TA

We finally received travel approval!! We leave a week from today to go get our little man! We are so excited, but anxious and going a little bit nuts at the same time. I decided sort of last minute to totally change our plan for bedrooms which resulted in a small remodel.

 I thought we had loads of time to finish it, but then I became super sick and had to take an entire week off, then we got travel approval, and well, it's going down hill rapidly!

 Em is as busy as ever! She is so funny.  I appreciate, and even love this busy stage so much more at this point of my life.  When I had three, all little at the same time, I don't think I laughed as much at the random hilarious things two year olds do. I laugh at her all day long.

 Perhaps I won't be laughing so much when there are two of them giving each other ideas. Perhaps I will though. We have waited for these babies for nearly a decade, and cannot wait to see the mischief they come up with.

 This child lives on yogurt and pb&j.  She started eating a little bit of chicken, and will still eat baby food from time to time but not often. 

 We thought we were going to miss seeing the three in Nutcracker, but fortunately we will be here. We can't wait to see them on stage tomorrow night.

There is so much to get done before we leave. I will blog every day from China. I shake I cannot wait to hold my baby boy. We already love him so much and feel him so much as part of our family. It's going to be the best Christmas ever.  All of our babies that we have worked so hard to get home will all be together! My family is my greatest blessing!

Waiting

Waiting is hard for anyone. Adoption has its (un)-fair share of waiting. There is so much waiting for documents and governments! None of it is in my hands. No one waits for us. When we have something to get done, it gets completed in hours. Then we wait, for days and weeks for "them". We are 7 days into our 2-4 week wait for travel approval to go and get our little boy. We have been matched with him for nearly 8 months. It has been so long!! The wait has not been an easy one. It is difficult to explain, and if you haven't been through it, impossible to understand, but I know this baby. He is mine, and always was. I feel him so much, and I feel his absence so strongly. It's like any other of my other kids, I love him fiercely, and he is on the other side of the world, and I know nothing about what goes on with him daily or weekly or monthly, or how he is doing, or if he is sad, scared, lonely, excited, needy, hungry. Nothing. Does he get held? Loved? Kissed on? Comforted? Read to? Rocked? Stories? Do they listen to him? Do they clap for him? I believe he's very well cared for, but I don't know. I don't know anything, and it is so very very very hard. I am praying like mad for a very fast travel approval, and travel date. 

Meanwhile, we snack this little chicken right up every day!

 Cuddle time and stories are the best!

 She had her hard palate closed and is now finished with palate surgeries. Huuuuuuraaaaahhhh!!!She did awesome! iPhone movies fix everything. Every time. 

She loves hanging out with her brother's things. Can't wait to get him home!

 She LOVED walking around in the leaves. Everything about the fall leaves was her favorite thing!

 Trying to stay awake a liiiiittle bit longer!

 Cutest clown on the block! She was not a fan of her Halloween costume.

 We're trying to get her used to headphones, and hope that she will like movies for an entire 14 hours! The flight is going to be brutal! This little chicken runs around the house rearranging the furniture ALL! DAY! LONG!! She doesn't stop! She LOVES checking everything out at all times. She isn't destructive at all (yet), but she will gather everything that she can reach and lift, and move it somewhere else. She is sooooo busy. I have a feeling that sitting still on a very very very long flight is not going to go over as well as we hope. Coming home with 2??? Oh heaven help us.

Today we celebrated Em's 2nd birthday (again!). Awesome. We had a huge Thanksgiving dinner in anticipation of us being in China over Thanksgiving holiday. It is looking like we're going to keep her birthdate the same and just move the year up one. That feels right and makes sense. We can't do it yet because we have to travel with her birth certificate and passport and obviously they need to match. We are so incredibly happy and excited about this opportunity to make that right. She and her brother are going to be virtual twins. Their birthdays are just a month apart. They are going to be so great for each other. I could not be more amazed at God's hand in my life. It never ever will cease to amaze me, the miracle that these little babies are. They are the direct answer to prayers offered and answered years and years ago. There is absolutely nothing coincidental or random about their lives coinciding with ours. Nothing. Pray that our little man gets home soon!

