LOA Signed and Returned

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:43:09 -0500

This is our LOA...Letter of Acceptance! Isn’t it a beautiful sight! It basically states that China has indeed accepted our request to adopt Wu Chang Shun, and we have been approved to adopt him. It also asks us once again if we accept his referral. Uhh...YES!!! Yes, we do! We signed the form and sent it back to our agency along with some immigration paperwork. This is where things start to get fuzzy for me. The process has changed so much since we adopted Abigail, and I’m not quite sure what all the new paperwork is for. It feels like I keep filling out the same information on a similar form with a different number at the top of it....the I800A, the I800, the DS something something, the something something W...all I know is these forms stand between me and a plane ticket to China...to my son! And so, I diligently fill them out without asking any questions, and return them to wherever I’m told to return them. I am quite obedient when it comes to these forms! :) And just today we received another email with more forms to fill out...so, it’s back to adoption paperwork for me! There is an end in sight, and it’s a beautiful sight indeed!

Potty Training Pass Time

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:50:39 -0500

Lilly loves Dora the Explorer, just as her sisters did at her age. So, she is always eager to “use” her Dora potty seat. But there’s one catch...each time she uses it she requests the Dora the Explorer theme song....over and over and over again. On Monday I happened to have my computer in the bathroom with us as I sat singing Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer... and I decided to try out the video feature. Pretty cute! Lilly usually participates a bit more but she was distracted by watching herself on the screen. She particularly enjoyed watching the “awww man!” part of the song!

Yea, Yea, Yea! LOA Came TODAY!

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 14:45:20 -0500

Well, so much for my productive day! I’ve spent the last couple of hours sending out emails, updating yahoo groups and facebook accounts with the news, and looking over the calendar to see where our new estimated travel falls! But, no complaints here...OUR LOA ARRIVED TODAY!!! Yipeee!!! We should get it in the mail some time tomorrow and then after signing it and other application forms will be sending it along to USCIS for final immigration clearance. At this point they expect that we will be traveling 10-14 weeks from the time our paper work goes to immigration, so anywhere between the last week of October and the week after Thanksgiving. Something new to look forward to! (And I guess my idea of giving the older two a joint birthday party sometime in November kind of goes out the window at this point!)

Longing for Joshua

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 00:16:46 -0500

It’s fair to say we have quite a bit going on right now. With the house still not ready for us to move in (we weren’t really expecting to until next week, so we’re not necessarily behind schedule, I’m just getting antsy)...and our current house is certainly not packed yet...not even close. Then there’s gearing up for school to start. Daniel will be in second grade, Caroline starts Kindergarten, and Abigail will start back up with her small talk class a couple of hours twice a week. We are pretty much prepared for school, although we do still need to get shoes and socks for both the big kids. Then there’s the unknowns with work and conversations going on in regards to that. Add to that the anticipation of our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) for Joshua, and yes, I’d say that’s quite a lot!

I think I’ve been doing pretty good with the adoption wait, although it’s probably more accurate to say I’ve been so distracted by the other stuff going on I haven’t had much time to actually think about the wait! But recently in the midst of the craziness around me I’ve found myself thinking about my son and longing for him to be home.

I’ve even noticed the kids talking about him more often. Just the other day I was walking through the store carrying Lilly and she said with her hands turned up and a very inquisitive look on her face, “Where Josha?” I said, “He’s in China, sweetheart.” To which she replied, “Chia?...but where is he?” Sweet girl. She’s ready to have her brother home too. And Abigail frequently brings up “Joshua is in China...I’m from China too...I want to get on that airplane and go to China...to get Joshua!” And sweet Daniel and Caroline have been praying regularly for the timing of everything so they can go with us on the trip. With school and job change we are not yet sure if it’s realistic to take all the kids, but they would love to go, and we’d love to take them if it makes sense financially. But that’s in the Lord’s hands, and the kids know it.

And that brings me back to the timing...we are currently waiting for our LOA. It typically arrives 4-8 weeks after your dossier is logged into China. We’ve been waiting 7 weeks today...that’s right SEVEN! Ugh! I’m so glad I have not been keeping tabs on that daily, otherwise I’d be going CRAZY right about now. I know His timing is perfect, and with everything else going on right now I can see that the longer wait is probably best for us, but man, my son is half way across the world, and this mama wants him HOME! I want to hold him in my arms and give him snuggles and hugs and kisses. I want to let him know that he is loved, not only by his forever family, but by a God who loves even better than we do. A God who loves so perfectly that he made a way for sinful man to spend eternity in the riches of His glory, through Christ. That is what I long for!

