We started off the week celebrating birthdays with the cousins : ) Annslee loves hanging out with all her cousins and of course enjoys a party! We did have a little drama at the end as she wanted Shelby (whose lap she is in) come home with her to spend the night...we have been promising this for a while so it is time to make it happen, but not on a school night.


Some serious cuteness!

We had a great playdate planned with some local families and Miss A was really excited as she is always up for some water fun!






We didn't realize we had them looking right at the sun~ poor kids...but so cute!!! I love being in this group because it isn't limited to children from China...so far they are all from either China or Korea but we are about to add a little Vietnamese boy to the mix : )





Our neighborhood has a pond and there are some baby ducks. Annslee wanted to feed them so of course we did. She kept getting angry at the big ducks for taking all the bread LOL



We also received a wonderful package from our Secret Buddy this week. It was in a HUGE box and Annslee was excited to tear into it. I had to laugh as she kept pulling out "boy" stuff and saying "all boy stuff" with this sad face. Of course my SB (who has totally spoiled Annslee) threw in a girl gift too. Annslee was THRILLED and yelled "Yay, girl stuff" when she pulled it out : )

WOW, what a generous gift we received~ a soft blanket, Cars overalls, and tons of clothes that I assume my SBs boys wore. I am so honored that she would pass them on to me! Thank you so much SB!!! It was wonderful receiving much needed "boy stuff" !!

I want to send out a huge thank you to all of you for your well wishes on our referral of our son. It is amazing to me how close this bloggy community is and how we are all so quick to cheer each other on and offer support and prayers. Speaking of prayers please lift up all the families who did not receive referrals in time. I know of a few personally and they are hurting!
On another sad note, a local family lost their two year old daughter this week. She has been home from China for 10 short weeks and they are hurting and could use all the prayers and support they can get. Go HERE go read a post about it that is much more eloquent than I could manage. The family has a website so go HERE to offer them support.

I wanted to get this down so I wouldn't forget (yeah, right!) I don't know if many of you will bother reading as it may get long and ramble LOL

The day we received our referral for our son was a pretty busy day. It was our last day at the beach so I spent some time packing and then we went out to the beach. Annslee played with her cousins ~ surfing and duck, duck goose : ) Gigi came out and watched her while I went to load the car. We then started out on what would turn out to be a 7 1/2 hour drive to our friend's house near Atlanta. I have to admit I was getting tired and cranky, we both were, and when the phone rang at 8:33 pm (Eastern time) I picked it up with a sigh. I then heard T's voice and didn't know whether to be excited or afraid. I then settled into the thought that she was calling b/c I'd left her a message about FINALLY receiving our renwal for our I 171 H. (If I had been thinking clearly I would have realized she wouldn't call about that on a Friday night LOL) Anyway, she asked if I could talk and I ask if it was good or bad. She then said "how about a child referral?" UMMMMM...what?? Please remember that it is just me and Annslee in the car, she is NOT happy about still being in the car, I am on a road I have never been on, it is dark ~ you get the picture : ) I told her I would need to get off at the next exit to write stuff down. You see, I am not good at driving and writing Vietnamese at the same time! I got off, pulled into a Zaxby's parking lot and took down the info. I honestly don't remember much of what either of us said. I don't know if it is b/c I was shocked or b/c Annslee was saying "get out Mommy, Annslee all done" over and over from the back. I do know that when she said his birthday I thought I misunderstood as I was expecting an older child. She said she sent an email with pictures and so I got back on the road so I could get to a computer ASAP. She probably thought I wasn't excited b/c I was pretty calm but honestly, I was stunned. After 21 months of waiting for it to happen, the entire call took 11 minutes.

I called Daddy to tell him and I think he was stunned too. He really didn't say much and I did go ahead and tell him to look at the pictures. We wouldn't be home until the next day and I had no intention of waiting so why should he! His mom had called a few times to check on our drive so I told him to be sure and call her for me. I then spent the rest of the drive calling everyone I could think of. Poor Annslee was stuck in the back listening to me on the phone but she did great and watched Lit*tle Bill for the 100th time (this show is her new fav). I remember I kept thinking we would get our referral at the beach (last year!) and we would have still been at the beach to get it this year but I left a day early so we could get back home so Daddy could have the weekend with us : ) I also had been carrying my small camera everywhere because I planned on having Annslee take my picture getting the call but that didn't happen so no pics of the actual call.

