Lawrence is 4!!

Lawrence's birthday was yesterday! 4 years of knowing him. I was remembering the craziness of needing a cab in the middle of the night and Mark having to wake up a cabbie to get him to take us to the hospital! Lawrence has been a joy and a special means of helping me to see how selfish I am and how quick I am to be angry. But, that is another post. This is to celebrate the little boy who loves legos and loves cake! Here it is in pictures.

And another one!

We got our letter from the National Visa Services today, so Mark went off and UPS'd them to our agency. So now

1. We need an Article 5

2. We need China to give us our Travel Approval

3. We need a consulate date

4. We need plane tickets!!

Probably 1 1/2 months from now.

We're coming Emma!

Another step closer!

We came back from our 2 week Thanskgiving extravaganza to our US Govt provisional approval to adopt Emma. We have to wait now for the National Visa Center to send us a letter and then we can send those papers to China to the consulate, who will issue us and Article 5. Then the article 5 gets submitted to China and 3-4 weeks after that we get our Travel Approval. The Travel Approval is the final China approval! From there we set dates for a consulate appointment in China and once we have that, we set our travel plans! I'm amazed that we are this close! We need to even submit our visa applications soon! Woohoo. I'm still planning on early Feb.

So here are the steps:

1. Get approval from NVC

2. Apply for Article 5(from US consulate in China)

3. Get Travel Approval from China

4. Request a consulate appointment in China

5. arrange travel dates

6. Go get her!

We're excited! They are supposed to send us updates every 3 months, which means we'll get one in Dec. Can't wait for that!

And, for your viewing pleasure. Judson's latest musical adventure.

Memories

My grandparents loved me. I was their only granddaughter and they spoiled me. My grandfather was a carpenter, and my grandmother liked to sew and paint. So, anytime I needed anything, all I had to do was call them up(they lived 8 hours away) and make my little requests known. I honestly don't remember if I asked for the doll house or not, maybe they just made it for me? I do know at some point that I would think up things to get and call and lay it on them!

Its time to get rid of the dollhouse, and its so hard for me! Mark has been trying to get rid of it without me knowing, he actually commissioned Lisa to take it to Goodwill while we were out of town, but she couldn't do it(yay Lisa!). I've been trying to find a good home for it, and my sis-in-law finally came to the rescue!

So, without further details, I present to you, me and my dollhouse-made with love-by my Grandma and Grandpa Clarke.

Everything in the dollhouse is handmade! The furniture and curtains! WOW.

And for your bonus viewing pleasure a pic of me and some drawers my Grandparents made and Caroline with them now.

So, goodbye dollhouse. Its not really the dollhouse that I'm most sad about. Its that it reminds me of my grandparents. They both died this past year. Its been many years before that I was able to spend any good time with them. In these last years my grandma would always say, "we have our memories Megan". Here are a few of them, and I'm very thankful.

Morning with Judson

We just got our Letter of Acceptance!!!

I was excited to send on some pics from the last week, and then my agency called and said we got our LOA-Letter of Acceptance from China!!! WOohooo! A step closer to getting Emma!! So excited! It was 34 days after we got our last approval which is pretty fast! I am very thankful!! In the funding department, we got enough and more to match our grant, and just received another grant this past week. We are about half way in support with what it will cost. So thankful for this as well. Praise God with me for working this out and providing for us.

So, what does this mean, you ask? Ha. It seems like now we have a few more steps. . .
1. They overnight us the LOA and instructions to fill out our paperwork for the US-(I-800)-this process takes about 3 weeks
2. Once we receive approval from the US govt we fill out an application for a DS 230 (no idea what this means:), that is sent to our agency and they send it to the US consulate in China and issue an Article 5 - this takes about 3 weeks
3. Once China gets this, they will give us our Travel Approval(TA)-3-4 weeks later
4. 3-4 weeks later we can travel to China and bring Emma home!!!

Looks like February sometime. Feb 3 is Chinese New Year, so maybe we could go after this?

Some pictures for you.
This is a picture of Emma's orphanage, the baby room. Clean, sterile. Makes you want to go get her huh?

This is one of Lawrence's zoos that he builds during rest time. . .

And a lego creation. . .
Judson wants to be like his big brotherThe day after a library run. . . Found them like this while I was doing the dishes. . .
I found Jud like this:) Some friends had borrowed it and given it back and he was enjoying sitting in it on the floor!!
Halloween House from Grandma Susan!
Trick or treaters

And these pics from the zoo. Creepy Superman

The cutest of all: Judson the skunk

Lawrence the. . well. . I think dragon(but look at those legos!)

Thirsty Law at Car's soccer game. Sulking.

Lawrence is darn cute these days.

Aunt Marilyn and mom came for a visit last weekend. Judson likes Aunt Marilyn! She'll read to him whenever he wants!

I took advantage of the help and got some Christmas pics taken! Woohoo for starting early this year!

Jud stayed in this box for. . oh. . maybe 30 minutes or more:)

Emma Grace Collins

Well friends, we finally agreed on a name:) Emma Grace. Love it. Can't wait to call her that name! Here are finally some more pictures that I finally figured out how to get out of the original file(thanks John), I'm not sure how old she is in these pics. Enjoy:)

The Collins in Pictures

Hey friends, got some pictures to show you what we have been up to. No news on mei mei yet, but we are excited to get to her!! We are now waiting for our Letter of Approval. Pray it comes fast!!

Sorry they are out of order:

Chinese food with our friends
Dinner with the Koproski's!!!
Planet Earth with Uncle John and Pop Pop
Pumpkins!

Judson tried to pick up each pumpkin.
Lawrence likes to build walls with his blocks during room time.
Judson misses his girlfriend Caroline. Oh just give me a hug:)
Judson also loves to hug:)
and read books.
Grandma Susan came for a visit.
All my dossier work done! Off to the Post Office(oh, actually it wasn't done but I did finish the last piece and it is now logged in!
Caroline starts soccer practice.
Caroline's first day of CC school.
Chinese party for Katie.

Serious on the Fall Festival merry go round