Children

I'm so excited that we're adopting again. Just the thought of bringing in another child into our home to shape them and mold them into a wonderful person is so exciting for me.

Afterall, I think we've done such a great job with Zac. He's so wonderful, smart and amazingly.... normal.

See for yourself!

Homestudy

Well, the check cleared for our homestudy. (Our first big check) We still have a few police clearances to come back before they can start. I guess they don't want to waste their time if it turns out I'm a convicted felon.

But assuming I have not committed any known crimes, we should be starting the homestudy in the next few weeks. We've still got our fire extinguisher from the last time we went through this.

Ironically enough, we almost had to use the fire extinguisher just the other day as something that Katie was cooking caught on fire. :)

Zac-ism

A few days ago, Zac was saying a little prayer for his meal. It went something like this:

Dear God - Thank you for my food and I hope Melia likes Chinese food.... because she's Chinese. Amen.

Did you know?

Still in the early stages of paperwork. I'm guessing the paperwork thing will be going on for several months....

"Why" you ask?

Because a lot of our paperwork is dependent on government agencies getting back to us. For example, right now we're waiting for the State to send us back a letter that states that we don't have a criminal record. Apparently, this takes a month.


In the mean time, let me tell you what I've learned about Chinese. For those of you who don't know, Chinese is a TONAL language. This means that pitch, inflection and HOW you say a word is just as important as WHAT you say.

For example: "Ma" could mean "mother". But if you raise or lower your pitch incorrectly, "Ma" can also mean "horse" or "punish".

Oh great. We meet Melia and tell her "This is your horse" or worse yet, "This is your punishment". I'm sure she'll love that introduction!

More stuff

A few more things to add:

Our last 3 years of 1040's (to make sure we have enough money)
A picture of the whole family (to make sure we're pretty enough?)
A picture of the outside of our house (to make sure I've raked the leaves.... and put up Christmas lights)

Our homestudy should start within a few weeks.

Thinking ahead

Katie and I are already thinking ahead to where we take our trip to China. (Yea!) The big debate is: Should we or should we not take the kiddo's along with us? It may be the greatest family trip ever..... or it may be the biggest disaster ever. :)

Also, our debate may be a non-issue as the kids could all be in school and unable to go with us. Missing two weeks is generally frowned upon. I'd feel kinda bad if all my kids had to repeat a grade.

I welcome any of your thoughts...

Status Update

Accomplishments for the week:

Finger prints - check
TB test - check
HIV test - check
17 page application - check
Notarized contract with agency - check
$300 check - check

We celebrated by taking the whole family ice skating last night. Very fun!