Once we receive our LOA we should have about a two month wait until Travel Approval, and then fly out about two weeks after that. That would put us traveling towards the beginning of November. Of course with the many holidays in China in October, and the China Games (?)...World Games (?)...some sort of games being played in Guangzhou in November, getting a consulate appointment may be kind of tricky. So we’ll see. One step at a time...and hopefully I’ll get to post about our LOA later this week! :)

Here’s a picture of Lilly trying on the outfit we bought for Joshua right after July 4th...and two of her showing off her belly button! Cute isn’t it! I just couldn’t resist!

The Whirlwind of July!

Sun, 8 Aug 2010 22:09:09 -0500

Wow! What a month...what a crazy, crazy month!

We ended June and started July with Caroline in swim lessons and Daniel at Pine Cove Base Camp. Although Caroline anxiously looked forward to swim lessons, she did not really care for them all that much. She’s already a pretty good swimmer but has her own style and didn’t like the challenge of doing it the “right” way. Daniel on the other hand LOVED Pine Cove. I’m thinking Pine Cove may become a family tradition for the Leventhal’s. This was Daniel’s first year to do a full day camp, and he could not get enough of it! I must admit the highlight for me was seeing the screaming and cheering college students greeting us as we pulled into the parking lot each morning (even the mornings when it was pouring down rain)! Made me smile every day! And brought back great memories of working FCA camps during my college years. Good times!

July 2nd we also celebrated Abigail’s gotcha day and the 3rd we celebrated adoption day! Three years in our arms! I’ll have do do a separate post for that one!

We spent the 4th with friends, although we had planed to go to Paw Paw’s house. A huge storm moved through that weekend and we just weren’t up for making the drive in the downpour. Sorry Dad...we’ve got to plan a trip soon!

We took possession of our new house on the 10th and started some renovations the following week. (I’ll do another post on that once we are actually in!)

And July 23rd was Lilly’s 2nd Birthday! The girl is definitely TWO!! We celebrated with a small family party and had our sweet neighbors join us.

In the midst of all of that, there were more play dates and swim days. Along with other unexpected transitions. We ended up doing the majority of the interior painting ourselves which consumed quite a few long nights for me and a few “date nights” for David and myself! And while I’d probably not choose to go paint a house for a date night, I must say it was much more fun painting when he was there with me than when I was there alone. It just so happened that all my girlfriends who “love to paint” (or so they say) were out of town the week we did the majority of the work! I’m still wondering how they ALL knew to flee town at the same time!?! Hum??? :)

We also spent every Tuesday evening in June and July participating in the Empowered To Connect class at Irving Bible Church. The class was lead by Michael and Amy Monroe who worked along side Karyn Purvis to develop the curriculum. The class was amazing and I HIGHLY encourage all adoptive families (and families with kids from hard places) to look into taking the class or going to one of their seminars. I’m pretty sure a weekend seminar is being held in Tennessee sometime soon. The material is based off of Dr. Purvis’ book The Connected Child. A “must read” for all adoptive families.

So there you have it! Another busy, busy month! And that was a month with nothing officially on the calendar!

Happy 2nd Birthday Lilly!

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:59:27 -0500

We’ve known for a while now, based on her demand to be independent, that Lilly was nearing her second birthday, but now it’s official...on July 23rd she turned TWO! My Lilly Girl is full of spunk and love. She is feisty and fun...and can straight up wear this mama out! :) She is slowly beginning to learn that she is not in charge of our family, and I am having to remember constantly that consistency is the key at this age! Or any age for that matter! We celebrated with a small family party and had our sweet neighbors across the street join us for cake and ice cream. She wasn’t quite sure of the singing and candles, but just a few days later kept walking around the house singing Happy Birthday to herself!

Celebrating Abigail!!!

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 23:20:54 -0500

July 2nd and 3rd marked our 3rd year of having Abigail home in our arms and officially a Leventhal. What an amazing, amazing blessing and joy!!!

She and I enjoyed some special Mommy and Abigail time with a trip to Target to pick out her special “Abigail Day” cake. We even stopped at the snack bar for nachos and an ICEE! I love when I can get special one on one time with my kiddos, and this day was certainly a treat! She was especially cute as we were making her cake and she realized no one else was home to help lick the mixers and bowl! You should have seen her eyes light up when she figured out she got them all to herself! Priceless! My sweet girl! She’s growing up so fast. I do cherish these precious Mommy moments with her. They are few and far between, but they are so refreshing to my soul. She and I have certainly had our challenges over the past three years, as we learn to do this attachment dance with one another, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Her little life has spurred me on to know my Savior deeper, and for that I am grateful. I love you sweet Abigail!