We pulled into our friend's house and they of course had already received a call from me with the news. Daddy had called to say the pics weren't there yet so I chatted for a few minutes but then headed to the computer. Annslee was on my lap and I pulled up his pictures. I hate to admit it but I was worried about how I would react. We spent years preparing for a daughter/sister, I wasn't sure if I was really prepared for a son/brother. This was my second time experiencing this...I had the same fear many people have confessed to having, can I love any child as much as I do Annslee? I wanted to be as excited as I was when we got our referral for Miss A but worried I wouldn't be. I have to say, when I pulled them up and said "Annslee, there's Coby" and she grinned and said "baby brother" I was HOOKED! Seeing his two fingers in his mouth sealed the deal~ that was a look I knew, he looked so familiar to me. I printed off his pictures b/c I knew I would have to look at them over and over. He gets more and more handsome everytime I look at them.

*yeah, he is fuzzy..sorry but had to do it.



I took the printed pictures to the room we were staying in and put them on my bag. I went back out to visit with everyone and later when I came back in, Annslee was on the bed looking at them. Yes, I have pictures of that moment but sadly, can't post them as you as you can see Coby in them : (

I drove home the next morning and first thing Monday morning we signed and sent our acceptance papers. There was no doubt, this is our boy! I have a word that is now familiar on my lips that I never dreamed I would say "son" , isn't it amazing how God works. We now wait for approval from the US side which is taking 60-100 days...I have November in my head for travel. Maybe we'll have the same family day we have with Annslee (Nov 14) We are just anxious to bring him HOME!!!

Her brother's of course!!! She yelled to me today "Mommy how write Coby" She loves writing words so I told her how. We have decided on his first name and are now debating what part of his Vietnamese name to keep for his middle name. Annslee's was soooo easy so we are struggling a bit. I need to video her saying Coby...it is so stinking cute!!


When we got Annslee's referral we toasted with champagne so of course we needed to do that this time too. Luckily Miss A is a great photographer so she gladly took a pic of us toasting (she has apple juice in case you were wondering LOL) We then had to go on a wagon ride to show off her baby!

Coby got his first gift last night from Mia and her mommy!! Annslee insists it would fit her (it is 6-9 mos size) I told her to pose with it and she held it up and started doing a fake cry. She said "Coby teeee tiny baby cry" She is probably right : )
We are sending off our I600 tomorrow and are then on the LONG wait for approval. I think it is just like Annslee's adoption. The wait for a referral is so stressful (especially with the shutdown this time) but honestly, the wait between referral and travel is the worst. Just staring at that face kills me knowing he is not home! Please continue to pray for us and for speedy approval and now you can pray for him by name!

Annslee has a picture of him in her room. I put it in a frame but she made me get a different one as the one I used was NOT a boy frame. She was not happy about him being in a girly frame! She is totally cracking us up..she says only she will feed, hold and play with him but if you ask her about changing diapers she is quick to say "mommy and daddy do" GREAT!

She did great during our photo shoot but was really excited when she saw her cousins Payton and Taylor heading to the beach for their "white dress pics"



I love this picture~ Payton was falling and they are trying to catch her : )

Gigi came down and got in the sand with the girls (this pic is framed in Annslee's room and she LOVES it )

They could only take so much so of course they turned silly on us!

She looks so grown up to me most of the time but when I see her sweet profile I see my baby again!

Like everyone else we always do the traditional "white dress" pictures at the beach. This year was really special because Annslee is wearing the dress that our flower girl wore in our wedding six years ago! Her cousin Payton was only 3 when she was our flower girl and so I really wanted Annslee in this dress. She looked sooooo BEAUTIFUL in it too : )








Here is one picture from last year's photo shoot ( Go HERE for more pics from last year )




Beach 2006 (check out that little chunky monkey) Go HERE for more pics from two years ago

Thank you all for your congrats on our newest addition. Can't wait to have beach pictures with both of them next year!

As you know we have had a wild week with sickness, smashed fingers, getting lost, etc... All that was forgotten at 8:17 pm when my phone rang as I drove toward our friend's house to stay the night ... it was our agency and YES we have a baby!!! I had to get off the interstate and write down his info in a Zaxby's parking lot!

He is 7.5 months old and really cute : ) With Vietnam adoptions you can't post pics online until after your Giving & Receiving ceremony but trust me, he is a cutie. The sweetest thing is in all his pics he has the same two fingers in his mouth as Annslee does ( just the other hand) Annslee keeps saying 'baby fingers in mouth'

We spent our last day at the beach with Annslee perfecting her surfing. We had a wonderful two weeks together and I loved spending it with my girl.




