Look What I Found in My Inbox This Morning!!!

Another picture of sweet Addie:0) Those are the PJ's we sent in her care package, through Ann @ Red Thread China. Ann sets up a care package over in China and sends it directly to the orphanage/foster home. Such a great service for us adoptive families! Looks like our girl just had her hair cut! Oh goodness I can't wait to be there! I can't believe tomorrow is June already! In 5 short weeks we will be in China hugging our little girl!!!! (God willing) Still waiting for citizenship info!

I have set up a shutterfly account for our trip so I can add many pictures if you look to the left of this page you will see a link that will bring you directly there!
Not much at the site now, but soon we will be filling it up with China!

Let us hold uswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

What have we been up to?

Well apparently wearing 3D glasses from the theatre is cool!?! Duh! Mom! Oh my Nathan makes me laugh:0)

We are so very proud of our Joshua! He placed in the top 7 for his grade in all the track events! It was so sweet to see how proud he was of himself! Especially for the first place in high jump!

This is how Riley truly feels about me taking her picture! What can I say? She just doesn't have the patience for me and my camera:0) This weekend is Stompede Weekend. Yeehaw! Stompede is our local rodeo and there is a carnival as well. We may get out and see the chuck wagon races tonight if all the kids are up for it.

This is Riley dressed up for preschool. They were celebrating the Stompede and Cowboys and Cowgirls all week:0)

Riley and I saw the young women competing for Miss Stompede in the mall on Thursday and my little girl was in awe:0) The competitors were all dressed in their wranglers etc.with cowboy hats and beautiful hair and makeup and they were all carrying evening gowns in dry cleaning bags. Riley thought that was amazing that a cowgirl would wear a "fancy" dress! lol!
Also this week Riley needed to have some of her immunizations done for Kindergarten....she needed 4 needles! Last time she needed her flu shot we had to pin her down and she screamed for hours after! So I really was not looking forward to this. Well I just have to say....Riley did so well! She didn't cry! She was so tough and I could really tell she wanted to but she just sucked back the tears! Miss Roo was such a trooper:0) I was so amazed that we made a quick stop at the dollar store to pick out 4 treats! What is it with dollar store toys? My kids love them:0)

I spoke to Alberta Children's Services and the CCAA has had our LOA since Monday. Our adoption agency said that we will have our Travel Approval in time! Phew! We still have heard nothing about our step 1 of Addison's citizenship. Our adoption agency advised us to wait a couple more days and then ask our MP's office to try faxing immigration again. If we haven't heard back by June 8th then our adoption agency will get involved. Please,please,please keeping praying for this paperwork! As I have said before, we cannot bring Addison home without this paperwork being done and in our hot little hands!

Well the kids only have a few more weeks of school left so I know the month of June will fly by with all the fun days and end of the year programs etc. Plus I will really have to get my packing organized. Howard is working away again....it kinda just sucks to have him gone. The kids have been really helpful and well behaved since he left. Which is always a treat:0) He will now be working 10 days away and then 4 days home. I think he has less then 3 shifts away now until China! So if I focus on that I will survive....right? We are hoping the weather warms up a bit around here. Also we are debating whether to plant some flowers in the front bed or wait until we are back from China. Well Riley has ran out to the van so we can go grocery shopping, so I must go!

Questions?

Okay all you been there done that(BTDT) adoptive moms....I need to know what I should ask Addison's foster Mom....if she is there when we meet Addie. Please let me know what you would have asked for info on your child if you would have had the chance. And what you regret not asking:0) I so appreciate your input.

Not much news around here....lots of end of the year fun I will post on Saturday. Only 21 more school days left for the boys:0) 40 days until we fly to Beijing:0) My Mom will be staying with the kids while Howard and I are in China, with the help of my Dad (for a few days), My Aunt (for a few days)and my dear friend T. for a little break in between:0) I am so thankful we have such supportive friends and family!

