Jia and Chayse having their own party.

My friend Natalie is here from Ontario with her two girls, Madison and Chayse.  Natalie and I met on-line when we were waiting in the same log in group for Jia and Chayse. 

The girls took a few minutes to warm up to each other and then they were off and running.  They had a great time together.  So incredibly cute.

Madison and Fei have the same Gotcha day.  Very cool.

It was Fei's (and Madison's) Gotcha day yesterday.  I wasn't feeling well.  Thank goodness Daddy stepped up and made the day fun.  They went to the Maritime center in Cowichan Bay and built wooden boats then went for ice cream at Fei's favorite ice cream place, home made, she had mandarin orange with dark chocolate flakes.  

Fei has requested that we go to Kissinger Lake.  We are tenting there this weekend.  Wish us luck folks.  I haven't had Eric in a tent in 21 years!  We're all packed.  Crazy amount of stuff.  Now we're all hoping like crazy the rain won't come. 

The Ratties Photo shoot

The set up.

Waiting for Lola to come out of the pocket.

Lia's turn.

My feeble attempt, totally blurry.  Will replace with Andrews shot when we get them.

We have a local photographer who was looking for light colored rodents.  A friend of his is a friend of mine so I showed her a picture of the girls rats.  They were chosen.

He is entering a contest and trying to re-create a national geographic photo of a baby squirrel climbing out of the pocket of jeans hanging on a clothesline. 

Too funny.  None of us could fathom how he would ever get that shot.

So, Andrew was over last night and we ended up having to enlist Scott to help hold the line, the light was checked and the background of the silvered fence was chosen.  Then the set up and then the ratties were dumped in the pockets, we all just waited for them to pop out and look forward, darned it they didn't do it over and over again!  Wild.  Andrew got lots of shots and seemed very happy with them.  He's going to send us one of each of the rats, since they both popped out and looked forward.  Andrew showed me a couple of the pictures and they looked so sweet.  No clue which one will be in 'his chosen' shot.  We think they are both beautiful but it will be which one was the better model I suppose.  Always something fun happening around our place :)

Opening Luk's file and pictures last Tuesday

Huddled around Mom's laptop, trying to figure out how to get logged in to my mail account.

Suggesting to everyone that I could just open the file up on my phone, NOW.

 

Here he is!

 

 

Collective 'awww'.

 

It's a week tomorrow since we saw his little face.  He's 14mo. in the picture and 23mo. old this Friday.  We really need an update, on his size, his health, his development and physical levels and abilities.  We're cautiously moving forward but seriously my reading and researching is doing nothing to help the anxiety over his need and the possible issues he could encounter.  Once he is ours and we adore him the needs won't matter, I do know that, but it's hard to dive in while reading all the worst case situations.  I sooooo want updated photos, clearer ones.  I know he must have changed a lot in the last nine months! 

 

We got an updated file and photos for Fei.  She was 9mo. in her file and 15mo. when we got referral.  We were told then the the files are updated every six months.  Let's hope that is true for Luk! 

 

I did have an update on Jia too, but I paid an ourside company for those pictures.   Not on purpose, I actually sent moon cakes to the orphanage and got surprise pics in my e-mail one morning.  I'm not allowed to send anything to Luk until pre-approval. 

 

About pre-approval...  families are reporting getting theirs in 2 - 10 days, but when I asked Sunrise I was told 3 - 5 weeks!  Yikes.  I was a tad concerned about that but then I read on the weekend that there are new rules with the new computer system and if you are logged in (we were) and you send letter of intent in for a log in only child (Luk was) then you skip pre-approval and the pre-approval is actually when we are moved to the matching room.  Which means our file has been reviewed and approved and we're in the room where LOA's come from.  Which is the all important paper that asks us if we want to adopt the child proposed and we're only one step away from travel approval.  It's a long and tedious procedure for sure.  Which only gives me more time to worry and get caught up in special needs angst.

 

So right now, collective thoughts and prayers for a speedy review and approval of our family file.

 

Dragon Boating

We arrived early and had time to go for a walk and climb trees.

The water dragons!

Our whole group.

Happy 7th Birthday Asia!

Our busy weekend.

We took a trip to the mainland to visit friends.  We did three days, four houses and two nights in a hotel.  Fun and super busy.  I know, this is drivel compared to a referral but I have nothing else to add and extra energy so might as well carry on with the post I would have done normally.

Jia didn't travel well.  It's been a while since we took her anywhere.  Transitioning is not her thing.  She was nervous and it took her a while to warm up everywhere we went.  She had tons of fun once she relaxed.  She loved the waterslides and is asking to go back.  We thought she hated the hotel room until we let her drink milk out of the container and then it was all good.  The oddest little things that make kids happy.  Go figure.  Lili and Fei enjoyed seeing everyone, as did Eric and I.  Lots of laughs.  Oh, and always good to come home, especially if you get a referral right away!

The obligatory ferry shot.

Olivia, adopted with Fei.

Olivia's little sister Serephina.

Lili with her nose in a book.

I was simply stunned at how brave Jia was at the waterslides!

She loved it!

High-lite of the day, a baby ladybug.

They are sooo stinkin' cute together.

Fei did hair and Jade got everyone dressed up.

And Lili had her nose in a book.  She even thought to pack a flashlight!  Seriously.

LOVE IT! 

Best moment in the hotel.

She told us repeatedly that she wanted to go home and she didn't like the hotel.  Since we're home she's asking to go back to the hotel. 

Making new friends with Elsa and Evelyn.

Their family is waiting for a match to a boy too.  We had so hoped we'd end up traveling together.

This is what Eric would look like with five kids :)

Totally random.  Look what Eric made for me!  Used to be just the wooden ball.  It's so pretty.  It's so much fun watching all the projects happening these days.

Acceptance in.

Jia was delighted with the flowers from Nicole, she loved on them all the way home and put them in the vase for me.  So sweet.

The official acceptance has been sent to our agency.  Letter of Intent with a care and nuture plan.  So exciting.  Seriously, you'd think with this being our fourth that the excitement level would drop.  Nope, even more excited.  I didn't sleep well.  Reading and re-reading the file.  Then researching and researching some more.  I can't even pronounce his needs.  Will post more later.  In the meantime, I've read the worst case scenarios and we're certain we can manage.  I think.  His file states, cured.  So, we're prepared for the worst and hoping for the best.  Really, the same leap of faith we took with all of the girls. 

So, last night when we got home for dinner it felt odd to be just us, sitting around discussing what to eat.  We called a couple friends and had an impromptu dinner out.  Chinese food of course.  We're so lucky to have such great friends. 

Jia isn't thrilled about this baby brother thing.  Printing some pictures today so she'll have something tangible to hold onto.  She'll get used to the idea right?! 

Seems totally bizarre to be at work today.  Feels like there should be something more we can do.