What a great day!

I am so thankful for the wonderful relaxing day that we had yesterday! I really needed it!!!
We had a wonderful French Toast and bacon breakfast! Enough to fill everyone up, so no one needed to enter the kitchen again for lunch - until the Turkey was done (well, I take that back - Brady of course had to eat some left over pizza! - That boy is always eating!)
Then Conner and Kenzie made brownies and jell-o. Yes, my family wont eat any fun desserts like - pumpkin pie, cheesecake, cobbler... brownies with chocolate chips is always the family favorite. (I've given up on even trying something else, unless we have company)
Taking the turkey apart was so much fun for the kids! I'm still amazed that Conner actually touched the parts of the turkey! They were so excited - I think I will have to find something for them to dissect.





We took a fun walk and of course brought the camera to get some fun photos!



There was one thing over shadowing us all day, and one little girl we were all missing very much! Thankful we will be meeting our sweet little girl within a month!

Facebook

Apologizes to all who have left presents for me, sent me a hug, asked me to join their charity, asked me to plant a virtual garden to help save the world from Global Warming...
I am facebook challenged!!!
It's not that I don't love y'all or love the sweet gestures!
But, I haven't had time to set up my virtual garden - not to mention weed my realist garden, and will probably be hearing from our lovely HOA soon!
I don't believe in opening Christmas presents left under my tree until Christmas day.
Actually, I would love to open them - but have not had the chance. :)
And, hugs back to all who have sent me one and even to those who have not!

I do take all these little gestures as encouragements! So, thank you for encouraging me!
I really appreciate it!
and hope to get a day off soon, so I can read and play along with every one!

Signed, Sealed and Delivered!

Our LOA is on the way to our agency and then they will send it to China!
Prayerfully, our Travel Approval (TA) is already being worked on and we will have that soon!

And we are all doing the Happy Dance!!!

LOA

Karla at our agency, Lifeline Children's Services, called at 11:59am to day! Our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) had reached their office and she has FedEx'd it to us - we should have it on Monday. We will sign it and FedEx it back to Karla, who will then send it back to China!
We should receive our TA (Travel Approval) in 2-4 weeks!
At this point it looks like we will have our sweet Jorja in our arms before Chinese New Year (January 26th!)
We are so excited to finally have an answer as to when we will meet our little girl!
Yes, Jorja - we are coming to get you soon!!!

Always learning!

Jailyn is learning so much! She loves "school" time at home.
She has learned her ABC's and loves counting - so far, she gets bored at about 36!
And she knows her phone number! We are working on her address, but don't totally have that yet. - Soon I'm sure!
She loves sorting colors and shapes, and now is learning about coins.
Here she is working on her sorting of coins.

Once upon a mattress...

Kenzie was in a musical at school this last weekend!
It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun! Kenzie and the entire cast did a great job!
Here is our Princess!

And a photo that she took of her beautiful "Congratulations" flowers!

Chinese New Year

Okay, so here are the depressing facts -
We are still waiting for our LOA (day 112)
When we finally receive our LOA - sign it and return it to China, we should receive our TA (Travel Approval) 3-4 weeks after that.
And then travel 3-4 weeks after that.
Approx. 3 weeks in China for the adoption - Jorja's Providence takes longer then the other Providences.

The problem we are having now is that Chinese New Year is sooo early this year - January 26th (It was Feb 18th when we brought Jailyn home on Feb 14th - and they were pushing us on to the plane to get out of town! And the plane was fully of Chinese traveling to visit family in the US)
China New Years is at least 2 weeks of all government offices being completely shut down. ~ So no adoptions take place during that time.

So, my calculations (using the average of 4 weeks between dates) tell me that we needed to receive our LOA on Nov 8th in order to make the Jan25th deadline to be on our way home with our Jorja!
If I use 3 weeks - the we need to have our LOA by November 23rd. Which will be 122 days waiting for the LOA. Some friends have told me that some of their friends have been on the 120 day mark, and finally received their LOA.
(Another blogging adoptive family - just received their TA today - 133 days! I'm so excited for this family!!! Such a long wait!

