The Newest Member of Our Family

No, we haven't gone crazy and decided to add kiddo #4 to our family.  (Not that it hasn't crossed my mind a time or two hundred.  How can it not when there are sweet little ones like Sam who wait. and wait. and wait?  And Laura - this girl breaks. my. heart.)

I need to rewind a little before I start telling you today's story.  It actually starts on our trip to California two weeks ago.  When Emma was about a year old, my sister adopted an adorable boxer named Sayher.

(See, she's even cute from behind. ;)  

Emma L.O.V.E.S. Sayher.  She loves feeding her.

Walking her.

Kissing her.

Emma + Sayher = Many happy hours of fun (for Em, at least)

So, two days after coming home from California, I log into Facebook and see this adorable picture.

A couple we know from college had accepted a job out-of-state and was hoping to find a new family for their ten-month-old boxer, Brinley.  One look at that adorable face, and I was pretty much sold.  Jeremy pretended not be sold, but he was.

So...on Monday evening, Brinley joined our family.  We all L.O.V.E. her.  She's sweet and mellow.  In fact, she spends a lot of her time doing this (when she's not being dragged around the house by a certain three-year-old).

You know, it's only fair for Emma to have another girl around since she's going to be surrounded by dirt, dinosaurs, and diggers sometime very soon.  Brinley will have to be that other girl (for now, at least... ;).

My Favorite Things

These are a few of my favorite things...

(Just FYI...there are some pictures you really, really, really want to see at the bottom of this post.)

Sweet girls with painted faces

My family...all in the same state

 

  

Hiking

 

The view from the top

Birthdays (Love you, Dad!)

MICKEY! :)

My hot husband (and the adorable girl on his shoulders)

Waking up to new pictures of our Little Man 

(Thank you, Deb!)

A Step in the Right Direction

I'm totally tempted to write this entire post in REALLY GIGANTIC, bright red, bold font, but I won't be that annoying. :)  Just know that if I could accurately express my current emotional state in a blog post, it would look something like  THIS!!! 

Today our home study arrived from our agency.  That means there is just one piece of paper left to collect before we can send our dossier (a.k.a huge stack of hard-won paperwork) to China (well, one piece of paper + a whole lot of official certificates, stamps, etc. from the Secretary of State and the U.S. Department of State).  The bad news is that one piece of paper is our approval from United States Immigr*tion, and it has been known to take a short eternity seven or eight weeks to arrive.  Please pray that our case would be processed quickly so we can send everything to China and take one giant step closer to our boys.

On that note, I know one big sister who is pretty excited for us to go get her brothers.  I took Li'l Miss shopping today to pick out a lovie for Li'l Dude's birthday.  (Yes, our SoCal trip put us a teeny bit behind on our birthday shopping.)  She insisted on picking out two lovies for her two brothers.  After laying out every boy-friendly lovie at B*bies 'R Us, she decided on these two: a giraffe for Li'l Man and a monkey for Li'l Dude. 

I haven't forgotten about posting vacation pics.  They'll be up by the end of weekend...really! 

I Miss You, Mountains

So when I promised to post pictures from our SoCal trip today, I should have considered the fact that I might have one or two things to do the day after flying home from a nine-day vacation.  (You know, things like dragging my jet-lagged self to Kr*ger at ten o'clock at night so that I could squeeze in a shopping trip to fill our seriously empty 'fridge before this week's specials end at midnight, only to discover as I'm ringing up my second item that I've been looking at the ad that starts tomorrow.  "I'm sorry, Miss Cashier, I won't be purchasing these 17 items."  Oops.)

You'll have to check back tomorrow (or Friday...or Saturday...or sometime really soon, I promise!) to see all my fun pics.  But, I'll share a quick sneak peek tonight.  We took a short hike our last day in SoCal.  Here's the view from the top.   We seriously need a few of these in the Midwest.

 

Happy Birthday, Li'l Dude!

Today is Li'l Dude's first birthday.  I SO wish he were home and I could have spent the last few weeks planning some sort of elaborate birthday celebration.  It makes me sad to think that today was probably just a day like any other in the orphanage.  

No candle.  No messy cake smashing.  No presents.

What hurts even more than the fact that Li'l Dude will miss out on the trappings of a first birthday party is the thought that there is no one special with him to rejoice today.  To gaze at his sweet little face and marvel at the miracle that is him.  To fill the hours with gifts and surprises born out of a heart that knows him and loves him more than words can say.

BUT...I am grateful that this is the very last birthday our son will ever spend away from him family.  Next year we can have a huge birthday bash, and our Li'l Dude will have a big brother and a big sister to fight over presents celebrate with him.  And, hopefully sometime much sooner than March 20, 2013, Li'l Dude will be in our arms and part of our family forever.

This year, our younger son gets two great presents for his birthday.  One is from his big sister.  The girl who absolutely can't survive without her lovie (a.k.a. rabbit-headed silky blanket) is picking out a special lovie for her brother that we'll take to China with us.  His other present was a surprise to all of us.

Our social worker called today to say that our home study is finally finished!!!

Just had to put that in gigantic letters because her call totally made. my. day.  She said she'd put the final copy in the mail tomorrow, so we should be able to have it off to U.S. Immigration on Friday.  

WOOHOO!!!

