Happy Thanksgiving!

We just wanted to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for this year. God has provided for all our needs and then some! We went to cut down a Christmas tree this morning, and had a great time tromping through the snow to find the "perfect" tree.

Last night, we found out that our Article 5 has been signed by the US consulate in Guangzhou, China. Now all our paperwork is in the Chinese adoption authority's hands and we are officially waiting for our Travel Approval. All the steps since our LOA have gone way faster than expected. TA's usually take around 2 or so weeks to process. If all goes quickly, we could even have the option to travel near the end of December! Things are feeling a little more real, and I have a big list in my head of all the things we need to do before traveling.

And to top it off, we got an update on Josiah last night too!

Here is the current measurement of Shi Qing:

height: 82cm
weight: 11kg
head size: 48 cm
chest size: 49 cm
number of teeth: 16
length of his feet: 13cm

We also found out that he is still sleeping in a crib, is
not potty trained, and still uses a bottle.

And they said he is a bright and cute boy who likes to
help his nannies.

We didn't get a picture of him, apparently the
orphanage's computers are not working.

Here's some pictures of our day getting our tree:
Searching for the perfect tree

found it!
The kids carried it back to the car


Daddy showing off

baby steps

This whole adoption is a bunch of baby steps. Steps closer to Josiah. I'd have to go back and count just how many steps there have been, but we just took yet another step. I found out today that we got our I-800 approval (immigration) on the 10th. It hasn't come in the mail yet, but I called our immigration officer and she told me that it was already approved. Every step is a huge relief. Now our paperwork will be shipped off to some other office in the US government and then to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. Then we will wait for something called an Article 5, basically the US's final stamp off approval. Then more paperwork goes to the Chinese government and we wait for our Travel Approval. Once we have travel approval, we will make our consulate appointment and set up a gotcha day. PHEW! This adoption process sure is not for the faint hearted! We are going to try to travel as soon as we can after getting TA, hopefully within 2 weeks after TA we will be going to China. The next few steps have some variability as far as timing, but we are hoping to travel in January.