I800-A

I sent this off on Tuesday, September 28th. Our I800 application to USCIS. This is the last big hoop before we can get our dossier to China. Of course, we have to wait until they approve this and give us a fingerprinting appointment. In the meantime, I am so thankful to have 3 chicks to cuddle at home while I am waiting for Sweet Pea.

Homestudy Finalized!

Just wanted to drop in and say that yes - it is finalized!
I got an e-mail this morning from Darian at BAAS. I went to pick up our homestudy in the afternoon and am now working on our I800A application.

I800A is Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country (I didn't know what it was until today).

Happy Birthday, Nene!

My middle baby turned 6 on the 5th of September! This is a very belated blog post - but we have been quite busy! But I must make a post just for his birthday!

In the spirit of fall, here is a pumpkin patch picture from 2004. There's 3.5 year old Mattie, and I am holding another little punkin - and that is baby Ne. He was about a month old here.


Same day, but now being held by Mattie.


Isn't he cute? He is labout 2 months old here, and decorated already with a Trader Joe's sticker (from brother).


Alas - I seem to be missing a great number of digital photos! If I find more, I will try to post more. But here's a picture taken just last week. When we went to visit Los Angeles, Auntie Beryl made an imprompty belated birthday celebration for Nathan complete with a rice krispy cake!


And just for fun - a little video I found - again from the pumpkin patch - but 3 years later. Different pumpkin patch, too. Those of you who know Nathan know that he loves loves loves babies - and he also loves loves loves feet! You can see his two loves evidenced in this little video. Look how he loves on little AarBear (about 4 months old here). You get to see 6 year old Matthew, too. Ah - time flies!

California History

We did a fun project for California history. Matthew is in 4th grade now, and so for social studies we are studying our state. The first thing was studying the geography of California - where it is located, and the different terrains and geographical forms, where the capitol is, and so forth. We made a relief map out of. . . cake, and chocolate chips, and blue and green frosting! It is complete with a compass rose and a key as well. We ate it - yes, almost the whole entire thing - the next day.

This will be an interesting year. I actually did this very same project with my 4th grade class I taught my first year of teaching way back when. It was MUCH more manageable with only 2 students :-). When I did it at school, I had it as a center, and groups of 6 students or so would rotate through. Aarbear was snoozing, so we got to do this without him trying to eat all of the chocolate chips or squirting frosting everywhere :-). I never did learn my CA history properly, though. Even when I had to teach it, I only did it that one year (and it was pretty here and there). The three other years that I taught 4th grade, I team-taught with my neighboring teacher so that he did all of the social studies and I did all of the science and health. It will be extremely educational for me to be teaching CA history again. Maybe I'll learn it for real this time :-).

The boys' new pad

The Lord is so nice to us.
A few weeks/months ago, we started thinking about getting bunkbeds for Matthew and Nathan (and Aaron). We thought about many combos - a bunkbed and then a twin bed, a loft bed with a mattress underneath and then a twin for Aaron, etc. We scoured Ikea catalogs and craigslist and ebay. Researching, comparison shopping, etc. Well, the coolest thing happened.
One day, a brother from our church asked Dave, "I have two loftbeds that my kids aren't using anymore. Do you want them for Matthew and Nene?"

We were so amazed and thankful to the Lord. We didn't even pray about this need, or tell anyone about it - were just quietly looking into it. And the Lord arranged for this gift to be given to us :-). Not only were they gifts, but extremely well made, and the best part - hand-me-downs from these kids who are now grown-up college grads - and two of the coolest people we know (Sam and Lydia, for those of you who have the privilege of knowing them). So - Matthew and Nathan are so happy with their new beds, and also delighted that they used to belong to Uncle Sam and Auntie Lydia. Whenever I see those lofts, I remember the Lord's provision for us, and how He is mindful of all of our needs - no matter how trivial they may be.

In the bottom picture, the lump on the full bed beneath Nene's loft is sleeping Aaron.

Unrelated -but also cool - the book that Nathan is holding, The Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary, is so cool! It was an early gift from Auntie Jeanette (a dear dear friend of mine) and we are just loving looking at all of the minifigures and sets, and reading about the history of bricks and the storylines from everything Star Wars. If you have little boys who are into Star Wars and/or Lego, I highly recommend it. It's awesome.

Lake Vasona Field Trip

Last Friday, Aaron and I got to go on a fieldtrip with Matthew and Nathan and their Chinese class to Lake Vasona Park. It is in Los Gatos - about 15 minutes from our house. It was really fun! One really great thing about going to a small private start-up school - the principal invited me AND AARBEAR to come! In the past, when I have wanted to go on fieldtrips - I could not bring any of my younger children. This was great because Aaron got to come, and he was SOOOO excited about "riding the Magin Schoolbus." And we did - right along with the students.

Fun, but tiring day. Vasona Park has lake, and also some wildlife like ducks and geese. The kids were so excited. We even had pizza delivered for lunch at the picnic area. The only bummer was that there is a railroad there with train rides - and that was closed.

Huge Milestone!

Last Saturday, 8/28/10, we had our last homestudy visit! This time, our social worker came to our house to check it out and also to meet the kids. The picture above is of her talking to Matthew at the end of the visit. Everything went pretty smoothly - she made a couple of suggestions, but I hope and pray that she will write a thorough report that is favorable to our adoption. Our social worker is very nice, and very experienced - a wonderful resource for so many things related to adoption. It will take about a month for the homestudy report to be written, corrected, and finalized. This feels like a huge milestone to have our visits be over (for now - there is still postplacement, when the social worker comes to visit after a child comes home to a family). I will feel even better when the homestudy is finalized!

Thanks to those who have been praying for us. We do so appreciate it :-).