So far with our Citizenship, I have contacted our MP Chris Warkentin's office and his assistant has faxed the Immigration office to see if they can speed up Addison's paperwork. I was in on Tuesday and they have heard nothing back as of today. Please, please pray for her paperwork as we cannot bring Addie home without this! Also I made a mistake on our LOA and forgot/missed checking the box saying YES we would accept Miss Guo Ying Wu!!! Duh!!! I must have been over excited;) So that set us back 6 days....so please pray for our Travel Approval. I believe it should only take 4 weeks at most so we should be fine if it has been sent by Alberta Adoption Services...I have yet to be in contact with them, however I have left a message:0)

I am sooo excited for the kids to be done school! So excited for us to meet Miss Addie! And trying to stay on a hardcore budget so my most wonderful, amazing, slendiferous husband can stay home and not work for most of the summer;) Budgets.....well lets just say they suck! But it will be well worth it to have my honey home for most of the summer:0) Have a fabulous Friday!

Booked Flights!

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This is the final updated picture of Miss Addie we have:0)

I guess its official we are going to China!!! I just booked the flights. Phew is that a huge weight off my shoulders:0) We fly out of our hometown July 8th @ 7AM and connect with an Air China flight on the same afternoon. We arrive in Beijing on July 9th @ 4:15PM and then we fly out of Beijing on July 23rd @3:50 and arrive in Vancouver @ 11:50AM July 23rd and then connect to a flight that will get us home @ 10:15PM!

I shopped around for days for cheap flights......well lets just say we are flying in July! There is no such thing as cheap flights:0) I did save us nearly $1600 flying with Air China vs Air Canada!So I am happy about that.I started stressing out as the prices kept getting more expensive as the days past!However we are booked now, and I don't have to worry:0) Has anyone travelled with Air China? Please leave me a note with your experience. I sure would like to know what to expect with them:0)

I hope to post our tentative itinerary soon!

Great Weekend:0)

We had a great weekend! Lots going on around our house. My Mom has come to visit for a few days which is always a treat. She has been a great help with the kids and keeping everyone busy. We went out to Kleskun Hills on Saturday. This area is considered the most northern Badlands area in Alberta. It was fun to hike the hills with my Mom and Riley....the boys deserted us to play a game of capture the flag with some friends:0)We had lots of other things going on but this I think was the highlight of the weekend. Here is a picture of Miss Riley-roo and I at the top of Dinosaur Hill.


Also this weekend I have been busy pricing out flights,talking to our adoption agency and filling out travel VISA forms for China! I still feel uneasy about the whole citizenship papers not being ready in time for travel....please pray that our MLA Chris Warkentin will be able to speed Addison's paperwork along at the immigration office. If we don't receive these papers before we leave we can not bring Addison home.However I am sure it will all work out, but a little prayer never hurts:) Here is another picture of Miss Addison....I love this one as she looks totally sassy:0)Oh goodness I can not wait to meet her!

Addie update!

I just received this updated picture from Ann at Red Thread:0)
Addison is now 22lbs and 87cm tall and size 7!!!! shoes (I think) She loves her foster sister and this sister is teaching her basic English:0) How cute is that? She is well loved and very attached to her foster family. Which is really good! Although it is going to be extremely tough on her and Howard and I when she first meets us:( I have been praying more than I ever had:0) I trust God will lead us through her grief.
I hope to book our flights on Monday and then will post our itinerary! EEEK! Did I just type that? It seems so surreal!
I want to thank those of you who commented on my last post and answered my question.
It was a relief to hear what you all said, as that was what I felt:0) I am glad my thoughts were so similar to all of yours:0) Of course we will not leave her at the nursery she will be with us in the service for some time. I liked your idea Shelley of arriving late and leaving early for the first few times:0)Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

How many days until we leave!?!

