Logan's cupcakes

Logan found a recipe for turkey cupcakes in one of his magazines and asked if we could make them to take to Thanksgiving dinner. Well actually he asked if we could make them right away and I said we would make them on Thanksgiving!

Logan did most of the work by himself and he really did a great job! I had fun doing this little activity in the kitchen with him, we don't often get that time alone together doing something in the kitchen.

These were tasty cupcakes! Thanks Logan!

Ameritowne

Brayden's 6th class participated in Ameritowne this year. It was such a cool experience for them. I never got to do anything like this when I was in elementary and I think it was a great learning experience, but also really fun in the process. In the months leading up to Ameritowne, the kids spent time in class interviewing for different jobs, campaigning for jobs that would require election (judge and mayor), applying for business loans and learning how to balance their checkbook and not overdraw their account. The whole point of Ameritowne is learning about economics (supply/demand), running a profitable business and being responsible with your money.

Brayden wanted to be judge, so he spent several weeks making posters to hang around the school and preparing a speech to give to his classmates to convince them to vote for him. In the end, he won!!!  I'm so proud of him, I know that the reason his classmates elected him judge was because they knew he is fair and can be impartial. His desire to see everyone follow the rules came in very handy for this job!

Brayden's office at Ameritowne

Brayden being sworn in as judge

I got to chaperone this field trip and see Ameritowne in action. They don't allow parents to work in the same office as their kids, so I worked in the newspaper with some other kids from Brayden's class. That was an interesting and fun job as well, I'm glad I got to be there with Brayden and I'm so glad Brayden got to have this experience!

The last Christmas





This Christmas will be the last Christmas we will be waiting on our daughter to be home! This Christmas will be the last one where I feel my heart torn between two sides of the world, between wanting to be in two places at the same time! I am struggling this year with living in the moment and making memories with and for my children, and spending every moment wishing Kailin was here making the memories with us.

 

Since we started our adoption almost 3 years ago, we have gotten an ornament at Christmas to signify the adoption in some way. The first two years our ornaments were Africa-shaped and themed, but this year we got to do something different! We found this ornament on another person's adoption fundraiser website and immediately we knew this was perfect! She is waiting in China for us and we are waiting here for her! (Last Christmas, baby girl, next year you'll be home!)

 

 

I also have a sweet friend through our China adoption FB group who sent us these two Chinese ornaments and I love these too! Kailin was born in 2012, the year of the Dragon, so this one is perfect. And panda bears are huge in China (we might even get to visit a panda zoo), so that one is cool too!

 

I'm not trying to be melodramatic always talking about how much my heart is torn and how much I miss Kailin, but seriously, it's one of the most intense feelings I have felt in a long time! I can't really relate it to anything, even when I was pregnant and I wanted to hold my baby, in some way, I still was and I was still with my child and getting to know them while they were in my womb. My heart breaks for Kailin that she had to spend another Christmas alone (without a forever family), but I know it will be her last.

 

We have a CD with this song on it and I haven't listened to it much this year, for obvious reasons, but every time I do I just start crying. Can't wait till she's home!!

 



Lazy Sadie

We have had our new dog, Sadie, now for a year, so I guess she's not really our new dog anymore. When we first brought her home, she was so anxious and playful and such a puppy still, I was wondering when/if she would ever settle down into more of an adult dog.

Well, no worries on that front now! She has become settled and lazy to the max! She has her little sleeping routine and not much changes it: sleep in till 7, eat, play with the kids till they go to school, nap pretty much until they get home from school (anyone's bed is fair game), play with them outside, eat dinner, nap or play until bedtime and then sleep all night.

She has also claimed our bed to sleep on during the night, much to our dismay. We are still trying to change that, but there's not much we can do when she obediently goes to her mat when we go to bed, only to jump up on the bed once we've fallen asleep.

Sadie still loves chasing the tennis ball and playing with the kids in the backyard and going for runs with Chris, but the times when we are inside and not doing anything, she is one lazy puppy for sure! I'm glad she has learned to settle down a little and feels comfortable enough in our house to rest, because those first few weeks home I wasn't sure she ever would. She's been a great dog so far, despite some of her annoying quirks, she's a good fit for our family!

Our little wrestler

Preston had been begging to do football this past fall, but our rule is that they can't play football till they are in middle school. It's just not a very safe sport and it's not worth risking an injury when they are so young. So Chris thought maybe Preston would like wrestling instead and when he asked Preston about it, Preston was so excited!

We found a youth wrestling club at a high school nearby and signed him up. It has been going since late October and Preston has already wrestled in two tournaments. Although he is still a beginner, he has some natural talent it seems, and he is not afraid to be aggressive when necessary (or even when it's not necessary for that matter!), which is a good quality to have in wrestling. His coaches are impressed with his progress and comment to us almost weekly about how well they think he is doing for this being his first year.

His first tournament he was raring to go and I think a little nervous. But he did really good - he took 2nd place in his bracket! And he only lost to 1st place by 2 points in the last 5 seconds of the last period!

I didn't get any pictures at the second tournament, but Preston wrestled really good for how competitive a tournament it was. It was a national tournament and the competition was noticeably higher! He took 3rd place in that tournament and now he has two medals hanging around his neck! I'm excited to see where his wrestling "career" might take him in the years to come!

