Our Letter of Acceptance

And now it is official!

Our loooonnnngggg awaited Letter of Acceptance (LOA) came today! YAY! This has been the longest 108 days of my life. (Well, I'd almost forgotten about the first 4 months of pregnancy...) Anyway, we are thrilled and relieved to have finally received this. Our Case Manager says we should get Travel Approval in 2-4 weeks and then travel 3-4 weeks after that. So, hopefully, we are looking at mid-July to go and get our girl. Please pray that all goes smoothly for us from here on out. It has been a long and winding road! But God can bless a broken road!

Is Sam ready to be a brother?

Initially Sam was very excited about getting a sister. When it was new and fun he couldn't wait. Then the wait became confusing to him, and he got frustrated. He didn't like to talk about Kate anymore, and especially not when SHARING was mentioned... i.e. One day he was riding in the canoe at Nini and Pop's house. My mom said, "Sam, when Kate comes and we take canoe rides, she'll sit back here with Nini and you'll sit up front with Pop." Sam shook his head, pointed his finger toward the house, and said, "No, she'll stay on the porch!"

Well, yesterday he started singing a different tune. Out of the blue he said, "Mom, where's Kate?" I said, "Well, Buddy, she's still in China." He said, "But I need her, Mommy, I need my sister!" I told him that we should tell God to help things move quickly so we can go and get her very soon, and in his bedtime prayers, that's exactly what he did!

Adoption Shower

We have some amazing friends that gave us an Adoption Celebration Shower on Saturday night. It literally was one of the highlights of my year, so far. They thought of everything, from the ladybug theme (ladybugs are kind of like a Chinese adoption mascot) to the red threads tying the chopsticks (see side bar) for our authentic Chinese meal. We played some adoption themed games, had a wonderful meal and got some really cool gifts. It was unlike any shower I've ever been to. It really helped sink in the fact that this IS going to happen... and soon!