Summer Fun - June In Review

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 14:25:15 -0500

June has quickly come and gone. It has been a jam packed month full of play dates, VBS, camps, swim lessons, and much, much more. Here’s a glimpse into the start of our summer:

Log In Date...and the Wait

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:46:28 -0500

I’m a little late in posting this, but...we have our official log in date: June 21, 2010!

Yeahhh!!!

So what does this even mean? It means that our paperwork has been received by and logged into the CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) database. From this point we are told to expect to wait 4-6 months for Travel Approval. Ugh. 4-6 months does not encourage me, but hey, we ARE making progress! So, for that I am thankful.

There will also be several smaller steps along the way dealing with the USCIS which will help indicate whether we are headed toward the 4 month or 6 month side of that estimate.

I’ve had several people ask me recently how I’m doing with the wait. So far I think I’m doing pretty good. We’ve had enough to distract us with buying a new house and preparing to move, along with the normal hustle and bustle of keeping up with the other four, that I haven’t had much time to sit and think about the wait. Don’t get me wrong, I think about my boy often! I’ve just done a better job this time around not letting the wait control me.

I’ll explain...

As we got to this point with Abigail’s adoption I was consumed by blogs and yahoo groups. I would check them multiple times throughout the day to see if any of the families ahead of us in the process had gotten word of travel approval. I would get caught up in this cyber world and WASTE hours upon hours glued to my computer. Daily.

It was not good.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with blogs or yahoo groups...I obviously have a blog and I still participate in a yahoo group. They are great outlets and great sources for support. However, when you are so consumed by them that you can’t even step away to play with the children already in your home, or when they stir up anxiety and anxiousness it’s just not good.

Also, the first time around I feel I fantasized about Abigail quite a bit. What she’d be like, how she’d act, what we’d do together, how the other kids would play with her...it was dreamy! She was perfect! I fell in love with a picture and a perfect, made up child.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being excited and anticipating how things are going to change. But at some point the expectations formed through this anticipation are going to meet up with reality and some adjustments are going to have to be made.

For me the depths of my expectations did not help me with our transition, and it took me months to figure out that the disconnection I was feeling with her was due, in a large part, to my unmet and unrealistic expectations. As I’ve come to understand my own heart more through much prayer, educated myself with some great books like The Connected Child, and surrounded myself with other godly adoptive families through our church’s adoption ministry (Tapestry), I’ve learned that I must evaluate and adjust my expectations so that they are more realistic. I must love my daughter for who she is and for how our God has created her, rather than try to make her into something she’s not. This is not a new concept to me, but it is one that took me being very intentional to really change my heart.

So, I guess you can say, I learned my lesson the first time around! I do get excited about meeting Joshua and discovering his personality. I can’t wait to have him home to love on him, play with him, and cuddle him. I can’t wait to see how his little life is going to impact the lives of our other children. But I’m trying to be more realistic and almost hold my emotions an arms length away so that I can fall in love with him, and not what I imagine to be him! Does that even make any sense?

Do I like waiting? No. I’d have him home today if I could. But I know waiting is part of the process. I know that my Lord loves him even more than I do, and I know that He can take care of Chang Shun just fine without me. I know that He has invited me into this process and is giving me the privilege of being this little boy’s mommy for a time. I know that all of my kids are HIS before they are mine, and so I must hold them with an open hand and trust in His loving care...much easier said than done! But I’m working on it!

Abigail’s First Ballet “Recital”

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:08:26 -0500

Abigail LOVES to dance. She dances all over the house and puts on her own little shows while dancing on the fireplace bricks. She frequently comes down dressed in her princess or ballet costume and prefers to wear dress up shoes whenever she can.

Here are a few pics I found that prove my point. The picture on the left was taken on a chilly November day, but the girl did not want to cover up her puffy tutu with a jacket or pants. The picture on the right is the outfit she came down in one morning after I told her to go get ready for preschool. (Actually she came down in just the leotard, but we made a compromise and said it was preschool appropriate if it included the white shirt and tights underneath!)

