Love is patient, Love is kind

Here is an update on our progress---- We had fingerprints done in December via the USCIS(United States Citizenship Immigration Services)and were waiting for them to come in the mail. This was our last piece that was needed for our dossier. It came in the mail mid January. We got that notarized and sent to our agency. The agency had it authenticated and were then ready to mail our dossier. {What's a dossier? It's a file of records just on our family.} We have been building our dossier for several months and it was MAILED yesterday (Wednesday). Once China receives our dossier, they have 30 days to log it in. This is referred to as your LID {Log-in-date}. Then China reviews our dossier and approves it. Once approved, we receive a LOA {Letter of Approval}. They have 60 days to approve, so I'm thinking it will be April. I don't know all the specific details of what happens after this, except traveling occurs a couple of months after the LOA arrives. :)

Too much time has gone by to tell about all the things we have done since summer. Phew! That would be a super long post. You know I like the bullet points, so I might do something like that to inform you about our updates. First off, I might should let y'all know (but most of you already know) that we are in the adoption process. There is much to say about this and hopefully, I will get to answering some questions that many people continue to ask. Heck, I will go ahead and answer some anyway since the kids are in bed and the hubs is at a late show. I'm enjoying the alone time :)

What made us choose adoption?
We wanted to have more children and we feel that it is our job as Christian's to take care of orphans. I feel like this is a sappy answer and not all families are called to do this. BUT we have the room, the finances, and the love to do it. Jason has thought about adoption since he was a young teen and me, well I just thought about it this year.

Who are we adopting through?
We are using Dillon International as our agency. They are fabulous, faith-based, and there happens to be a local office in North Little Rock. The main office is in Tulsa, OK.

Where are we adopting from?
We have chosen China!

WHY international and not domestic? (very popular question)
There is not a "wow/great" answer for this. We look at adoption as providing a family for a child no matter where the child is from. Some families are called to domestic, some to international. Either way, a child will receive a forever home.

Why China?
When a family chooses an agency, the agency provides several countries to choose from. In fact, different agencies serve different countries which can help the family decipher what agency to use.
Where as Jason doesn't really have a fear of flying, it's not my favorite thing to do. We were looking for minimal travel to/from country. Most countries, the family has to travel twice. China just happens to be a one time travel only. There are very few countries that only require one trip. Also, the adoption process is very emotional. I personally could not imagine the emotional expense on our family traveling twice where you would meet the child on the first trip and have to wait several months later to travel back to pick up your child. AGAIN, personal preference-- and families do it all the time. We just didn't feel it would be a good fit for us at this time.

Are you adopting a boy or girl?
We don't know the answer to this exactly, but more than likely it will be a boy. AND so many families are misinformed of this. ALMOST every person goes through the spill of all the girls in China. Where there is some truth to that, there are still MANY boys that need homes too. As my caseworker told us, "American families want Chinese girls, Chinese boys just want a family." Girls are way more popular and there is a longer waiting list for a girl. Our caseworker told us that if we chose a boy, it would speed up our process. ABSOLUTELY! We will take a boy!!! We are in the process of our adoption, where our agency is looking over a list of children and trying to find us the child that meets our families needs. We could find out any day now who that special person is!!!!

How long is the process?
A heck of a long time. We started the process in May. It looks like it will be another 12-18mths before we travel to get our child. It could be sooner, but I'm going to stick with this timeline. I've also seen where other families have a timeline on their blog that has the dates and steps listed. This is really neat and lets others see how much work goes into it. It's truly a work of art and takes a long, long time to process everything.

End Note:
I've answered a few questions that I get asked often. Where I've only given a basic answer and answered the questions vaguely, I would love to share more of the emotional part with you as well. {I'm going to speak on my behalf pertaining to the emotional side as we both have our own story of how this is impacting us}. I can say that this has been more emotional than our pregnancy's and I wasn't expecting that at all.

I guess that's enough to think about for a while. I know I say this over and over, but I really don't mean to wait 6 mths before updating the blog. Time sneaks away and before I know, 2011 is gone. I don't like how fast time flies these days. To some of our family members, I have been sending you photo albums of the kids' latest adventures. At least you have an update that way. And of course there is facebook. If you haven't received pictures of the kids and would like to, PLEASE let me know. I just sent out our Disney album of 800 pics. BTW, we went to Disney 2 weeks ago and had a blast!!!

