Catching Up

Clearly, I am not the world's best blogger...frequently, I'll think in the middle of the day, "I should write tonight about..." and then evening comes, all the children are finally asleep, and I do not have enough brain activity to attempt to blog. So...here is an effort to catch up on our activity.

Our big boys started school a few weeks ago. After two years of schooling at home, we are giving public school a try. So far, it is wonderful! We have a delightful neighborhood school. Robert is able to take them to school on his way to work and I pick them up shortly after lunch. The school day is shorter here (than it is in Texas), which is so much easier on the kids.

First Day of School

I was particularly anxious about Andrew's transition. He is such a home body! The child would stay in his pajamas at home everyday if he could. But, he loves his teacher. She is an answer to many prayers. He has enjoyed school very much this year. He gets in the car bubbling with excitement and stories to tell me about his day.

Andrew's class pet. He enjoyed taking care of him for the weekend...although he decided guinea pigs are too stinky for us to have as pets at our house. I am glad for that decision. :) 

William has always been excited about school. He is delighted to be going to school as well, but we expected that from him. He is always eager to learn new things and meet new people.

My big boy working on his homework. 

While the big boys are at school everyday, the littles and I enjoy some uninterrupted baby time. It has actually been nice to have a few hours a day to do toddler/baby centered activities without any guilt about neglecting the needs of my big kids.

Taking a walk on the bay.

This is Rachel's hilarious "Say Cheese" face. Goofy girl.

Update on Laura and our adoption timeline: we spent about three and a half weeks waiting on approval from USCIS. Once that came in, our paperwork was sent to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou where they will issue an Article 5 and then China's CCCWA will give us travel approval. We are expecting our Article 5 on Monday. China has a couple of national holidays coming up. A three day autumn festival the last week of September and then National Week the first week of October. Paperwork will not move during these holidays. We are praying we have travel approval before the autumn festival. We would very much like to have our travel on the calendar next week and be traveling during the middle of October.

In the mean time, we are getting ready for our new addition! We put together a car seat and bought an extra high chair. There is a crib that needs to be assembled sitting on the floor of our study. I have a stack of clothes to pack and bought Laura a little red, white, and blue outfit for the day we visit the U.S. Consulate.

We were so excited to get a little snapshot of our girl. Another family who visited the orphanage a few weeks ago, took this picture. The baby sitting on the mattress in the diaper is our Laura Cate! We were so happy to see her looking well. We also found out from the same family that Laura is in a Show Hope room of the orphanage. Which means that instead of being cared for by the government institution, she has been cared for by the ministry of Show Hope.

Snapshot of Laura from August 2015

Show Hope will be able to share more information about Laura's medical history and also give us any photos they have of her once the adoption is final. It will be wonderful to have a few more pieces of her history. Can't wait to hold her!