Caroline is 6

Yesterday, February 1st, Caroline turned 6. We had a party on Saturday and celebrated again yesterday and Lawrence just couldn't understand why she got 2 birthdays so close together. He kept saying, "we'll celebrate my birthday soon, right". Sorry good buddy, see ya next December.

I love having a 6 year old. Caroline is such a great help to me. She loves to keep her checklist and make sure she gets a "daddy dollar" each day. Its rare that I have to remind her that she is my helper and needs to act as such:) She loves to learn too, its fun to teach her, except when I'm tired or ignorant, and I say, "you'll have to ask Daddy that when he gets home".

I was telling her yesterday about how I thought for sure she was a boy. I just thought that boys were supposed to be first, oh and the fact that my mom was convinced that I was having a boy(sorry to out you mom). So when she came and the doctor said, "It's a girl" I was like, "really". He said, "we're you expecting something else?" to which I replied, "um, well, kind of." HA. I am so glad it was Caroline! I can't imagine my life without my sweet, helping, leading, reading, listening, playing, running, oldest daughter Caroline!

We leave in a week for China. We will get Emma on February 14th. Mark, Caroline and I will go and my parents will keep the boys, for 2 1/2 weeks!! Pray for all of us!! Hope to post while we are there:)

Megan

Tickets purchased!!

Oh my. We just bought our plane tickets to China. Mark, Caroline and I will leave on Feb. 9th. Most likely we will get Emma on Feb. 13. I'm very thankful. It is so strange to imagine leaving here with just Caroline and returning with her and Emma!

Not many words, just thankful and wanted to share the good news!!

Megan

Travel Approval

Today is the day!! The agency called around 2:15 to tell me the good news, China gave us our official travel approval to come and adopt Emma! The Collins' house is very thankful. They are working on getting our consulate appointment the 3rd week of Feb. which would have us leaving around Feb. 9, but we will have to wait and see if that works. We should know in the next few days.

I'm now thankful for 3 weeks to prepare for our trip and to welcome Emma into our family and home!

Baby animal book

Just waiting here. Trying to be faithful with what I have as I wait. Waiting on the next thing in this adoption hasn't been too hard up to this point. It hasn't been emotional. In fact, sometimes I look at Emma's picture and wonder what I should be thinking or feeling. I pray for God to protect her and bring us to her as soon as possible, and then I wait. I was hoping to hear from our agency yesterday that we got our last approval, but nope, she didn't call.

So, I'm a bit flustered at my emotion this morning. I was just reading an animal book with Judson and he kept pointing to the pictures and saying, "baby, mommy, daddy" After a few pages of this I started to think about Emma. These animals get to snuggle with their mommy and daddy and Emma doesn't. That makes time seem more important, she needs us! God did not intend for babies to not have mommies and daddies.

Some people have asked why we would want to adopt when we already have 3 children. Well, its not really about us, or our 3 children, its about a little girl in an orphanage, who will go to bed right about now, with no stories, probably not many kisses, and awake in the morning to the same.

Maybe this will be the day we hear some news.

Emma at 16 months!

We got an update from the orphanage today! Here is Emma on that same slide from 3 months ago.


Wanna see it in black and white?
Of course you do!! Isn't she cute? The update also told us that she is 14.7 pounds, 27 inches and has 6 teeth! That 14.7 pounds is a bit alarming, so light. I'm hoping it is the normal, "often babies in orphanages are small", but won't know until we get her. I can't wait to get her home and fatten her up!

Along those lines, it seems that we got our next approval, and tomorrow our documents will go to the China Adoption Affairs office to be approved for the final, (did I say final? YES I did!) final travel approval, or TA if you are into adoption acronyms. This approval could take 3-4 weeks. After we get the TA, we can make a consulate appointment and that will be when we travel. Looks like February it is!!

We are excited!! Here is another picture of our Emma!
So serious.
Sepia?

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!