It's a boy!!

It seems like it's been a while, since I've updated on our adoption.  The last few months have just been a lot of waiting.  We sent our dossier to China in late February, and then we just waited to get a referral for a child. And I am now so very excited to say that we have been matched with a child....a sweet 8 month old boy!! To say that we are all excited is an understatement.  Just to watch Emma and Liam's faces when we talk about him is priceless.  Huge grins and giggles and questions galore....where is he going to sleep? when are we going to get him? what is his name going to be? With two small children, I sometimes feel like I answer questions all day long....but these are questions that I actually love to get to answer.

I don't have the answers to a lot of these questions.  We are now waiting on our Letter of Approval from China, which can take anywhere from 2-4 months or so.  We hope to travel anywhere from August to October...and yes, all 4 of us are going!! I can't imagine a better experience for Emma and Liam to go with us to bring home our son.

A lot of people keep asking why it takes so long after you get matched to actually go get your child.  Truthfully, I have no idea.  I know that China does still have to officially review our dossier.  Why it takes a few months to do it I'm not sure.  But this whole process has been this way.  There's definitely a lot of waiting and wondering and wanting things to move quicker.  And it's hard to not get impatient.  But I can truly say that God has given us a spirit of peace and patience as we have waited.  First, waiting to get matched with a child and now waiting to actually bring him home.  And I'm also treasuring moments with Emma and Liam, as we also prepare their hearts for a new brother.

The last few months have also been filled with yard sales and other small fundraisers to help raise the money to bring home our son.  We've also just found out that an organization named Lifesong has agreed to help us with our fundraising.  You can give money to our adoption through Lifesong and it is tax-deductible.  This is a huge blessing! (If you'd like to give you can go here...http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html.  Please make sure to include our name and number in the donation: Elliott #2613).

So, this mama is excited and over the moon and already in love with this precious child that God has given us.  I know the next months will sometimes feel slow and other times feel fast.  I'm praying God will continue to walk alongside us in the "waiting".  And I'm also praying for our child's health, for the caretakers and orphanage he is in, for the bonding is to come with us and him...and thanking God every day that He is allowing us to be His parents.

Liam is 5!!!

How does this keep happening?  Somehow my kids keep getting older!  There's something very bittersweet about your kids growing up.  It's so fun to watch them do new and exciting things, as they grow up.  But it's also sad to realize they'll never be babies again.  It constantly reminds me to slow down and to cherish every single day with my kids.  I often catch myself just going through my day, doing my day-to-day "stuff" and not really sitting down to just "be" with my kids.  One day I won't be able to just cuddle with Liam for an hour every morning, and they won't want to give me 100 hugs and kisses all day long (without some embarrassment) and they might not come to me with every little boo-boo or to just show me the grasshopper they've just found...I don't want to miss a single minute (and I will one day invent a machine that makes time slow down).

birthday morning!

5!

Celebrating with friends!

5 Things I Love about Liam on his 5th birthday:

1) He loves to cuddle

2) He is FULL of adventure and energy

3) He has an incredible imagination...anything can become a toy gun, sword, spaceship

4) He can start a conversation with anyone...even complete strangers

5) His contagious laughter

Spring has sprung!

It has been a fun couple of months. Spring has always been my favorite time of year.  There's just something about the blue skies, things starting to bloom and spending all day outside.  Here's a little re-cap of our spring, so far...

Liam has started to play t-ball.  There nothing much cuter (and funnier) than watching a lot of 4 and 5 year olds play baseball.  Liam has been great. 

 I think we've definitely got a future big leaguer on our hands:)

We had a great Spring Break at Mexico beach with some very sweet friends.  So incredibly blessed by our friendship with this family.

And yes, it is very hard to get 4 kids to look at the camera and smile.  (and this is only 4 of the 5 kids we had there).

We had a great Easter celebrating our risen Savior.  School easter egg hunts, church easter egg hunts (one with a helicopter) and a hunt at our best friends' house, lunch at Cracker Barrel (cause this mama was just lazy) and lots of fun time with family and friends over the weekend.

Easter morning

Resurrection baskets

Happy Easter!

And everyone needs a kung-fu picture while taking Easter pictures

We were also very blessed to go to the beach a 2nd time for the weekend.  It was such a fun weekend for our family.  There's just nothing like getting away with each other to do nothing but have fun together.  And we definitely have two kids that love the water.  I think Emma would stay in the water all day long every single day.  She really is an excellent swimmer and doesn't seem to mind even when the water is freezing.  Lots of memories made on this trip!

fun in the sun!

First time kayaking in the ocean

Nothing like putt-putt at the beach

 And, of course, no spring would be complete without Field Day!  Field Day brings back so many memories from elementary school.  There's just nothing quite like it.  There's no other time that you get to do an egg race, jump in a sack and do tug-of-war...and get out of class all day.

Go Green!

Winning 1st place in tug-of-war

Emma and Liam only have a few more weeks of school filled with field trips, K4 graduation, parties and all of the other fun stuff that makes the last few weeks of school so exciting.  I feel like a little kid waiting for Summer..it can't come soon enough!