Abi's China Sisters

Then and Now

I previously posted that we are going to have the same guide for Jaxon's adoption as we did for Abigayle's. Several of Abi's China sisters' families sent me pictures to take to Grace to show her how much the girls have grown. Grace helped us unite with our beautiful daughters and we are so grateful. Here are pages from the scrapbook I have put together for Grace.

Grandma's 90th Birthday

Last weekend, we all journeyed to the little town of Taylor, Texas, near Austin to help my Grandma celebrate her 90th birthday. She is such an amazing person. She still loves to crack jokes and is so young at heart. We are all very blessed to be a part of her family. Happy Birthday Grandma--We love you so much.

Kindergarten Take 2/Ann

Hey everyone,

My fabulous aunt Ann has graciously agreed to update my blog for us everyday. I will email her the details and much anticipated pictures and she will load everything for me since blogging is prohibited in China. Remember this is her first time to blog, so don’t criticize. We are excited that she has agreed to take on this task for us. For her trial post, she is showing Abigayle on her 2^nd day of school. Funny story though, starting yesterday, the second week of Kindergarten, in their daily folders they are now sending home a calendar that is color coded to depict how their behavior was that day. Now, anyone who knows my child, knows what a sweet, kind, and compliant little girl she is. Well apparently, she is to wiggly in school and really needs to work on staying on task. (no surprise there) However, these things got her a yellow coding for the day. When her aunt Bug asked her what yellow meant, she says, “not good”. Julie and I busted out laughing. Our goal for today is either purple or blue.

Later, Kendra

Grace--

To all the wonderful families I traveled with to get Abigayle, guess who is our guide in Beijing???? GRACE. If any of you want to email me a page with a then and now photo for me to take, I would be happy to do it.

Orphanage

We found out this morning that we have been approved to visit the orphanage in Zhuhai City where Jaxon has lived the first 2 1/2 years of his life. This will be an invaluable opportunity for us to gain information on how he has been raised to be able to share with him when he is older and ready. So excited! Unfortunately Mom and I did not get to do this with Abi's orphanage b/c hers was over 7 hours away through the mountains and on bad roads.

PS

PS As anxious as we will be by the end of our trip to return home, we have decided to stay an extra day and take the kids ( I love the sound of that, "The kids") to Hong Kong DISNEY. We will take the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. I know they are going to be so excited to ride a real TRAIN.

Flights are booked.

Our flights are booked!

CA Consulates Appointment--Were outa here!

Hip Hip Hooray--we got our Consulates Appointment--September 15th. We will be departing the US on either September 1 or 2. Gotcha day will be either September 5 or 6. Stay tuned for a full itinerary.

Travel Approval (TA)

Yes, Yes, Yes, we finally have our travel approval. We are going to China to get our little boy. Our agency has informed us that they possibly want us to leave on September 2nd--9 days from now. Our exact dates are not confirmed yet b/c we have to get our CA (Consulates Appointment). As soon as we get our CA, we can book our flights--last minute flights to China--that ought to be a pretty penny............. Anyhow, we are absolutely overjoyed that we will be meeting our son and Abigayle's little brother in possibly less than two weeks.

Kindergarten (part 2)

Abi had a great first day of school. She walked right in her class this morning and sat down to do a puzzle. She did tell me however, that she didn't like the puzzle--probably b/c it was a 4 piece puzzle and she is used to doing 48 piece puzzles. She told us she went to PE, read books about makeup and crying, ate in the cafeteria and played in the 'home' center. All appeared to go well until she went back to her original day care school after school. She had two new teachers and there was a thunderstorm. By then, I think she was overwhelmed with all the activities and newness of everything and the thunder put her over the edge--bring on the meltdown. She was playing happily when I picked her up, but as soon as she saw me, she started crying.





Tonight we surprised Abi with a 'Congratulations on your first day of Kindergarten' celebration.

Kindergarten

First Day of School

Lunch is packed

Tomorrow our sweet little girl starts Kindergarten. (tears of happiness). We are so excited to see what this year has in store for her. She picked out her backpack (Kai Lin) and we are ready to go. Momma gets to pick the first day of school outfit and I promise to have her all dolled up. Abi requested the following for her lunch: ham roll ups, chips, strawberries, fruit by the foot and orange juice. Abigayle--we are so proud of you and look forward to making many memories with you during your Kindergarten year.

Mini Girl Vacation--well almost

Each year, my girl friends from Dallas come down and we head to the beach with the kiddos. Look out Galveston, here we come. The beach was beautiful, no seaweed, low tides, beautiful sand--just perfect. After a few hours, we headed to the hotel for some clean water, water slides and drinks. Unfortunately, within 30 minutes, Stacy and I were headed to the emergency room with little Keller--he fell going up the steps to the slide and took out a big piece of meat on his face. Amy was left in charge of Abi, Kase and her Rylee. Fortunately, his trip wasn't ruined, his mommy just had to be creative with activities. We went on to enjoy ice cream, dancing at the Rain Forrest Cafe, yummy dinners together and a night swim. All in all, Abigayle and I had a great, great time. I miss my friends so much, so these yearly trips to the beach are an extra special time for me.

A Difficult Day with a GREAT ending!

Without going into all the specifics, we had a frustrating day with adoption procedures. However, the end result was, we got our Article 5 approval. This means that the US Consulates office in Guangzhou has approved Jaxon's VISA to return to the US with us. So, from here, our documents go back to Beijing to the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) and they issue the coveted TA (TRAVEL APPROVAL)! We are soooo close we can hardly stand it. Happy Dance, Happy Dance.

VISA Applications

Our agency has contacted us and asked us to go ahead and send them our VISA applications for travel to China. Just another small step towards our son. Mind you, this does not mean that we have any information about travel, it is simply something that must be done. Our agency takes care of getting the VISA's from the Chinese Consulates office for us. This is a nice treat since I have been to the Chinese Consulates office numerous times and I have seen the lines.

Fun in the Sun

Yesterday we splished, splashed at the YMCA. Abigayle had a great time with her cousins, Malorie, Evie and friend Ava.