Thanksgiving - Part 1

We had a great Thanksgiving. We went to Pipe Creek first and met up with family. The boys had fun, it had been over a year since they'd seen each other - they played non stop! It was so nice to see everyone :)

Lots of sand and water...makes for hours in the sandbox!

SIX

This year Truitt wanted to celebrate his birthday at Chucky Cheese. I can't believe he is 5...time flies!

We started off the day with a birthday cinamon roll :)

Truitt really wanted to do the ticket blaster...it was so funny to watch him. He came out with about 4 tickets but also have 2 110 point tickets - score!

EIGHT

Braden had a few friends over for his birthday - we did nerf gun wars. Kurt and I were the Russians (not sure why but we were assigned) and they were the US Navy. It was fun, Kurt and I battled against 8 boys! We kept score with chalk on the fort and everyone had a turn being captain. I think all the boys had a great time - I KNOW Braden did! Nerf gun wars are a regular occurance in our house...fun times :) seriously, it IS really fun!

Blake just ran around and had fun...so cute.

Halloween

Fun times....the boys picked their costumes and between what we had and borrowed I didn't spend a penny on costumes! Blake LOVED the night - screaming "trick or treat", "thank you" and "bye" at just about every door, constantly trying to keep up with his brothers/cousins and dragging his HEAVY bag around (refusing to let me help - apparently I'm not to be trusted with his candy bag!).

My train conductor

Ferocious lion... "army man"

We went to Aunt Missy's this yearBlake ran around with is arm up to hold his bag, so funny! Sisters.....so thankful to have them both!

Update

We recieved an update from China on our little girl. This was great news as we were told that many times there is no response when requests are made. Not only did we get a response but it was within 2 weeks of requesting it. We were happy to see the photos and get the brief text document BUT I must say I also felt sad. I had a "vision" of what her foster home might be like and that didn't match up with our new photos. I want her home now more than ever....it's hard.

The Patch

We went to the local pumpkin pacth the other day. I didn't even try for a photo of all 3 but I managed to get a good one of each of them. Believe it or not Blake now wins the prize for most compliant for photos. A far cry from last year!

Genuine excitement...love this one of Blake!

Preapproval

We recieved our preapproval to adopt Qin Li. What does that mean? It means that by 'glancing' at our paperwork we're preapproved and now the in depth look/processing of our dossier begins. We are now waiting for our letter seeking confirmation (LSC) from China which can take anywhere from 2-4 months. It seems that all of our paperwork has gone the full length of the wait time, please pray that this will be the exception! Here is another photo of our little girl :)

It's real!

We know who our little girl will be! This adoption just got very personal and real for me. Her name is Qin Li, she is 21 months old and just precious! We are looking at another 5-8 months until we can bring her home. Please pray with us that our paperwork moves quickly and that we bring her home ASAP. She has a cleft lip and palate. We have met with the international adoption team at Texas Children's hospital, obviously she will need medical care when she arrives home. You would think this would help us bring her home faster but unfortunately that isn't the case. We are trusting in God's perfect timing...we know He loves her move than we can imagine.

One more

I promise I won't be making it a habit to blog about my dog :) Just a few more photos.....we (mainly me) decorated a stone with her name and some of her qualities we loved. This was 'for the boys' but I did most of it and it made my heart happy.

My sweet Sadie

My sweet dog of 13.5 years is gone...I'll miss her. She was such a sweet dog, gentle and kind. Can a dog be kind? Well, she was. I have known her longer than Kurt :) We will miss her very much(tear).
Braden took this photo and has now informed me that he likes to take photos because it is like looking into the scope of a gun. Nice.