This year she even picked out a pink swim suit with a little tutu on it. So, when a friend of ours asked if Abigail would be interested in going to a little ballet camp with her daughter, my answer was a resounding “YES!!! With out a doubt Abigail would LOVE that!!!!” And come to find out the week’s theme was going to be “FAIRIES!” Even better! I knew Abigail would be hooked and begging to take dance from that point forward.

She and I went on a special “date” to buy her ballet shoes. They were not required for the class but because I just knew there would be more ballet events in our future, I figured it was worth the $15 to go ahead and get her a pair.

We showed up the first day and she was excited but a bit nervous. Rightly so...she only knew one other kid in the class, and there were quite a few kids there. But she walked on in and took her spot with the others. The next day she went with a bit more hesitancy, and by the third day she told me she didn’t like it and she didn’t want to go... she’d rather go to swim lessons! What!?! How could that be? This was Fairy week at Ballet camp...how could she want to be any place else? (And don’t think this is just me projecting my unmet ballet dreams on my child...fairy week at ballet camp is pretty much the last place I’d want to be and my response to ballet was actually pretty similar to Abigail’s!)

Well, she finished out the week, but regularly told me she’d rather take swim lessons. On the last day they had a little “recital” to show off what they had learned. We happened to sit right in front of where Abigail was positioned. I was ready with the camera and video camera, however the video battery was dead, go figure. I sat with great anticipation, as I thought surely this “show” environment would bring out the dancer in her. I mean, she usually loves to perform for anyone who will watch her.

The little girls came out. Abigail looked precious. She walked over to her spot, and that’s where the movement stopped. From that point forward she just stood there...smiling, rolling one foot to the side, looking around at the other girls. She did manage to participate in one part at the very end where they went down on their knees. Even with not really doing the dance, Abigail had a great time. She was all smiles, said she had fun at ballet camp, and was now ready for....you guessed it, swim lessons! :)

Sugar and Spice...

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:49:32 -0500

...and everything nice. That’s what little girls are made of!

I think our Lilly got an extra dose of the spice! This little girl does not lack spunk, and this outfit she picked out the other day fits her personality perfectly! Cute and sweet, but tough as nails. Enjoy the pictures...I used my iPhone Hipstamatic app!

Dossier to CHINA!!! (DTC)

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:58:21 -0500

Just received this message:

David (and Missy)

I'm writing you from home, only because I wasn't able to tell you the good news before I left the office for the day (our China Dept. was working like MAD when I left, already after-hours) . . . your dossier was mailed to China today! I'll send the "official" email from my desk computer on Monday, but know you guys worked hard to get me your new Police Reports, and figured you'd appreciate knowing all weekend that your hard work paid off. :)

Congrats!

Talk to you both soon,
Kim

Yea!!!! I’m so excited!!!! I know there are plenty of steps still ahead of us, but this is one BIG ONE complete!!!! YEA! Happy Dance!

Mission Accomplished!

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:28:01 -0500

On Tuesday at 4 a.m. David headed to Austin with our documents, my step by step checklist, any documents I thought he might possibly need, and an overnight bag...just in case!

He made it to Austin just after 7:30, and just an hour after the office opened he was walking out the door with our State certified documents! From there he headed to Houston.
By 11:26 he was greeted by a nice long line at the Chinese Consulate office in Houston. He was fully expecting a 2 hour wait, but just 20 minutes in a woman behind the glass asked “who wants same day service?” After raising his hand, David was called to the front of the line! She scanned the documents and said there was no way it could be completed same day. She was unsympathetic to his 4 a.m. Dallas to Austin to Houston story and told him the documents would be ready the next morning. I was actually pretty surprised they said it would be ready the next morning. I was fully expecting afternoon at the earliest.

So he spent the evening in Houston getting caught up on some work, and had the opportunity to connect with an old friend.

At 8:35 the next morning he arrived at the Consulate office, and an hour after they opened he was headed our the door with our Authenticated documents! Yea!!!! Then he was off to make the necessary copies and overnight them to CCAI. Way to go honey! You are a rock star!

Today, less than a week after finding out about the error, CCAI informed us that our DOSSIER IS COMPLETE! It will now head to translation and hopefully be on a plane headed to China in the next day or so!!! Oh my goodness. I can’t believe it. It feels so good to type that...YOUR DOSSIER IS COMPLETE!!!!

I must say, through this whole mix up, which by the way, was totally my fault, CCAI and the people in the dossier department have been so supportive, encouraging and helpful. Poor Kim heard from us about 10 times the other day...if not more! We are so thankful for our agency!

The Saga Continues...