The answer to the above question is hanging off of Riley:0) 54 DAYS!!!! We will be leaving July 8th and returning home July 23rd. I believe we will be booking our flights this weekend or early next week! All I have to say is looking at flights sure makes this feel real. We have hung the chain link in our kitchen so Riley can pull off a link as each day goes by.....that way she can see we are getting closer to the day that Howard and I leave to get Addison. I think we will make another one for the amount of days we will be gone as well. That way she will be able to visually see how many days left:0)
I am getting really excited/apprehensive. Nobody told me that I was going to have trouble sleeping this faraway from travel;0) If I could just get my mind to slow down maybe I could sleep! I think once the flights are booked and Addison's citizenship is somewhat figured out I will be able to relax a bit and just make lists for all the trivial stuff I hope to pack or get done before we fly to Beijing. I also have some responsibilities at the church that I need to find someone to take over while we are away at the very least...ideally I would like to have someone oversee our Families Helping Families Ministry for the whole summer. We will see as everyone has holidays they are on as well:0)
I am feeling really blessed that we are travelling in the early summer as the kids won't be bored from being out of school yet, therefore whoever has them will not have crabby bored kids to tend to. Also when we get back from China with Addison we will have 6 weeks to work on bonding and attachment, before the craziness of the school routine starts again:0) And I am praying that Howard will take off the rest of the summer from work....we will see how that works out! It would be lovely to have him around all summer:0)
Finally I have a question to put out there to the parents who already have kids home from China or elsewhere.This question is for families who regularly go to church (like only miss a couple times a year)When did you start going back to church after you returned home? I know every child is different, but.How did you know when to go back to church? Im interested in hearing everyones opinion on this, it will give me something to think about,as I am quite conflicted on the whole subject. All I know is I want to do whats right for my child:0)

Trying To Email My Post

O.k so I am just practicing to see if I can post through email. I would like to keep this blog while travelling in China. However the Chinese government blocks blogger. So I have to email my posts in and I wanted to see if this works! Here is a picture of Riley holding our LOA. She was nearly as excited as I was:0) Oh and we got our travel dates!!! I will post that later!

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

O.k. so I had these great plans to do a post on Monday about our Mother's day weekend....and well we got our LOA! So things have gotten a little crazy around here! I have much to do!
However I just have to say I have the best husband and kids ever! Yes, I may be a bit bias but I sure feel blessed! My Sunday started off with breakfast in bed!!! And bless my hubby's heart, it was healthy an egg white omelete with tomato,spinach and red onion with just a little parmesan cheese! Yum-o! We had a lovely day filled with church, a walk and play at a lake we have never been to, another delish healthy meal and then a "P.J. drive" to Dairy Queen (I guess that wasn't so healthy! Whoops) It was lovely. I think that one of my best mothers day gifts was receiving Addison's LOA! I can still hardly believe it! Things are happening so fast! We will be booking our flights in the next few days.... and we get to travel with some sweet friends from our church who are adopting a 2.5 yr old girl from China as well! Isn't God amazing? I never would have thought we would get to travel with this couple. And I hope our time in China grows our families closer together in friendship:0) Our girls are only 6 months apart in age so hopefully they will be great support for one another as they grow up:0)
Anyways just a short post. I hope all you Mom's out there had a blessed Mother's Day!

LOA!!!

Holy its only been something like 17 days!?! I can't believe it! This means we sign this letter Fedex it back to China and wait for T.A. Travel Approval! Then we hop on a big jet plane and bring our sweet baby girl home! TA should take 4-6 weeks to come back! Wow! I have alot to do:0)

So Blessed!

Okay so I don't really know how to form this post so I 'll just start typing and see where this goes! These pictures are of our oldest son Nathan. For those of you who don't know us that well...Nathan just turned 11 and was diagnosed a birth with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) He has had several surgeries in his 11yrs, more doctors appointments and hospital visits than I can count, and broken more bones than we were willing to keep track of. That being said when Nathan was born we were told by his doctors that Nathan would never situp, walk, or run. Our boy has proved them wrong with the intercession of prayer, and the IV medication he has been on since he was 3 months of age, Nathan is capable of doing all of these things! (he was in his wheelchair for safety this day) At birth we were told that Nathan broke nearly every bone in his body some in multiple places and he had healed fractures from inutero. Our boy has suffered with more physical pain than most people ever will in their lives. However he still rises above this and has a zest for life! And a passion for people.
Nathan's aid at school nominated Nathan for the Tri-City Tournament in our city. This is a fundraiser hockey tournament for children with disabilities in the public and catholic school districts. This fundraiser helps families who need to travel alot for medical intervention, or for something special for that child. This year we haven't needed to travel for surgeries etc. So Nathan gets pick something special out.
Yesterday the sponsors and organizers came to Nathan's school for a cheque/gift presentation during an assembly. And Nathan I am sure felt like he won the lottery:0) The sponsors were Future Shop, Costco, Ernies Sport Experts and Alliance Pipeline. Nathan received a brand new Flip video camera and $300 gift card from Costco, and $1000 cheque!!!



