LID

I am super excited to announce that my paperwork was logged into China's system on May 10,2010. I have been waiting on this, rather impatiently! My social worker is going to kill me before this is over with! Here was my email to her this morning......

You know, all my life I have had this one really great quality. It is one that others don't generally possess, so I have actually been a little prideful (yes, I know pride is a sin) But now, I have lost that one great quality and I think I may actually be going a little nutty. I still have love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness (except when it comes to Paul) and self control. But all my life, my one great quality is the one that is now missing from my fruit of the spirit list! Oh where, oh where did my patience go?

So, here is my question of the day.......when you find out about my LID will you call me or email me? If I know at least that much then I can either quit walking around with a phone attached to my hand, or I can quit checking my email every five minutes and actually clean up my house :)

She is good because here was her reply in less than five minutes......

I love when you share your heart with me jenna!!

I have your LID! 05.10.2010!

Your patience is to be commended!

Karla

Have I ever mentioned that I love our social worker. Karla is not only our social worker, but also our friend. She has fun with Paul and I. We are not your typical family, and we keep her laughing by giving her honest answers, that others would never dare to give. We are blessed to have her on our side during this process! It is her patience that is to be commended because she puts up with us!

School Party for Hunter

Since Hunter has a summer birthday, we have to celebrate at school before they get out. He requested frog cupcakes (big surprise). I thought they turned out cute, but I was a little worried that maybe they didn't look like frogs. Sure enough, all the kids knew exactly what they were, and they ate them up eyeballs and all!

More Success

This morning I found 6 new pictures of my girl on the Chinese Internet. I love each new find! Below she is the one on the front row in the white dress. She has her hands on her knees. Her dress actually kinda looks like a slip. The more I find pictures of her, the more of a confirmation I have that we are doing the right thing by making her part of our family. She is so my daughter!! The picture below is the most recent I have found. She is wearing the white dress on the front row. I love the fact that she has on panties. Alot of social welfare institutes in China don't have panties for the kids, so they are very uncomfortable in them when you try to make them wear them. Seems like this is one hurdle we will get to avoid.

Here she is again at age 4. She has on the pink outfit, front row. Can I just say that I am in love?

It has been a great blessings to find all these pictures of her past. I am in awe at how many I have been able to find. Seeing these also helps me to know that she is so loved!! I will get to share alot more information about where she is once we receive our LOA. Right now I am trying really hard to keep things vague so I can stay in line with the Hague Convention regulations. What I can say is this, if I was going to have my daughter be any where away from me, this is a great place for her to be!

My Redneck Kids!

Our friends stopped by to pick up their son from our house, and we talked for a bit. The next thing you know the kids are all on top of her car. We love this family! They have five kids of their own, the oldest is our babysitter. So, let this be a warning, don't park your car for long at our house unless you want to to be conquered.

Career Day

Today was career day for Noelle and Hunter. Noelle always takes this day so seriously and really wants to play the part. She has always been a librarian in the past. This year she wanted to be an Avologist. That is the person that works with the penguins in an aquarium facility. So she wore some waders. Hunter on the other hand was a frog catcher. He put on some mud boots and a head lamp and he was ready to go. I haven't quite figured out how this is a career, but maybe in his dreams he will make millions!! Check out the height on my boy while your at it! They look like twins. Hard to believe there are two and a half years between them. Hunter is a giant.

Things that make you go HMMM!

Yesterday we hosted our college students for breakfast. It has become a tradition that every semester on Dead Day (the day before exams start) we serve breakfast to our college students. LeeLee loves their visits because they are so high energy and so is she. While in the kitchen cooking I realized that my little princess and one of her followers, Alyson, had climbed to the top of my stair case. Alyson and her sister Emily are such a blessing to us! They want to take LeeLee rock climbing. I think she would be great at it!

Two More Favs!!

I searched so many websites looking for pictures of Hope! I can actually read some Chinese now. I can recognize the name of her orphanage in Chinese and a few other things. I was happy to find three more pictures of Hope. Two of them I just love so I had to share. I love both of these pictures just because it shows how personable she is. In the picture where the guy is putting a coat on her, she looks like she is really searching his face. The second one is of a visit by some city officials. She just looks so at home in the arms a stranger. I am praying she looks just as at home in our arms. Finding these pictures have truly been a treasure. At the same time, my heart breaks. She has so much history, so much of a past, and we haven't been able to share it with her. I can't wait til I am the one helping her zip up her coat and holding her in my arms.