1 YEAR!!

One year ago today, our 4th daughter joined our family. It has been such an amazing week, corresponding with our travel group about the awesome year that it has been. Awesome is not the right word, I don't even know what the word is that would describe this year. Maybe not the year, but Emily, and the whole adoption process. The very very best that there is.

 Look how much she has changed!!!

She's a happy, naughty, busy busy busy two year old!

 loves dish towels

 Can pretty well manage an iPhone

 loves to dig dirt our of sidewalk cracks

loves her some dorritos (she only likes the bag)

She is so happy and so wonderful and so LOVED!

In the past month, Em had another palate surgery. In our state, to close the cleft in her palate, they screw in a plastic prosthesis that has been custom made for her mouth. It looks like the roof of a retainer. They wear that for however long it takes for the bone to grow over it and close itself. As the child grows,  the prosthesis comes loose, they take it out and put in a bigger one. That was what happened to Em. So we went in for a prosthesis exchange and the surgeon came out and told us that her palate had closed. We were surprised, but so happy! They let the little screw marks heal for a few weeks, and we go back next week and they will close up the little fissures that are still there, and then her palate will be finished. They will do some cosmetic work on her lip and nose in 2 or three years, and close her gum line around age 6 or 7, and then we will be finished. The benefit of the prosthesis is that now her  bone will continue to grow with her face, and we hopefully won't have any underbite or jaw issues that can be so prevalent with clp. We love our clp team here.

 Em is signing a ton, and trying to talk. She is so happy and joyful, and BUSY! I love it more than anything! It takes nothing for me to remember that weak sad little girl that we brought home last year. She had no use of her hands, no muscle tone anywhere, and showed very little emotion about anything. Emily shines! She is so wonderful and we love her so very very much!

My favorite news of the month is that we have found out how to legally change Em's birthdate!! I am so happy about this. We have had 4 doctors completely independent of each other, tell us that her birthday is off by 9 months.  As soon as we are home from China, we will remedy that, and she will continue to be the two year old that she is!  

We are about a month away from travel approval to go get our little boy! It has been a long year waiting for him. We have his stuff all ready, and are reveling in boy things. It's so fun!! His room is coming together, the UPS man is coming frequently bringing BOY things!

We are so excited to be FINISHED adopting! I am so ready for my heart to be whole really, for the first time since Chloe was born.  10 years of waiting on the Lord to show us where our kids were, and to help us bring them home. 10 years of being patient, really really really impatient, wondering, worrying, lots of time crying, lots of time on my knees, and tons of peace and assurance that He is in charge. We have seen so many miracles in the past many years. Our family is the way it is by His design. We finally have the children we were meant to have. We had to find them, we had to look for them, and wait for them to be born, and we had to trust in God to lead us to them. Adoption has been a tremendous blessing to our family so far. We are ever so anxious to meet our baby boy, and start living LIFE instead of living adoption. All of our kids finally together. I will be grateful for eternity that we listened and followed when we felt the urging to bring our babies home from China.

11 months

I can't believe we've almost been home 1 year. A year ago at this time we had travel dates and were packing up and getting everything ready to go get our girl! My goodness we love her so much!

 At 11 months home, we have a spoiled little (I mostly blame Lily) who knows what she wants. She's signing a ton, rarely cries, sleeps like something out of a dream with unicorns in it, and is the cutest funnest thing in our house!

 She runs non stop! It's always go go go go! She has never been more pleased with her life than she is right now. She is all over the place constantly! She doesn't want to stop for any reason! I was filling out a paper for China describing her progression since we got her and MAN! That poor sick weak little thing has come such a long way. Her development is coming right along brilliantly.

 Our awesome therapists that come to our house are coming to an end as on paper Em is turning 3. Such a bummer. She's really only just recently 2, but what is there to be done? This conundrum is to be part of who she is forever. She will be the 30 year old that is really only 29! 

