handsful

How often do you remember having your hair done during science?

As we inch closer to November, our guesstimate on travel, I find myself becoming more and more anxious to go get our boy. I think of how much time he’s already spent in that orphanage, not with his family. I think more about the day we’ll finally meet.

So, yea, I’m getting tired of waiting :) But, we know that God’s timing is best and rest in that – all the while, doing what we can to help pass the time.

A little shopping always helps. I’ve been picking up travel items here and there lately, crossing them off my packing list. Lainey has been confused more than once…is that toothbrush for me? No, honey, it’s for Yu Hai.

Dylan has a surprise coming his way, too. I ordered a small care package, with a stuffed puppy dog. Just to let remind him that someone out there loves him. And, we are coming.

Our agency requested an update on Dylan back in August – we were hoping for updated measurements and a new picture. We received the measurements alone…I can’t really complain, given how many pictures of him we’ve been blessed with. As of 9/6/10 he weighs 25lbs and is 2′ 8″ tall. That puts him at < 3 percentile for both. He's a little guy at 3 yrs 2 months. To compare, Lainey weighed 25lbs at 20 months. Some news on our timeline...after some unwelcome drama involving our social worker, we finally heard today that our I-800 file was approved by the NBC (immigration). We have a few more hurdles to jump through until that magical TA (Travel Approval) arrives. But, progress is being made. Which means we're getting closer. Which means the waiting gets harder.

Labor Day…a whole day, no work, no school, no plans. What to do?

Drive to the mountains, of course.

An hour and a half later, and we were…

We walked around, then decided to have a late lunch. Lainey decided on…

Lunch made us crave sweets, so we headed down the street for…

Our lazy afternoon in Boone had to end sometime.

Another picture of Dylan that my friend Denise took when she visited the orphanage. Her new son, Seth and Dylan were obviously good friends and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to get them together as often as possible – they live in NY.

Just thought I’d update quickly on where we are in our journey to Dang Yu Hai. This wait has been very different than our wait for Lainey.

Once we saw Lainey’s picture, in November 2007, we only had 3 months to wait before holding her in our arms in February 2008.

I saw Dylan on our agency’s website, in December 2009. We’re now in September 2010. So, we’re “full term” in our adoption pregnancy :)

Where are we now? Waiting on the US immigration dept to approve our file to adopt Dylan. Our paperwork was received on August 25th. Once we are approved, there are other hurdles of paperwork to jump through. Our file is sent to the US consulate in Guangzhou, China and they approve us. After that, they send an invitation for us to travel, and then we scramble around to get ready!

The travel dept at our agency is estimating we’ll travel in November. WHEN in November will depend on how long the rest of the process takes AND how our travel will work around any China holidays and events…there is a national holiday in October, and games held in Guangzhou in November.

So, there you go. We’ll keep you informed ;)

Marley was in the mood for something different…here’s the BEFORE.

She wanted long bangs, and had deeper layers cut in back. She loves it! Makes her look too mature, don’t you think? She’s getting WAY to close to the teenage years for me!

Before today, there were maybe 5 shirts and 2 pairs of pants in his closet. And, some of those he’ll have to grow into.

I rose with the birds today, and headed to a Mothers of Multiples sale in the area that I happened to see an ad for. In line before 7am meant I was the first and ONLY person perusing his size racks.

Oh, the adrenaline rush.

An hour later, I had 31 items including shirts, pants, jackets (went a bit overboard there), PJs, shoes, and a couple of books. Got Lainey a few shirts, a dress, and some play food.

Spent less than $2 per item. Yeah, baby. Great start to my weekend!

Nope. Nothing for me…but, that’s okay. I still was excited to surprise them this morning with a dozen assorted sugary doughnuts to begin our 1st day of the 2010-2011 homeschool year :)

Someone likes powdered sugar ;)

Marley’s doughnut choice is ALWAYS a french cruller.

The boys look a little tired, hopefully the sugar high would help. Payton scarfed his down before I could even take the picture!

After breakfast and chores, we were off and running. Bible first…next was math (a variety of 7th grade up to Algebra 1), grammar, spelling, and writing.

Lainey is getting in on the action this year…here she is working on a Handwriting Without Tears workbook. We also started our favorite phonics program, Sing, Spell, Read, and Write. As soon as the song came on, the boys ran up to sing along. How cute / weird is that?

After lunch, the kids worked on american history and general science. Abbey is actually enrolled in a co-op Biology class this year, which begins this Thursday.

This year, our history/literature program has a LOT more reading than in past years. Woo hoo! Not all the kids are thrilled about this, but I am :) (Insert semi-evil laugh here)

Unfortunately, Ethan would MUCH rather be reading those comics instead of The Red Badge of Courage. Sorry, dude.

Abbey, on the other hand, is very happy with her foreign language this year. She’s using Rosetta-Stone to learn Mandarin. Randy began this curriculum a while back, and I plan on starting soon as well.

Assuming we can EVER travel to get Dylan (more on that frustration later…), we hope to be able to communicate with him at least on a basic level.

So, all in all, our first day went great. A few tweaks here and there, like I expected…you always realize that something you planned out will work better THIS way once you actually get into it. We’re thankful and blessed to be able to homeschool!