request to our agency and head to immigration. We are headed off for a two week vacation - yippee!  
Our blooper picture . . . look we have a little elf with us!