Ashlyn & 1st graders

I just wanted to share this story of my little 1st grader. One of her classmates was looking through a magazine during class today. There was an ad for Operation Smile or Smile Train. Ashlyn's said that her classmate started showing several of the other children in the class. Some of the children starting laughing. It hurt Ashlyn's feelings because "they were laughing at the orphans". Ashlyn took the magazine away from the classmate & went to her desk. She CUT out the page in the magazine & put it in her desk and then in her backpack.
I'm not sure the children in the ad were orphans. But Ashlyn associates cleft lip with orphans. And she associates orphans with her little sister! Sydney does not have cleft lip but Ashlyn has seen several pictures from my bloggin' friends and their families. We tried to "prepare" the kids for almost all of the special needs we checked.
I was thinking how hard it is for some adults to stand up for what they believe in. And here a 6 year old stood up to her friends with no problem. We are so proud of Miss Ashlyn Grace!

What is new?

Philip and Ashlyn had the "best first week ever". This is the first year that both of the kids have LOVED the first week of school. Makes our life a lot easier! Also, Philip will not be having the huge amounts of homework like we had last year. Who-hoo!
China Prep--we are buying & packing. OK--not really putting into the suitcases but into storage bins. I'm thinking PJ will not be able to take any clothes!! I'm amazed at how much we already have "packed". Where will we put the rest of the stuff?? All of us have been practicing how to use Skype. Hoping we can communicate with the kids this way. The kids think it is so fun!
Adoption News--we received the provisional approval from our government to adopt Sydney yesterday. Our travel dates are supposed to be October 8-22nd as long as our TA (travel approval) comes in. AWAA (our agency) has groups going out on Sept 3rd & 17th but we most likely when not have our TA in time.
Sydney News--LadybugsnLove prepared Sydney's care package. The orphanage should of received it by now. We sent a blanket, photo album with 10 pictures of us, camera & money to order her a cake. I have read several postings/emails from our GSWI group about families sending care packages & the children not receiving them or getting them the night before gotcha. So--we were kinda unsure about what to send. Hopefully sending money for the cake will get us an updated picture (maybe in the foster home). I really hope Sydney receives the pictures!!

1st Day of School '09

The kids had a wonderful 1st day at school. Philip started 5th grade & Ashlyn started 1st grade. This is Philip's last year at this wonderful school (one reason I was a little teary especially after the principal said "Good Morning Philip. This is your last first day here"). He was pretty excited about the fact that they will not have much homework this year. Sounds great to me! Ashlyn did not want me walking her into school this morning. I did it anyway. Sorry kids! At least I didn't kiss you in front of your friends. Love my kids!! Ashlyn's "best thing" about school today is that they were given 3 recesses!! Yeah. She said they just did a bunch of organizing their stuff. Hoping we have a great school year!

Life after getting the RA.

On Tuesday, we finished the last parts of the I800 & dropped that in the mail to our government. The agency sent the actual referral acceptance letter today via FedEx. It came in a super cute pink folder. PJ & I signed it & shipped it back off to the agency. They are sending it back to China on Friday. We really have not been doing much BUT I think that changes at the end of this week. I kinda feel like some paperchasing is fixin' to come!

Philip & Ashlyn dropping off our I800 packet.
Several cars drove by with the look of "what in the world is that lady doing taking a picture of her kids holding a UPS package"!!

Signing the referral acceptance!

PJ signing the referral acceptance that we officially accept Li Si Xin as our daughter.

Now lets go to China!

RA for The Vinyards!!!

Can't believe that I just typed those words!! We received our referral approval to adopt Li Si Xin (Bao Bao Lian) soon to be Sydney Hope this afternoon. Talk about SHOCK! Agency just received an RA packet on Friday. The agency was surprised they received one today. We are so blessed to have this little girl in our family. So..........what you guys have been waiting for:

Picture sent with Sydney's referral. The first time we saw this picture was on my cellphone sitting at Blue Sky (serves the best hamburgers) on February 27.
We received this picture in March. The agency requested an update for us since the information was old. The kids loved her crocs!

Isn't she a little cutie?! I just want to squeeze her cheeks.

This picture & next pictures are from June's orphanage call.

I love this picture because she is smiling! The pictures are taken at her orphanage. It has beautiful landscape!

Little Miss Sydney Hope

Love that girl!

TC (travel coordinator) said we should expect travel mid to late October. The issuance of travel approvals (TA) have been delayed a bit (totally did not ask why because at that moment I was so excited!) so we will not travel as quickly as others. Sydney turns 3 on October 22nd. I would love to be there for her birthday (really I love to be home with her)!