Alright, I have been up since 4:00 and on a plane all day (stop back tomorrow to see SoCal pics) so I need to go to bed.  I just couldn't let this day pass without wishing this beautiful boy a happy birthday!  I wish he could know how much he is already loved.

Li'l Miss Shortcut

I left the house earlier today with this little girl.

Does anybody recognize the pixie who came home with me?

We're Adopting...AGAIN!!!

When I said this week was going to be exciting, I R-E-A-L-L-Y had no idea.

(Okay, I know you're just here for the pictures, but the story is pretty a.maz.ing.  Go ahead; scroll to the bottom and look at the pictures, but then come back and read about how God brought this special little one into our family.)

Monday Night: 9:00 p.m. 

China makes the files of new children available to adoption agencies.  Our agency is unable to find a little one who seems to "fit" our family's parameters but sends us the file of a child to consider anyway.  (By "locking" this file for us, they automatically give us 72 hours to make a decision about whether or not to move forward to adopt this child.)  This child has a special need that we have only learned about in recent months.  I am obsessively refreshing happen to be checking my email and receive this child's file.  Seeing that the special needs listed aren't one of the needs we have seriously been thinking about, I mentally prepare myself to keep waiting.  I send an email to one of the amazing, lovely people at our agency, letting them know that we will hang in there and wait a little longer.

Wednesday Afternoon: 3:30 p.m.

If we were going to move forward with the child whose file we received Monday, this would be the time to let our agency know.  Since we've opted to wait, I spend my afternoon checking for China adoption news online.  I read a post on a China forum I stalk read once in a while from an adoptive mom I've met online.  She asks for people to let her know if they become aware of waiting children with thalassemia, as she has a little guy with this condition and loves to help these little ones find their families.  

Hhhhhmmmm...the little one our agency sent us for consideration has thalassemia.  I'd love to find a family for this little one since we have decided to keep waiting.  I quickly email this mom, attaching pictures of the child and asking if there's anything I can do to help her find a family for this little one.

Wednesday Afternoon: 4:30 p.m.

I get a return email.  The mom is excited to advocate for this child and asks for more information, which I send her right away.  I know this little one's file will be released on Thursday night at 9:00, so I'm eager to get this information out to potential families.

 

Wednesday Evening: 6:30 pm...okay, so maybe it was more like 6:38 p.m.

We arrive at our weekly small group.  This group has been awesome and so supportive of us on our adoption journey!  We ask them to pray for our Little Man and for our desire to be matched with a second child.  Several people pray specifically for God to guide us and provide for us as we move forward.

 

Wednesday Night: 9:00 p.m.

Jeremy and I put Li'l Miss to bed and sit down together on the couch.  I check my email and see that I have a response from the woman I emailed earlier.  She is very excited about this little one and feels he has a great prognosis.  She says she will pass the information on to potential adoptive parents.  Jeremy reads the email over my shoulder.

We look at the pictures of the child that our agency sent on Monday night.  

We reread the email.  

We read through the child's file.

We look at each other.

We frantically call our agency's China Specialist (Heidi) on her personal cell phone to ask if it's even possible for us to consider this child since we were supposed to let them know if we were interested, um, like Wednesday afternoonish so that the appropriate documents could be translated and sent to China on Thursday.  She doesn't answer.

Being the amazing, lovely person that she is, Heidi calls us back 37 seconds later.  She just happens to still be in the office.  And, yes, we can still consider this little one.  But, she kindly lets us know, she doesn't want to push us, but we might need to rush just a bit on making our decision.

Jeremy and I look at each other again.

We pray together.

We fill out our paperwork.

Thursday Morning, 11:37 a.m.

We get an email from our agency saying this...

This has to be a CHI record for the fastest turn around of translations and application completion! Wow! We worked through the night and the application has been officially submitted for the CCCWA to review. Since this is a second child we anticipate it could take up to 2 weeks for the CCCWA to review and answer.

I check in on a few of my China groups and am shocked at what I find.  The boards are buzzing with rumors that China will be changing its adoption process.  One of the changes coming, the rumors assert, is that China will no longer be allowing concurrent (two at once) adoptions.   

Seriously?  

We are quickly falling in love with this special little one, and now we're going to have to wait two weeks to find out if China will even let us adopt another child?  I take a lot of really deep breaths and tell myself that it's a good thing I gave up worrying for Lent.

I email our agency, thinking that they're probably ready to offer another agency money to take me on as a client right now.  They say they haven't heard anything official from China, but they have heard the rumors.  They tell us to cross our fingers and toes for PA (Pre-Approval) from China.

I take lots of really deep breaths and remind myself again that 

I. GAVE. UP. WORRYING. FOR. LENT.

Thursday Night, 9:11 p.m.

I get an email from our agency.  It says this...

In keeping with the whirlwind theme, it seems that the CCCWA would also like to participate. Much to my deep surprise, the PA has already been issued! They have only been to work for 2 hours. So, approval of concurrent adoptions is definitely still happening for [your family]!

A huge congratulations!!! 

So...

We're adopting baby boy #2!!!

Want to meet him?  He will celebrate his first birthday on the 20th, and he's oh-so-deliciously-adorable.

Please, now I R-E-A-L-L-Y need those boy name suggestions! :)