Dancing disappointment

This past year, Ashten has finally gotten to the age where she wants to be involved in more activities outside the home. She took a gymnastics class in the fall and then she really wanted to take dance. She LOVES dancing at home, anytime we are watching TV and a song comes on a commercial or we are listening to an upbeat song, you can be sure she is dancing! She is very rythmic in her dance, like a cheerleadering or gymnastics routine, but there is no doubt she loves dance.

So we signed her up for a ballet/tap combo class because that's all that's offered at this age during the day when it wouldn't conflict with and add another thing to our already busy after-school schedule. We bought the clothes and counted down the days till she would start class and then showed up the first day.

We sat there and waited for the teacher with a bunch of other little girls for about 15 minutes before someone came and told us that the teacher was unable to do the class and had cancelled it that morning. Ashten was crying and so sad! 

We told her we would have to wait till after Christmas to sign up for another class, but then when the schedule came out, there is nothing! So instead, starting in January, she will be doing gymnastics again. She is very excited to start doing a class again. But I will admit, the dancing clothes were pretty cute and I'll miss seeing her in them!

Tag Her Bag update - one month later

As you may remember, we are doing a Tag Her Bag fundraiser to help raise the last of the funds we need to travel and bring Kailin home. I just wanted to bring you guys an update as to where we are, a little over a month later.

To date, we have received donations of almost $1500! That's awesome! We said ANY amount and it's been kind of fun to see the random amounts we have received from people who have given so selflessly and generously towards our final adoption costs! We have also received a $2000 grant, which means in total, since our referral, we are almost $3500 closer to our meeting all our final fees and travel costs! If you don't feel like doing math, that means we have somewhere around $8-10K still to go, but we aren't worried. That's totally doable in God's economy and we have actually seen Him do it in our adoption process so far, multiple times!!!

I have tried to keep up with thanking everyone publicly on facebook who has gotten their name on the bag because I want people to know how much we value them and appreciate all they have done to help us! All these names, and the many more who have donated prior to this fundraiser, are just constant reminders of God's faithfulness to and love towards the orphan! He cares for Kailin and will see this adoption to it's completion and even beyond!

Star student

Logan got chosen to be the star student in his class the week before Thanksgiving. Being the star student has some privileges, like getting to lead the lines and run little errands for the teacher around school, but the most exciting part was getting to share about himself in front of the class. The teacher sent home 6 different sheets where Logan had to fill in blanks about himself and print pictures. It was a really fun exercise for him, he had a great time doing it.

At the beginning of that week, our computer crashed, so we were racing against the clock to get it back working in time to print pictures for Logan's assignment.  But thanks to my dad and his vast computer expertise and knowledge, it was back working just in time!

I'm so glad Logan got this opportunity to share about himself with his class. And it was special that we already had Kailin's referral and he was able to share about that! Logan is such a special kid, at school and especially in our family, I love assignments like these that help us to reflect on exactly what makes Logan so uniquely and wonderfully made!!

Matchy guys

Chris leaves for work by 6 am usually. He's such a hard worker and I really admire his dedication to his work. But that means that usually none of the kids are awake when he leaves and they don't see each other till they are home from school and work. 

This one particular day, Chris chose to wear this sweater, which is rare for him because he's not really a dressy sweater guy. And then.....Preston comes out of his room an hour later right after he woke up, after Chris was long gone, wearing the almost same sweater and jeans outfit! This is especially rare for Preston, he NEVER dresses up unless he has to. He's more of a sport shorts and t-shirt kind of kid!

When they got home, I just had to take a picture of these two handsome guys in their matching outfits!

PA!

I opened up my email early morning on November 22nd and we got our pre-approval!! When someone receives a referral for China, they have to write what is called a Letter of Intent (LOI) that basically states that they want to adopt the child and how they plan to raise them. That letter, along with a letter from the agency, is translated into Chinese and sent to China, where they either approve our family to move forward with the adoption or not. So, after submitting our LOI 2 long weeks before, we got our PA on November 21!

We are now sending this care package to Kailin and her foster family! I can't wait till she gets this stuff and maybe in some way will understand she has a forever family!!

We included a book that Chris and I recorded ourselves reading (Guess How Much I Love You) so that Kailin could hear our voices, a photo album with pictures of our family, our house and Sadie labeled in English and Chinese, a stuffed animal that we slept with for a few nights so it would smell like us and the Colorado II book is a gift for the foster family, a token from our state! There is no way for us to fully tell them just how grateful we are for the role they have played in Kailin's life, this is just a small token. We also included two disposable cameras and we are hoping the foster family will use them to take pictures of Kailin so we have a few more pictures from this time in her life. If not, it was still money well spent for the chance to maybe even get one picture!!

Now we are waiting for our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) which is the final approval from China that we can take custody of Kailin. This can take up to 3 months from referral because they have to translate our whole dossier into Chinese and then read through it and make a decision. After we receive the LOA, we will travel 3 months later! So, we are excited and hoping we get our LOA before late January/early February, really hoping by the end of December, but I think that's wishful thinking. I keep saying that I know we will travel at just the right time on God's calender, I just wish God's calender had us traveling next week!