I am praying so hard that we have our little girl before her 5th birthday!
This photo of her is sad enough - (she is actually in front of her friends 4th birthday cake - but I was able to crop it)
I want to be with her when she blows out her own 5 candles on her cake!!!

I know I haven't posted any photo's yet of her - but I can't stand it any more! Isn't she just adorable? Yes, she needs to be in our crazy, silly household to put a smile on her beautiful face!

God can move mountains! Even mountains of paperwork to get these kiddo's home! I believe Satan is at work in China. Please pray for these people who have our files in front of them - I don't know fewer tea breaks. :)


Please also pray for Jorja's health - another family is in China and received devastating news about their daughter and may be leaving China hearts full but arms empty. Please pray for this family too!!!

Boats or shoes???

OR


Brady is 14 years old and wears size 14 men's shoes! He is just over 6 feet tall with no end in sight! As Brady is a total soccer geek we have been searching for affordable shoes that will fit him! We are still looking!! Why couldn't he of taken up basketball?
If any one stalking our blog has any ideas of where we can look - please feel free to leave a comment and help us!!!


FYI - no new word on Jorja. I was shopping this morning and was good not to buy anything! I have no idea what size she is. I am guessing at 3T, but that is just a gut feeling - I have specific information. But when I do buy her any clothes - I suppose that if they don't fit - I can save them for Jailyn. It's just so hard to not get matching clothes for Jailyn and Jorja! Today I saw the cutest jackets vests - one in brown with pink polk-a-dots and the other pink with brown polk-a-dots. Oh how cute! I was good and resisted!!! Maybe they will still be there, and on sale when we get some information! :)

DAY 110!!!

Wow! This marks the day 110 of us waiting for our LOA for Jorja!
I've conceded to the realization that we will not have her home for Christmas.
This makes me soooo sad!!! Now I am hopefully that we will have her home for
her 5th birthday, Feb 16th. I can't believe she is going to be 5 already! The first photo
we have over her was taken when she was 3 ( maybe younger, but I think three).

321 days since we were approved to be her parents through our adoption agency, Lifeline
Children Services

Jorja, we talk about you daily! Jailyn can't wait to have a sister her age. She has your
spot saved in the car and every shopping cart that she sits in! I have to hold my purse,
rather then put it in the cart because Jailyn is saving your spot!
We miss you and love you!!!
~Mom

Adoption Awareness

Our ribbon is tri-colored in pink, yellow and white.
~ The pink symbolizes the birth parents
~ The yellow symbolizes adoptive parents,
~ The white symbolizes adoptees and adoption awareness.

Check in on any of the blogs on my side bar to see how Adoption has touched these families and made such a huge difference in these children's lives.

Please continue to pray for the families who have adopted and who are waiting for their children, and the children waiting for their families!

Happy Halloween!

Fun was have by all!
During the day, Jailyn and I went to the local grocery store for a cooking class! We made Ghoul-aid (which Jailyn wouldn't drink!), Mummy pizza's, spider cupcakes and witch's hats! We had a great time! We actually went with a few neighbors, the cooking room was full when we got there so we weren't able to sit with our neighbors. :( As we looked around the room we saw two other mom's we know (from Conner's soccer team) and their daughters - but their table was full too. As I scanned the room - I saw another Mom smiling at me, "She looks familiar" Then I saw her little boy! I had met them at the McKinney Asian Kids group. We were able to sit with them and it was great to re-connect with them!



After school we spent the afternoon setting up the house with our Halloween decorations. The kids are getting great at designing and putting all the decorations up!
They are very creative! We convinced Jailyn that the skeleton's and ghosts were "silly".
Kenzie picked out one ugly decoration - Jailyn keeps asking her, "Kenzie, you like that guy?" "I don't like that guy!"