I will post more when I know more. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!!!!

Hey everyone!!! I am sitting here in a McD parking lot trying to give an update as I can't pull up any blo*gs at our condo. Just wanted to check in and post a few pics of my beach babe : ) It is pouring down rain right now so I thought it was a perfect time. I mainly wanted to do it so Daddy (who isn't on vacay with us) can see his girl!!



She rode down in her panda pjs of course and ran straight to the water in them : )

We then decided a swimsuit made more sense LOL

Her big cousins are teaching her the fine art of playing video games (yuck)

I can't believe how much she has grown up since last year (and leaned up) She LOVES running on the sand and from the waves.

Our beautiful girl!

Had to get one shot of us in

Her only big issue has been trying to realize she is NOT nine years old. She so badly wants to do everything the big girls are doing and she just can't. They are all so great with her though and so she is having a blast!

There are many more pics to come but wanted to get a few up. You may notice a finger splint in some of them. On our first night here she slammed her finger in the sliding glass door. We did xrays and it was hard to tell with such tiny bones so she wore a splint for two days until the radioligist results were in NO broken bones : ) I have to say she was so great about wearing it and not complaining. I think she enjoyed the attention ; ) She may still lose the nail but hopefully not.

WE MISS YOU DADDY!!!!!!

She loves to write~ she doesn't color much but prefers a pen and paper. She will sit and ask you how to spell things or names and then write them : )



One of Gigi's neighbors has a membership and let us go to the Nature Museum today. I didn't know if there would be enough to keep Annslee occupied but I literally had to drag her out (well, kind of) after four hours there!! She loved seeing the animals and playing. We also walked to a nearby park to play but it was too hot to stay long.

One thing she did today that was new for her and soooo cute was reading a book without my help. I looked up and she was turning pages and saying "Little boy, no find his mommy, crying, hey birdie I no find my mommy, here she is, hi mommy, love you mommy " etc....

Ok...so I don't read blogs about Vietnamese adoption. Ok..I said it. I still read all of you with Chinese children but I just can't bring myself to "join in " the VN thing. Sorry...but I don't really feel like a part of it yet. I WANT to ...I swear I do...but I don't. I should clarify that I do read VN blogs of those of you still waiting with me. I am praying with you and hope we all have news soon. It isn't that I don't care about the families I've followed for these past 20 months who have been to VN and back...I certainly do..I just can't look at your little ones right now. I promise I will be back to them b/c they are so stinking cute I can't stay away long : )

Have you noiced that I have added NOTHING to Malia's site...do I feel guilty~ sure I do but I don't really know what to say. I just feel in limbo with the whole thing and although I know the "motherly" part of me should feel something about our hopefully impending referral....I am really finding it hard to do. I think I am just trying to distance myself and brace for the worst.

I HOPE and PRAY our baby is out there and coming soon but I can't lose any more sleep over it ~ well, actually ofcourse I will : )

Finally the night arrived. We are always excited to watch the opening ceremony but tonight was special!

I sat there with tears streaming down my face as I watched my daughter watch the opening ceremony. I thought she would be so bored but she was cheering and smiling saying "China" over and over and pointing to the people saying "Chinese like Annslee?" LOVE IT!!

The strangest thing that has happened was when they were singing the Chinese National Anthem she was standing in front of the TV swaying and singing...the words weren't really the words but it was kind of freaky! I asked her is she knew the song and she said yes : )

She also is screamed fireworks a lot!!! She did enjoy naming everyone she knows who is Chinese too (that took a while LOL) and she was so cute as the parade of countries happened. When the US marched in she said "mine team" and then when China came in she announced "mine team too" : ) When Vietnam came in I asked if that was her little brother's team and she said "no, China love Annslee big sister" Well ok then!




The top pick made me laugh..is she concentrating that hard or something : )





This is the hat we brought back to Gigi from Beijing. We called it the albatrose the entire trip as it had to be carried by hand at each airport : P



I hope you all enjoyed! She will be a bear tomorrow as she refused to go to bed and watched till the end. Can you believe how awesome the whole thing was!

We drove down to visit Grandaddy the other day. He enjoyed seeing all three of his grandkids together and they had a blast on the farm

Aunt Dana made the girls matching dresses while we were there. Annslee has never had a strapless dress before and kept saying "ooh la la" over and over. She really does need some straps on it though as it keeps falling down and then she announces "boobies!!"

Here are the cousins on the couch : )