So as her birthday rolls around, we will celebrate HER instead of a number. She is worth so many celebrations daily! We love this girl more than we ever thought would be possible. She is amazing, and wonderful, and cute and fun!! She has her US passport and come what may, she's heading back to China to collect her brother.  I think she's going to be thrown for a loop but it will be wonderful, once were home.  I can't wait to be HOME with all of my babies under 1 roof! 

When we went to China for Em, I was so nervous! Scared half silly would be accurate. The reality of being handed over a baby with some serious special needs, and she would forever after be MINE overwhelmed me a lot. This time around, I am so excited! I'm going to really enjoy China. I loved it last trip, but I was so concerned for Em and just wanted to get her home and get her healthy that I wished away my days there, and just couldn't get home soon enough.  I cannot WAIT to get my little boy, special needs and all, I. CAN'T. WAIT!!! I am so head over heels in love with him already. I know-ish what I'm in for this time, and it's going to be marvelous.

LOA

This has been the best week ever! The whole entire wait for the boy has been hard. I know too much now, and I just want him home! My heart has been half way in China for too long, and I'm tired. I want all of my littles to be together in one place. Our LOA wait has been hard, because the time frame is so wonky. 2-30 weeks. That's forever. It was narrowed down to 2-4 months for someone in our particular situation, but that was still FOREVER! I wanted him home before he turned two. You shouldn't turn 2 in an orphanage. You should have a party. and cake. and presents.  I have been praying for that since we got matched. Please let us be home before he turns 2! With the 2-4 month wait, and friends on FB that have waited that long and longer, I was loosing faith. Earlier this week, we received a great gift, an update!

Fluffy hair!! Is he not the cutest ever??? He climbs, he talks, he sings, he plays, he laughs. We are in LOVE! We have been waiting for this update for 3 months! I thought that this was a tender mercy helping me to be patient for another couple of months. I was crying to my sister last night that if we didn't get our LOA tomorrow (today) that I didn't think we would be home before his birthday. We all prayed so much last night that it would come, and it came, after 31 days. We're going to China in November. We're going to be a forever family!

 Sisters!!

 A brother??

 A playmate and best friend.

 Still has the best bed head ever!

We are so super completely and totally excited.

10 months

10 months ago

today

 Chicken has spent 2 of the last three weeks traveling and she has been a trooper to say the least! We spent a week at the ocean and baby girl was in heaven. Sand, water, more sand, more water.  It was a dream vacation for her.

 We all loved it.

 She still will not use her hands to put things into her mouth (except for shoes. Shoes go straight to her mouth). So when you want to taste the sand, just bend on in and take a bite. Tasty.

 She chased after and loved the waves.

 We celebrated our LID for the boy! 7-22-13! Next stop LOA.

 We came home with enough time to do some laundry pack a totally different wardrobe and head south for a week on the river. I have done river trips with all of my babies and I don't remember thinking a thing of it. A 7 year hiatus of not having a little baby on the river turned me into a paranoid mama. I was a mess before the trip. How was I going to keep her happy in her life jacket all day, keep her fed, hydrated, happy, rested, not sun burned .......

 She styled it. As usual. She LOVED it! I mean look at that face! That is the expression of true love. I tell you this girl and the camera don't get along. I don't know what it is! She will be so happy and smiley and giggling and I'll whip out my camera, BAM! Dead dog serious. Just like that.

 She went from crawling about 50% of the time to walking about 90% of the time.

 More sand, more water, and rapids! She would laugh and giggle all the way through the rapids. She'd take a big splash to the face, and crack right up about it. amazing.

 A fourth river rat was born.

 She took two long naps on the boat every day. She'd go through rapids, water fights, lots of happy chatter, and sleep through it all. She in every way is our girl.

The boy. Oh how we want our little man home. The one document that we are waiting on right now, has about a 2-30 week wait.  Somewhere in that range. Oh dread. We got Emily's in 21 days. That would be in 3 days. I'm counting on it, praying for it, and anything else I can think of.  Everything is on hold until we get it. When we receive it, we will travel in about 12 weeks. Still no update on him. That is the hardest part. Not knowing. I just want my baby home.