We want to say a huge Thank You to everyone that has been praying for us, commenting on our blog, sending us emails, thinking about us, responding to my emails and more. God has truly blessed us with an amazing family and friends (even if we have never met in person)!

Grace & Hope's Room

Ashlyn Grace & Sydney Hope--just in case you were wondering! OK--here is the pictures of the girls room. They did not turn out how I wanted them. The room is much cuter than it looks. I'm still not sold on the placement of the dots. We can just move them around wherever. We put a contract on this house on the same day that AWAA approved our application. I was actually standing in the girls room when I found out. Kinda neat! This room was the old master of the house--that is why it is so big. The black dresser & vanity were actually my Mom's (Mimi to the kids) growing up but I think they came from my mom's great grandmother. I'm not sure Ashlyn really understands the whole sharing her room with her baby sister yet. That will come with time!

Ashlyn's bed is on the left.
New dresser! Girls have a lot of stuff. We have two big walk-in closets. One for clothes & the other one for a kitchen set & other play stuff.

Sydney's bed. Can't wait til she is here!

Vanity for putting on make-up!

Adoption News--We are still waiting on our RA (referral approval). I think we are either at 150 days or really close to it or maybe after it. I'm really trying to not count because it is driving me crazy. There have been 3 batches of RA's come & we have not been in them. The first two were ROUGH. The third one came in on Friday. It was almost comical that we did not get it. You might just have to know us to understand. I shed a few tears & then went on. We can ask for our agency to check on our paperwork on the 12th (5 months waiting). But China could delay our paperwork longer if we do that. So we have a decision to make. Hoping we get our RA before then.

High White Belt--Ashlyn Grace

Ashlyn also tested for her high white belt this week. She takes the Ninjas class at Extreme Martial Arts. Same as the boys just on a younger age level. We think Ashlyn is moving up though when school starts (everyone will be in one class. yeah!).

This is Ashlyn showing off her punching skills--jab & right cross.
This is her round house kick. Such POWER!

I just thought this was a cute picture. She is really paying attention.

Mr. Bussey (her most favorite instructor) & Ashlyn

High White Belt--Philip & PJ

PJ & Philip had their high white belt test this weekend. They actually tested during the week and then had graduation this weekend. This is a BIG deal!

Philip doing a rear naked choke. Notice Mr. Bussey tapping out!
Philip during the two minutes of shadow boxing. It is much harder than it looks (according to PJ!).

Look how proud he is of this new belt! I love his expression.

PJ & Philip

I did not post pictures of PJ because the adults were across the room & the gym is all dark AND PJ's partner was MUCH younger than him. So PJ looked like a giant.

Orphanage Call Update

Angela from Ladybugs n love emailed us this morning. If you have never used them, these ladies are awesome! The orphanage answered all 10 of our questions! Yeah! But no pictures (which I really wanted). Since we requested pictures in June, they did not want to send more this time :(.
One of the most interesting answers------Sydney has been with a foster family since December 16, 2008! Hello--how did we not know that? This totally changes all of our "what is Sydney doing right now" questions. We pictured her waking up (while we are eating dinner) in a little room with several of her little friends all in their small beds!
How do we feel that Sydney is in a foster family? I think it is a good thing for her?? (right?) We are hoping that she is getting a ton of lovins and attention from her foster family. I also hope they are reading to her at least 30 minutes to 1 hour a day and teaching her the ABCs in English(he-he!) Back to being serious--I think the transition might be really hard on all 3 of us. I think Sydney will be brought back to the orphanage again before we come to China. We are really not sure what to think right now. The kids are having a hard time with Sydney living with a "family" that is not our family. I'm amazed at how much the kids LOVE their baby sister without even "knowing" her. It warms my heart!
Sydney likes to play outside and eat candies. She will fit right in with her big sister. Ashlyn would eat candy all day if we let her! She does not like to crackers. Do you think she will like goldfish crackers??!!
Sydney grew a little over 2 inches since June but lost just a little weight. I'm sure from growing taller or different scales. She still just has 20 teeth!
The girls room is finished! I will try to post pictures soon.

No RA Call x 2

Nope. The Vinyards did not get the call again. We have been waiting 141 days since accepting Sydney's referral (yes I read the ra instruction sheet about how you should not count your days!). I never would have dreamed we would still be waiting. I'm starting to panic that something is wrong with our dossier or Sydney or they lost it or whatever!
Praying ours is in the next batch. And also hoping we get our orphanage call information back soon.