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 23:45:24 -0500

What a day...oh my goodness...WHAT A DAY!

The kids and I headed out of the house at 9 a.m. I dropped the older two off at VBS and then headed to the Richardson police department to get our new police clearance letters. On my way, I got a call from someone in the department...I had left a message last night to make sure they could do what we need. She assured me they could get the clearance done for us. We just needed to have our DL with our Richardson address on it ----ugh----WHAT? I haven’t updated mine yet! (Yes, I know, we’ve been in this house 9 months, but we’re still in transition. I didn’t want to change it and then turn right back around and change it again.) She kindly reminded me that it is a state law to change your license within 30 days of your move. Dough! Then she said, “and it will take 3 days to process your request.” You’ve got to be kidding me! I could feel the blood rushing to my head and tears welling up in my eyes. Not exactly the way I wanted to start the day!

I called David who was already in route to meet me at the police station. He went in and tried to work his magic to speed up the process, but no luck. We could update my license online and just bring in the receipt, but there was still that blasted 3 day processing. What can you do? So we went ahead and ordered his and then headed downtown to see if we could get ahold of of the lady we needed to notarize it for us. She was not in, but we were told she wasn’t going to able to notarize it for us. We weren’t giving up until we talked to her. Our hope was that she’d be in later in the day so we moved on.

From there we headed to the County Records building to see if they could get us a police clearance quicker than the City. Sure enough, they could...on the spot! YEA! So we gathered our new police clearance, called CCAI to make sure what we got would work, and headed back to track down our notary, hopefully. As we were making our way back to the police station I noticed my birthday was incorrect on the form! UGHHH!!!!! You’d think we’d learn to look at the details by now! :) The document was so plain jane that our personal info blended right in. I didn’t even realize our birthday was on the form until that moment. So...we turned back around and David ran in to have them reprint it. By this time it was about 11:40 and I had to pick up the big kids by noon, so we headed north.

David went back to work and I went to work gathering all the paperwork I thought I’d need to convince our notary friend to help us out. Around 2:30 the kids and I headed back downtown. I got to the window and explained our situation. I was again told they don’t notarize stuff like that. I continued asking and explaining and was passed on to the supervisor. After waiting a while, I again explained our situation and what we needed. I pulled out the dossier guide that spells out the notary info. I explained I was not asking for the notary to verify the signature but rather just to verify that the copy I had made was exactly the same as the original. She explained that she didn’t know it was the original, and that they could NOT notarize anything that did not originate in their office. I explained every which way I could, but it was no use. The answer was no. Tears again began to well up in my eyes.

So, while we avoided the 3 day processing of the city report, we are going to have to go back through the sealing process...secretary of state seal in Austin, and Chinese Consulate seal in Houston. After talking through our options (mailing paperwork back and forth + processing time vs. making the drive and hand delivering the docs) we decided David would make the trek. So, I’ve spent the evening making a checklist for him with everything he needs to know to bring home...or rather send to CCAI...our sealed document!

Another BUMP in the Road

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 08:52:39 -0500

Yesterday, as David and I were driving to pick up an awesome Craig’s List purchase I got a call from (303) area code...CCAI! I immediately thought “Yea! They are calling to say we’re DTC!” Well, not so much! Instead, they were calling to say our dossier has made it through critical review - yea!...BUT...there was one problem - NOOOO!!!

The problem is with our police clearance letter. Another complete oversight on my part. Geesh...why do I keep making this process so much more difficult than it has to be???

Because this is our second adoption you’d think it would be easier...at least that’s what I thought! Well, it seems as though our move and job change have caused more problems than I expected, only because I have not thought through the details of those changes and have tried to do everything like last time. Because we now live in the city of Richardson, our police clearance has to come from the city of Richardson...not Dallas, where I got them from!

So now, to avoid having to get the documents resealed (checked by the Secretary of State and the Chinese Embassy in Houston...about a week and a half process and another $160+) I have to make sure the new reports are notarized by the same woman who notarized the first ones...and employee of the City of Dallas Records Department. CCAI told me that even if we only get it notarized by her as a copy that will work. If I can’t track her down, or she is unwilling to notarize the document then we will have to have the new ones re-sealed.

I am so bummed that we are having to do this. If I had just focused on the details the first time around this would not be happening and our documents would be on their way to China. Ugh!

Dossier Complete!!!

Fri, 21 May 2010 23:41:16 -0500

Yesterday we received our certified documents from Houston at 3:15 and I went to work making the final copies and getting everything in order to send to our agency. Everything was packaged up and ready to go by 5 pm. David came home to pick up the package and delivered it to FedEx before their final shipment for the day!

