Our Precious Son SAM!!!!

Our agency received this picture of Sam from his orphanage late yesterday afternoon. We are beyond emotional at the first sight of Sam smiling!! All of his paperwork spoke of what a happy child he is, but, with all of the pictures we have received of him, we had yet to see him smile. I cried and laughed all evening! He is so precious!!!! And he is a BIG boy - not a baby. I feel like I have missed so much of his little life. This week I have seen LOAs coming to waiting families after only 70 days, and I am so happy for them and at the same time, I am so sad that we waited 93 days. I know it is all in God's timing, and I know his timing is so much better than mine, I just feel frustrated. I saw that a TA has just been received only 15 days after the LOA was returned, and I am anxious to see when ours will arrive. It has been 1 week since we returned ours. Maybe we will only wait one more week (or two, gotta be realistic)! I hope you enjoy seeing Sam's smiling face as much as we do!

Music, Music...

I have added music for my little Dancing Queen so if you want to watch the Smilebox slideshow below, you need to scroll down and turn the music off at the bottom of the page. Otherwise it won't sound very pleasing and you might leave with a headache. When I made the slideshow, I didn't have the music player!

My Dancing Queen

Who knew that the Divine Miss Em will even dance to a little 'ole music box. Robbie wound up her Pink Poodle Jewelry box and the Dancing Queen emerged with twirls and swirls and even a pose or two. What a girl!

Our Beach Trip

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

LOA!! OH HAPPY DAY!! LOA!!

Our LOA arrived at our agency on Monday morning! Only 93 days since our LID (but who's counting.....). We received it Tuesday, signed it and overnighted it back to our agency for receipt on Wednesday. Now our wait for TA (travel approval) officially begins. Our agency said it usually takes about 2-3 weeks to receive that and they think we will be in China sometime next month!! When we travel we will be posting here a bit, but I think we are going to use The Story of You again this time. It was so easy to use while we were in China with Emma and then she made us a c.d. of our journey to keep, and we would like that for Sam as well. As soon as we have our page up and running, I will post the address.

5th Grade Graduation

I can NOT believe that my baby, Coleman, graduated from the 5th grade! That means he will be in middle school next year and EVERYONE knows I am NOT old enough to have a middle schooler!!!!!! Next year, I will have one in the preschool building, one in the lower school, one in middle school, and two sweet Chinese 2 year old babies who want out of their carseats while I run carpool at all 3 schools! Fortunately they are all on the same campus and the carpool lines are staggered every 15 minutes. Anyway.... Coleman has made us so proud! His teachers all call him a JOY to have as a student and that really sums him up very well. He loves school, loves to learn, is very motivated and puts 110% into everything he does. He is an amazing child who is growing into a wonderful young man!

Our Beautiful Backyard

It may get hot here in Georgia during the summer, but the Spring is mild and the greenery is gorgeous. My azaleas last for a few weeks and the blooms are just beautiful!

Me and my sweet Robbie

Robbie's Preschool Tea Party

The teachers paired Robbie and Sonya together, of course
What a gentleman!
It's never to early to learn your manners!
Sweet Couple
They just love each other so much
Am I seeing visions of a future wedding (or atleast a prom)?

All Dressed Up For Easter

FINALLY!! Easter Pictures!

Following the trail of eggs the Easter Bunny leaves to lead us to our baskets
Let's see what the Easter Bunny brought us...
We LOVE our Easter Treats!! Thank you Easter Bunny!!!

Robbie in his "tomato chip" shirt as he calls it - it's a carrot, though....
Lots of kisses for my new little bunny!!
Love for the Bunny!

Getting All Caught Up

I am really behind on all of the activities that we had this Spring - I never even posted Easter pix, so bear with me as I stroll down Memory Lane and get caught up. We are still waiting to receive our LOA for Sam. We are on Day 90 and most people before us received theirs on Day 76-79. We know that this is all in God's timing, but we really want to know when we are going to be traveling!! I remember being so concerned that the kids would still be in school when we traveled, and now I am concerned that they will be going back to school when we travel. Our agency still thinks it will be July because our LOA should be here ANY day and then the wait is generally only a few weeks until you get your TA (travel approval). Being a small SN group (only 3 families) we are hoping that it will be fairly easy to get a consulate appointment with the US embassy in Guangzhou. In the meantime, Coleman has been at Boy Scout camp (he is now officially a TenderFoot), Robbie has started his swimming lessons with Ms. Irene, and Jack has gone to piano camp and spent time with his cousin at Russ' parent's house. Emma finally pee peed on the potty for the first time today. She was so excited and started screaming "Elmo Panties!!" because she knew that was her reward for going (along with some M&Ms). She wore them with pride and has gone potty twice since. I am hoping (and so is my dad - he'll be keeping her while we are in China) that this is the start of the real thing. Only time will tell.......

We are so excited that the Queens from our Wuhan Super Group (travel group to get Emma) are coming to stay with us this weekend on their rive back to Ohio from Florida. We just saw them at the Memorial Day picnic and weekend in Ohio, but it will be great to spend time with them just hanging out with nowhere to be. The kids have been counting down the days! Only 2 more......

Beach Pictures

Sam's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Sam's 2nd Birthday on May 4th with a Mickey Mouse party. We ordered Chinese food, sang happy Birthday, and ate cake. The kids really enjoyed celebrating for him, and we cannot wait until next year when he is home to enjoy his cake. We did get confirmation that the two cakes were delivered to his orphanage for his birthday, and we are hoping that the nannies took pictures with the cameras that we sent.