LOA

We were informed today that we have our Letter of Acceptance from China. What does that mean? That means that China has approved all of our documents and they have officially approved us to be the parents of Wu Lina. We are beyond excited. Now I can share with you a little more about her. Her Chinese name is Wu LiNa. Wu is her last name, Lina is her name. They call her "NaNa" though. Her birthday is February 25th. She is currently 6 years old. She currently resides in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. She is in an excellent orphanage where she is truly loved. I will update you more on Baotou later. From here, we have to apply for her approval to come into the US. Once we receive that approval and a visa is issued in her new name, we will receive travel from China. In a perfect world this will take about 8 weeks. Sometimes it goes slower, sometimes faster. Then we will travel about 2-4 weeks later. We are so excited to be onto the next step. We have some friends in China now adopting from this SWI. Yesterday they got a report that our daughter is bright and happy, cute and pretty. I love it!

My Favorite Beach Pictures

 

 

 

 

Shark Hunting

 

 

 

 

While I took the girls to ride on the beach, Paul took Hunter fishing. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to find a boat to take Hunter out because all the fishermen were waiting for a call to help put the boom in place to help protect St. Vincent Island off of Indian Pass. The island is a animal sanctuary containing, deer, elk, and tons of rare birds. But, we lucked up and got a call on Sunday night letting us know that they could take Hunter out Monday morning. Hunter really wanted to catch a shark. Captain Joey was positive they would be able to find some. Sure enough, Hunter caught about 10 sharks. He was so thrilled! Captain Joey cut off the head of one of the sharks for Hunter, so he could get the teeth out. We boiled the head, and sure enough the teeth fell right out. Hunter was wanting to keep the head and have it stuffed like the alligator head. I had to break it to him, that the alligator head was not coming home with us. The stinch from that thing was enough to make your stomach churn. I had a really happy boy after this trip. He will be talking about this for years to come.

Beach Riding

 

 

 

 

I love this beach! One thing about Cape San Blas is that you can bring all your animals to play on the beach with you. We got to ride on the beach too! Noelle was looking forward to this so much. LeeLee decided she would like to ride with me this time. She will tell you she loved it, but she complained a lot! She kept saying her butt hurt. I'm sure it did since she is so skinny. Another thing I love about this beach is that there aren't very many people. We rode on the beach for an hour and only encounted two families total. It is really neat to just ride by the water and see the beautiful surroundings that God created. Leaving the beach this time broke my heart, because I am afraid that everything I love about this place is about to be ruined by the oil. The wildlife is so abundant, 250 pound sea turtles can be seen nightly climbing on shore to lay their eggs. It sickens me to think about them getting back into the water and how they will most likely encounter the oil shortly into their journeys. Everytime, I leave the Cape, I feel like a piece of my heart is still there, but this time I feel like I walked away with a heavier heart because of the devastation that is to come.

Pool Time

 

 

 

 

The kids love the pool! I love watching them play and just be kids. These three really love each other and it showed in the pool this week as they all played together.

Deep Sea Fishing

 

Paul went out deep sea fishing last Tuesday night. We headed down to the beach on Wednesday so we could meet him at the dock on Thursday morning. It was neat to see all the fish that the guys brought in.

Hunter's 7th Birthday!

 

 

 

 

I can't believe my little man is seven! He is such a joy! He had a great day. He got an alligator head, an air soft gun, some creek waders, and an air hockey table. What more could a little boy want! He picked a restaurant for dinner, so we ended up at Shakey's.

New Momma G's

 

We love Momma G's! This is a picture of the kids at the grand opening of the new Momma G's in Auburn. Unfortunately the service isn't as good as the other three locations, but they have the summer to get it together before the students roll in.