DTC!!!!

Or for those of you who are not familiar with China adoption lingo... that means Dossier To China!!  We have been crazily paperchasing for the past few months, waiting two long months for preliminary immigration approval, and now our agency has sent all of our paperwork to China!  This one huge milestone among many milestones, basically meaning we are one step closer to bringing our son home.

A few weeks ago, we were blessed to get new pictures and video of our little guy from a traveling family.  They went out of their way to visit the foster home where he lives.  Apparently he is very smart and also quite shy.  He did light up in a big smile when seeing his friend (whom this family just adopted).  So very thankful for these wonderful people who were willing to deliver a small package and get pictures of our son.

Can't wait to give him a BIG SQUEEZE!!!

Christmas tree hunting

We went on our annual Christmas tree hunt today.  It is always an adventure.  This time, we didn't have snow.  But we had lots of wind. We never get our tree the easy way, but this year was probably the fastest, because we didn't want to get blown away or have a big pine tree fall on us!

Here we are, bushwacking in search for the perfect tree

Found it!  Everyone has to pitch in to help

The kids all carrying it back to the van

Then I had to make them take off their coats and sit on a wet log for a picture.  Mean Mommy!

All in all, we were there for a total of 20 minutes, and most of that time was spent getting the tree secured to the top of the van.  But it was all worth it, because we now have the BEST CHRISTMAS TREE EVER!!

Introducing...our new son!!

Surprise!!  Or not.  I think for most people it doesn't really come as a surprise that we are adopting again!  I know, we (or I should say David) keeps saying that we are done, and then low and behold we announce that we are going back for another child.  This particular child, our agency's coordinator emailed us his file when it was sent to the agency's individual waiting child list.  That was back in July.  At that time, we were not ready to make a decision to adopt anyone.  We prayed that he would find a family, and I even advocated for him on a limb differences site.  He continued to wait on the list, and we continued to think and pray about him.  Finally towards the end of September, we decided to ask for an update and asked a few clarifying questions about him.  On my birthday, we received several pictures and a video of him.  While I was watching the video, Jayden was sitting on my lap.  He said "Look!!  He has no arms, just like me!!"  That was the clincher for us that we were supposed to bring this precious child home.  We had an amazing social worker that was willing to complete the home study quickly, and now we are two weeks into our wait for the preliminary immigration approval.  We are estimating travel in July, but it could be sooner (or later) depending on lots of variables.

Here he is!!!

He is living at a great foster home called Swallow's Nest in Henan Province.  We are so happy that he will be in such great care and is being loved while we are waiting to go get him.

Another Jayden video

Many people are often asking how Jayden is doing. Here is a video showing him doing one of his favorite things. He is doing great, talking more every day, and getting super adept with his feet. Enjoy!

Beach trip and more

This summer has just blown right on by. Today is the last day of freedom for the kids. All except for Jayden start school tomorrow. Joel is in 5th grade, his last year of elementary school. Hannah is in 3rd. Olivia starts Kindergarden - on her birthday!! I can't believe she will be 6 already! Josiah starts preschool, and Jayden will start his preschool next week. I will have one morning each week (about 2 1/2 hours total) with no kids at home, and am really looking forward to being able to spend that time volunteering in the classrooms. I haven't been able to volunteer much at the schools because I always have little ones in tow.

We went on our annual beach camping trip a week ago. We tried out a new place for us, Tillicum Beach. Our campsite was overlooking the ocean and it was just a beautiful time. We were blessed with great weather too, which is rare for the Oregon coast. We also got to spend some time at Honeyman (the Oregon dunes) with David's side of the family. Joel and Hannah started this mammoth blaze:

Enjoying the gorgeous tide pools at Cape Perpetua:

Even Jayden got buried in the sand this year!

I just couldn't resist this picture. This was taken right after Josiah got knocked over by a wave and rolled a few times in the wave. Turns out he wasn't upset about rolling in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean, he was mad that the wave took away the stick he was holding!! If you look closely in the background, you will see me laughing at him. Hee hee.

Josiah is becoming Daddy's helper with setting up the camper, and Jayden sure is taking notes for next year!

A week and a half ago, we lost a great man, David's grandpa. This past weekend, David had the privilege of leading the memorial service and it was a really healing time to share all the wonderful memories of him. Here is a picture of the last time we visited with Grandpa, about two months ago.

Joel and Hannah's Got Talent!

Joel and Hannah were in their school talent show on Friday.  Joel playing the violin, he has been playing for about 3 months and amazes us at how good he is already getting.  Hannah doing her ballet thing, she has been in ballet for 4 years now.  I makes me so happy that these two love each other so much and love doing things together.  I hope they will stay best friends their entire lives!

Jayden's blocks