This and That...

Life has been consumed lately with illnesses, wrestling, work, and of course, trying to get our adoption paperwork together so here are just a few pictures of some recent S family adventures...

We have a name!

Visit JinPei's blog... name announcement!

Chasing away the Paperchasing Blues...

This paperchase for our daughter has not been as easy as it was for Brynn's. It has been quite frustrating and yet again, today, we have had another annoying potential delay. Thankfully, I have my two little ones to lighten the mood, even if just for a few minutes.

I am not one of those mom's who can turn down a child's plea to lick the spoon and the bowl for fear of disease from a raw egg or two! Here they helped make a Valentine's cake to celebrate finishing writing out the zillions of valentines for all the kids' classmates, teachers, and themselves. We haven't even touched family and neighborhood friends yet...

Here is Brynn rowing her bus on the back porch in freezing weather, sporting the kind of hairstyle she typically has given me by the end of the day with her nonstop chatter! :) I showed her a picture of herself and that made her laugh and smile even bigger!

Kate

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! This year is the year of the rat.

Rats are both charming and aggressive. They appear calm and well balanced on the surface,but underneath, they are restless and a little nervous. Rats are compatible,hard working, and they know how to hang on to a penny. They are never without admirers. They are very appealing.They have a bright and happy personality,and this keeps them busy socially.They love parties and other large gatherings. They like belonging to exclusive clubs and will often have a close circle of fellow conspirators.They like involvement and are very outgoing. Rats cherish friends and loved ones. For this reason,they often get entangled with others'problems and lives.

Doug was born in the year of the rat and I think that most of this describes him well, other than the exclusive club thing.

As for the rest of us, we have one monkey (Brynn), one rabbit (Caleb), one pig (JinPei), one rooster (me), one horse (Price), and one sheep (Evan). So we have covered 7 of the 12 in the "S" family.

Rest easy, grandparents - we will not be trying to complete the Chinese zodiac within our house! :)

Kate

Adding to the madness...

Well, here she is... our new daughter! Her name is Wan Jin Pei and she is almost 11 months old; she will be 1 in March. She is currently living in the Wanzai County SWI (orphanage) in the Jiangxi Province of China. She is from the same province as Brynn. We were chosen as her family in the beginning of December but we just received PA (pre-approval) from China yesterday so while the kids knew we were going to adopt again since our meetings with the social worker this fall, tonight we "introduced" them to their sister... all three pictures and her birthday and that she lives in China was about it. Evan asked if we were going to get her a new haircut. The kids were thrilled. Doug and I are very excited but, of course, the adoption route is far from predictable, so we are nervous too. We are waiting for one final paper from U.S. immigration before we can send our documents to China for review. We are hoping to travel in July but it may be September... no one is really sure what effects the Olympics will have on adoptions for the month of August but I am thinking airflights might be quite limited and expensive. So pray for early summer for us!

I've started a new blog for Jin Pei and it is listed over on the right. I probably won't post much there until we travel but if I do, I'll let you know on this blog. I do have a few things to blog about, like her new name and why we chose it, and a picture of her from when she was less than a month old, and a bit about her personality based on the report we received, but I have to spread that information out so I don't run out of things before we travel since there is the chance we will not learn much more. But we certainly are going to try!

Kate

Our Announcement!

I'll tease for today... take a look around and see if you notice some not-so-subtle hints of things to come. More tomorrow though if you look hard enough, you'll discover the details!

Kate

A Gift for Brynn

Today Brynn received a special blanket in the mail, handmade by three of my friends from way, way, back... elementary school! They all worked on it together, which makes it more special considering they live in three different states. Thank you Beth, Cathy, and Shelly! So far it has been a cape, a game board as she tried to get a ball to land on a certain square, part of a fort, a ghost costume and yes, a blanket tonight when she went to bed. She loves it!!

Kate