When the Cat's Away. . .

This is what goes on when I am not around. . .






Here is what they are doing. . .


Yes, my 3 year old is already being schooled on trebuchets and Cho-Ku-Nus :-(. He calls this "The Moo Moo Game" due to the fact there is periodic mooing as you farm and build up your stash of supplies. My 6 year old goes on campaigns with his dad to go destroy other civilizations. My 9 year old can tell you about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Aztecs and the Chinese. When I asked Matthew whether there was a lot of violence, he replied, "Well. . . there is blood when the people are killed, but Daddy says just to ignore that part." :-o

Well, it isn't all bad. . . Here's what's going on UNDER the table.


This is how Dave survives his bike workouts. . . playing Age Of Empires. In our garage. He set up the 3 computers now so that all my men can play together. They have TONS of fun together. They get to have quality Daddy time. They don't miss me at all.

One Word Wednesday {Fire}

Complications...ugh!

Well, I received an e-mail a couple of days ago from Xiaoqing. When I got one of the cashier's checks that goes to China, I made it out to CCAA like she told me to. Then I had them put in the memo line, "Service fee." I shouldn't have done that. Xiaoqing worries that it is a little too close on the check to the pay to portion :-(. So, she is sending the check back to me, then I have to get it reprinted without the memo line.

This is very typical for adoption paperwork. You really have to dot all of your i's and cross all of your t's lest it gets sent back from you and you have to start over again. In the big picture, this isn't a big deal, but it is a little discouraging simply because we were hoping to have our dossier sent to China this Friday. Today is Tuesday, and no returned check yet, so you can do the math to realize that I probably won't be able to get the new check to her before Friday. Since dossiers only go out on Fridays, that will be a delay of one week.

Breathe. All in the Lord's time :-).

The Amazing Nathan

He flips! He falls (this is called a sacrificial fall in hkd)! He's amazing!!!
I love him!!!


Those dimples! That smile! That hamminess!
Looooooooooove that boy.

No Dilly Dallying

Yesterday, I met Dave at his office to have our copy of our I-797H notarized.
Today, I went got everything organized to send to Xiaoqing. Aarbear and I first hit the bank to get our cashier's checks, and then hit Kinko's to make two duplicate copies (and an extra one for our records) of our dossier. Then I FedEx-ed it to Xiaoqing. She will be our courier to authenticate and certificate our documents. I am hoping that we will have our documents to China by Christmas, and a log in date by the new year. Above are pics of my stacks of copies, and also our dossier with our family photos on top. Phew. I wanted to take better pictures, but I had to wrestle my phone away from Aaron just to do those (he was playing Angry Birds while I was doing the rather long and tedious job of making copies and stapling).

I am also dreaming of holding a new bundle by this time next year. That there will be six chairs around our kitchen table, and another stocking hung up for someone special. I have been praying for our coming daughter. . . that she is loved, safe, and that even now wherever she is, however old she is, she can experience the love of her Heavenly Father. We would appreciate prayers as we enter into the "waiting" phase of this adoption.

I-800a approval BABY

It came! It came! Today - in the mail, our I-800a approval came! It has been almost exactly 2 months since I mailed off the application for that thing. I am so excited! Tomorrow, a flurry of activity as I contact Xiaoqing and get her to courier these docs to Sacramento and to San Fransisco! Hooray! Hooray!

More Videos

More home videos!
This one is of this week's kids class at CAMA. You have to look one row back to see the boys. I was already feeling too much like a crazy proud camera mother to go any closer. Anyway, you can see that both of the boys are doing GREAT with their front kicks and kiops (martial yells). Fun stuff!



This next one is of Matthew at Premier International Language Academy reading his Huo Ji (Turkey) story. Matthew and Nathan go to PILA every morning for a couple hours for the Mandarin portion, and then I homeschool them in the afternoons in the rest of the subjects. It has been a nice balance for us, and a great opportunity for the boys. I am in awe of how much they have learned thus far. Ok, ok - sounding again like a crazy proud mama. I will be quiet and let you watch the vid.