Birthday, first day of school, elephants, and update, OH MY!

It's been a couple weeks since I've given an update, and a lot has happened. First of all, Olivia turned 3!! And she has to tell everyone she meets that she is 3. Very proud girl!

We also had three days in a row of first day of school. Joel was first one up, going to second grade. Oh, and he lost another tooth last week too!

Then Hannah had her first day of Kindergarten. And she scored two goals last Saturday in soccer!

Olivia started "preschool" as well. It is a one day a week speech group at the developmental preschool. She is also getting two individual sessions of speech a week.

We have been super super super busy with our new schedule, between school, therapy, ballet, soccer, and now starting AWANAs. But at least I always have one or more kid at home with me at all times, so I don't get too lonely!

We are sending Josiah a care package for his second birthday, on October 5th. I'll post pictures of the package once we get them. We decided to use a service this time, and got updated measurements. He is about 22 pounds and a little over 32 inches tall. That puts him way below the American charts for weight (he is the weight of an average 11 month old) and around the 10'th percentile for height (about the height of a 18 month old). So he must be super skinny! We will have to have all adjustable waist bands for this little guy or his pants will for sure fall off.

Still waiting for our LOA. We are on day 39 of our wait since our log in date. Probably the very earliest it will come would be in 3 weeks, but more likely 5 or more weeks.

Joel and Hannah (along with their cousins Leah and Brady) rode on an elephant yesterday at the circus!

Also yesterday, they ran in their first real race!

One last trip (boys only!)

Joel and I had a chance to head back into the mountains one more time before the summer ended. Joel decided he wanted to return to the place of our first backpacking trip ever (Betty Lake near Waldo Lake).
View Larger Map There were a few bugs, but not too many (enough though that Daddy got 7 bites on one hand). We walked all the way around Betty Lake, trying to only walk on the beach. But there were many places where we had to head back to the main trail. Joel is an excellent backpacking companion. He knows how to set up a tent, lay out the sleeping bags, and safely store food 30ft up in a tree.

Joel loves to "Rambo" over the trees, stumps, rock, and through the bushes. Don't fall Joel!




He also enjoys taking pictures and videos. The video above is a dried up creek that fills up during Spring thaw. Joel though this was pretty cool.

One more summer almost over...

We are ending summer with a bang. Hannah and I (April) went backpacking last weekend together and enjoyed some great mother/daughter bonding. We went on a nice hike near the three Sister's to a quiet lake. Had some unplanned adventures, like stepping on a yellow jacket nest and Hannah being stung twice. She was so brave, and God really provided. I didn't pack a full first aid kit, since we were only going one night and not a super long hike. But soon after she got stung some ladies came by who happened to have children's Benadryl and children's Motrin. They also suggested using mud on the sting, which worked wonderfully. Next time, I'm going over prepared with a full first aid kit no matter how short the trip is!

Also, our camp stove decided to not work. We brought freeze dried food for our dinner, so needed hot water. With Hannah's cheering and encouraging, I made a fire to boil some water. We are now officially mountain women!

And for what's new with Joel, see the picture below!!

Let's go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mud for bee stings - who knew???

A Mother/Daughter sunset

The little mermaid goes for a swim

Joel lost both front teeth in the same day!

LID

We found out that our dossier has been logged into China's system! On August 13th!!! That means we are already on day 13 of our wait for LOA (or LSC - letter seeking confirmation). This will be the next step closer to Josiah, and we are hoping for that in about 2-3 months. For those of you in the adoption community, you understand that every acronym is a reason to celebrate. For all the rest of you, just trust me in knowing that this is a big deal and we made brownies to celebrate!

I've been really bad about taking pictures for the past month, keep forgetting our camera! So no new pictures to post, but I'll work on that some time before summer vacation is over - in less than two weeks! I did get a new picture of Josiah from a travelling mommy. She recently travelled to pick up her daughter and the orphanage gave her a CD full of pictures - two of which had Josiah in them! I think it is OK to share these pictures since they are from the orphanage. I think this is from some time last winter, based on his size and clothing.

Fundraiser!

I (April) am now officially signed up to run in the Portland Marathon on October 4th! I ran a half marathon with my two sisters in June, and decided if I have trained that much, might as well keep on training for the full marathon. This will be my first marathon. We decided to use this marathon as a fund raiser to help bring Josiah home. The marathon is the day before Josiah's second birthday, so we thought what better birthday gift, than being that much closer to being able to give him a family. If you would like to support us in being able to bring him home, you can click on the "chip in" button on the right of this blog. All donations are tax deductible (through our church's adoption fund). If you feel more comfortable sending a check, please email me at apriltranby@hotmail.com and I will tell you how to proceed. Thank you in advance for all your support.

DTC!!!!!!!

We just found out today that our dossier was sent off to China on Friday! This is a huge milestone, and such a relief to have all that paperwork done. It took us about 3 1/2 months to gather all that paperwork, and it was almost lost by Fed Ex. It was sent to the wrong city and delivered a day late, but now it is on the way to China! Now we wait to hear our log in date (the day our dossier is officially logged into China's system). Everything is in China's hands, and the timeline becomes even more unpredictable.

Here's some pictures of our camping trip this weekend. It was really cold on Friday but we still had a great time. Fortunately it warmed up a bit on Saturday and Sunday so we could venture away from the fire a little more.

Are we having fun yet? YES WE ARE!!!

Joel LOVES stoking the fire

Can I play with the fire too?? NOOOOO!

I'll make my own pretend fire.

Enjoying summer

Not much new here on the adoption front. We are still waiting to hear when our fingerprinting appointment is. We've gotten two letters in the mail from the USCIS, and each time, my heart beat goes a little faster to see if it is our fingerprint appt. Each time, it was just a confirmation that they got our application and paperwork. They are pretty efficient, huh, telling us twice that they got our paperwork? At least we know we sent it to the right address, though. We're going to a wedding this weekend, so on the way we are stopping by the secretary of state to get most of our paperwork authenticated. It will feel good to have that step of the paperchase almost done.

Here's a picture of the kids (with cousins and friend) at the pet parade on the 4th.