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No LOA yet. We are on day 68 of our wait. Some people have been getting their LOA after 60 days, but some have waited over 100 days. We are hoping it will come really soon, but have no idea how long it will be. We were pleasantly surprised to get this new picture of Josiah from a friend. I think it was taken in September, so it is the most recent picture of him that we have.We did hear back from Gift of Adoption, and we were awarded a grant to go towards adoption expenses. This is a huge praise. Thank you, God, for providing!!!
Today is Josiah's 2nd birthday. We are sad that we can't be with him on his birthday, but looking forward to celebrating his 3rd birthday and all years after that. He got a cake today and a little care package from us.Also, I want to thank all of you who supported my fundraising effort. I finished the Portland Marathon yesterday. It was lots of fun. I'm super sore today, but still able to SLOWLY keep up with the kids.
Here's a picture of the care package we had sent to Josiah for his birthday.
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!
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.
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.
Olivia's first pony ride - she loved it, of course!
It's so hard to choose!
And even after choosing, none of these pumpkins in this picture are actually the ones that we went home with! I think they changed their mind at least twice after this picture.
Enjoying the last warm days of Fall
Here's a picture of the care package we had sent to Josiah for his birthday.
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!
Joel loves to "Rambo" over the trees, stumps, rock, and through the bushes. Don't fall Joel!
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!