I frequently checked in on the progress of our documents using our tracking number, and at 10:15 this morning they had arrived at CCAI. We received an email this evening saying the documents had arrived safely and would be there the next 9-11 days for critical review and summary translation. From there they head to China and we wait for our Log In Date (LID). I’m hoping it doesn’t take the full 9-11 days at CCAI...Abigail’s only took 5 days, so we’ll see! There is a chance it could go quicker!

So what exactly is in a dossier you ask? We’ll let’s see...here’s what was in ours:

- two copies of each parent’s passport photo page
- three passport photos
- three couple photos
- eight “family life” photos
- 13 documents all of which are notarized, certified by the secretary of state, authenticated by the Chinese consulate
- Adoption Petition (letter stating why you want to
adopt)
- Birth Certificate (Husband and Wife)
- Marriage Certificate
- Letter of employment or non-employment (Husband
and Wife)
- Financial Statement
- Physical (Husband and Wife)
- I - 797C (USCIS approval)
- Approved Home Study
- Police Clearance (Husband and Wife)
- Doctors Letter explaining or clarifying any serious medical information/past surgeries, etc.
- A complete copy of all documents, their notarization, certification page, and authentication seal.

That’s it! That is OUR dossier! Yea! I must say it feels a little empty around here without all those papers hanging over my head! Glad to be moving on the the next step in the process!

Care Package #1

Tue, 18 May 2010 14:53:25 -0500

I know, I know, it’s about time I got a package mailed off to my boy. It’s been here, somewhat ready to go...well, except for the pictures that needed to be labeled with Chinese characters and put in the album, and then the tooth brushes and toothpaste that needed to be replaced because the girls go into the ones I bought for Joshua, and except for the little foam foot ball that disappeared the first day I brought it home, and except for the fact that we could not find any tape of any type anywhere in our house and I kept forgetting to pick some up at the store...yea, it’s been somewhat ready...UNTIL TODAY! Thanks to a very small roll of duck tape I found out in the garage I was finally able to tape it shut, and I even mustered up enough courage to face the lines at the post office with all four kids. I was surprised to find no one at the post office around 2:45 when I arrived. Suddenly one clerk appeared and we had a very sweet conversation as she ensured our package was properly labeled for international shipment. So, in 10-15 days our package should arrive at the Wuhan Social Welfare Institute and will hopefully be delivered to our son shortly thereafter. He will finally see pictures of his FOREVER FAMILY!

(The pictures below are of the pages we colored in Joshua’s coloring book and a few of the pictures included in the albums we sent for him.)

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Sat, 15 May 2010 15:28:19 -0500

Saturday we celebrated our sweet Joshua’s 3rd Birthday! I made individual cakes for each of the kids and they got to decorate them as they pleased. Chocolate icing, strawberry icing, sprinkles, red icing, fruit snacks, more sprinkles...the works. The kids loved it, and all the while they talked to Joshua’s picture as if he were sitting right there. It was precious. They even took bites of cake and fed it to his picture just as they had done when we celebrated Abigail’s birthday before she was home. We are praying this is the last birthday he has to spend separated from his Forever Family, and praying the Lord continues to protect him and prepare him for the day we meet!

Puddle Jumpin’

Fri, 14 May 2010 15:45:07 -0500

Zoo Time!

Thu, 13 May 2010 14:16:24 -0500

I have been looking forward to joining Daniel and his class on this field trip ALL year long! At 9 a.m. quite a few first grade moms (and a dad or two) lined up in front of the school ready for kids to pile in their car. After the drive across the metroplex, we spent the day enjoying the sights and sounds of the Ft. Worth Zoo. It was fun to watch the kids together and listen to their conversations. It was refreshing to connect with the other moms and teachers. And it was a very nice break from the normal routine of my day. After a few photo ops, a visit with giraffes, hippos, rhinos, feeding the birds (maybe my favorite part), lions, lunch break, turtles, lizards, snakes, spiders, penguins, and gorillas, along with a few homemade weapons, lots of laughter and sweet conversations, we loaded back up to head home. We returned to the school just in time for car pool line at 2:45. I’m am blessed to have had the opportunity to join my son and his sweet classmates on such a fun trips like this! Sweet memories with him!

Enjoy the pictures below...I must say I’m quite impressed with the quality of the pictures seeing as they all came from my iphone!