Love to all and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, this is our first broken bone in our entire family.... or at least I think so. I don't think Jason has broken anything so far. Jonas and daddy were on the trampoline dancing (yes that is true) while the water hose was going beneath them. I guess with all those incredible dance moves on the slippery mesh, it caused an accident. Jason was with Jonas alone while I was in northwest Arkansas with my mom, aunt, and Reese. Even though Jonas cried right when he fell, he was consoled easily and even went inside for a shower. Jason began to notice that Jonas wouldn't use his arm and also Jonas complained of pain. Jason wasn't sure what to do and wasn't able to get in touch with me via phone. He called Beverly (my bestie and nurse in ER) where she advised him to go to the ER thinking something might be broken. Sure enough, Jonas cracked his elbow and received a splint. Here he is showing it off. And Jason said Jonas was a champ in the ER, loving the attention ;) A big thanks to Pam and Jana (my fellow coworkers in Child Life) for checking on J&J and providing support to both of them. THANK YOU! They were also texting me and giving me a heads up on how J&J were doing too.

A big ole FIVE days later we head back to ortho clinic for our cast (today). I was able to be with Jonas and he did GREAT! He loved being there and smiled the entire time. Even the staff commented on how sweet and happy he looked.

This was after his splint was taken off.... getting ready for casting.

Reese Elizabeth, born March 20, 2007, turned the big whopping 4 this year. We celebrated with a party at The Little Gym where her friends and "classmates" came to play. I went through my phone and grabbed some fun pics of her throughout the last few months. Her bday party pics are on my mom's camera so I don't have any of those to share.


I must say this face is typical Reese. She is fun, wild, and energetic all the time.

Yes, it's been way toooooooo long. This is what happens when you get older, as most of you already know. Time slips away and before I know it, 4 mths have passed and I think.... where did you go? I haven't ever put on here a post just for Reese turning 4. Hopefully I will get to that soon. She turned 4 on March 20... sad I know. She deserves a post that is just about her.

I can at least provide you with a recap of what we have been doing since summer started. And phew.... it's really hot this go round. I rarely take pics with a camera anymore, so all the pics I post are from my iphone.....

Both of these were taken yesterday

And this one was taken a while back but none-the-less, very cute!

I really would like to share more pics, but it's not that easy to upload and I don't have the patience right now. It's almost 11:30 and took me an hour to change my background. I know, I know.... I did this last time. I waited so long between signing in on my blog, I forgot how to do everything. I can't promise that I will update often as Facebook has crutched my blogging. I have been sending my inlaws pictures because updating seems harder.

A few things we have concquered since the last time I wrote--not in order:

• swimming lessons- and it has done wonders for my children- 6 wks worth


• Branson- Silver Dollar City- with my mom and kids- no Jason


• a quick Mississippi weekend trip- wanted to stay longer, didn't work out-


• Mississippi Children's Museum-- great place and kids had fun


• Jason- U2 concert in Nashville- ran into ole USM buddies


• Millie got shaved for the first time--April and then again this past week--


• Celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday


• My mom's family came and stayed with us while we celebrated


• Ryan Keeton's wedding-- had a blast!!!!


• Reese completed her first year of gymnastics


• Reese killed her first frog


• Jonas made himself the coolest hat all by himself--

• Jonas advances to Kindergarten in just a few weeks----so hard to believe


• Rearranging photos on our dining room wall-- pics to come-- something I started yesterday


• got a new family vehicle

Well, that's all for now. We spend most of our days swimming and hanging out with friends. Jonas goes to school during the summer so we have been swimming during the evenings too. It's been really hard getting up at 6:15. I have been pressing snooze and Jonas has been getting to school late....like 3 days a week he is tardy. We will have to do much better when K starts.

I have several pictures on this post of just random times over the last month or so. They are not in order either, but wanted to share them.

So here is Jonas dressed like a 'community helper' before school one day. Adorable, right?

And here is a sample of a valentine for one of his friends.....

Here is Reese working on hers....

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." -Desmond Tutu

You know how difficult it is to bring home a newborn and those first few weeks are just about insanely miserable?? But then after a few months those crazy memories fade and you totally forget about all the hardships. WELL, that is kinda like Disney! Right when we got home, I could have been negative about it but after a few weeks, and reminiscing over our pics.... I don't recall as much negative. BUT, I made a list on my phone while we were there of tips, observations, advice, etc. I am going to list them for you and if you ever want to discuss the list or anything else in detail, just call. ;)



A few pics first..... and the parades and character greetings are by far worth your time!

The electrical parade at Magic Kingdom. It is not shown every night, so be mindful of that when planning out your vacation.

Buzz statue at DD.

Cinderella and Reese

We made reservations at T-Rex for lunch. It's just like the Rainforest Cafe but dino themed. Very fun and the food was excellent. This meal was not covered on our dining plan because it's a chain restaurant.