All Ican say is our family is humbled and amazed! Nathan was deliriously happy! I haven't seen a smile like that on his face in a long time! We are so very thankful to the organizer, sponsors and volunteers of this charity. Many families with kids with disabilities have expenses above and beyond what would be considered "normal" Which we never could have imagined or planned for. For our family it may not so much be the financial (although sometimes it is!) Its more the watching our brave strong boy suffer in pain daily (we should have stocks in Tylenol & Advil) and the emotional pain he suffers when he can't join in and play with friends because it would be too unsafe.The smile and excitement on his face when he received this huge blessing was almost more than this Mama could bear:0) I was feeling a little like we shouldn't need this "our life isn't bad" is what I kept saying to myself. Then I thought this is showing Nathan the love of God through other peoples hands! And what an amazing lesson that is! God loves our boy so much that He wanted to bless him with these gifts and so much more:0) I hope Howard and I can instill that in Nathan. That he can see that every good gift comes from above, it is not an accident; and when things are hard and Nate is in pain; that God has not forsaken him and is right there holding him in the palm of his hand!

I am not sure if I really got out in this post what I was hoping to, but it will be suffice. Our family is so thankful for this gift for Nathan. Thankful doesn't really even touch how we feel.The people involved in this charity have made one of my precious children's week alot brighter and for that I am very thankful. But, I do have to say if there is one more video made of my butt!!!! I may flush that video camera down the toilet!lol! Just kidding! Sheesh 11 yr old boy humor! Ha ha ha Mom has a butt! Finally we are so proud of Nathan.... he said to me last night "Mom, its not just me affected by my brittle bones is it?" I said "no not really Nate." He then decided that whatever he will get with his money it will be something both him and his siblings can enjoy!!! Sniff.... I am one proud Mama right now. I am amazed that he sees that his condition does affect his brother and sister! He is leaning toward a new computer with a touch screen as our families computer in really really old, or a flat screen T.V. for movie nights. We have a crappy old 32" t.v. and it still works but I guess when you are a boy big tv's are important! I will have to update once he decides on his big purchase!

Happy 5th Birthday Miss Riley-roo!

My first girl! I was so smitten with Riley when she was born! She was the easiest labour & delivery ever!!! And Miss Roo was the snuggliest baby ever! She would love to just sit back and watch all the action take place:0) I would have to say she still is very much like that!


I love this little picture look at the rolls on her ankles! and those little lips!

I had to add a couple pictures of Riley and her soother (soosie) This child would not go anywhere without her dearly beloved soosie:0) I started to worry we would never get rid of it;) Now looking back at this picture it makes me wonder why I sweat the small stuff?

This is our girl now... she has decided pictures are not so great and I have no sense of fashion and on top of that I have no clue how to do hair!!!! Therefore I am not "allowed" to dress her or do her hair, needless to say we have been seeing some rather interesting outfits and hair:0) She has become a very loving, shy, stubborn, sensitive always willing to give a hand little girl. Some days I say that once she's a teenager only one of us may survive. As she is already giving me a real run for my money, however I hope she keeps some of these traits maybe she will be less likely to cave to peer pressure as a teenager? I guess only time will tell:0)

All I know is when the day is over and she is sound asleep in her bed I sure love her! All the parts! she brings such joy to our home and I am thankful to God that He allowed Howard and I to parent her for a little while! Happy 5th Birthday my precious girl Riley.