I can't believe I'm typing this.........

We have LOA!!!!!!!!!

This is the letter of acceptance from China. This means that China has agreed that our paperwork is satisfactory and we can adopt Mei Mei. We are one more BIG step closer to bringing Mei Mei home!!!!!!!!!!! This piece of paperwork came about a month earlier than I expected it too, we are so surprised and thankful! We now have to complete the immigration paperwork and get travel approval. Hopefully we will travel in a few months!

And now we are allowed to send her a carepackage as well as share her picture, so without further ado........

Here she is....

And the party continues....

We had a small birthday dinner with family at our house for M. She was soo excited all day, she couldn't even fall asleep for nap.

M jumps back as baba lights her lotus candle.
What party is complete without a pinata filled with chocolate candy? This is our 1st store bought pinata,(thanks to Tar*get clearance, $4.98) and it had a few dozen ribbons hanging under it and you pull the ribbons one by one until one lets the candy loose. Well we went around the room and everyone pulled a ribbon and when it got back it M, she grabbed and pulled about 5-6 ribbons
at once, and wouldn't you know out came the candy.

I can't believe she's 5! Where did my baby go???
M loves these lotus candles. It spins as the flower opens and plays "Happy B*irthday".

This is her real cake, had to make the extra flat one for the candle.
Thanks to our friend, Miss Nancy for letting us borrow your cake pan! M wanted a princess doll cake with a purple dress. She must have been happy with it, because she said, "Mama you make the best cakes ever and you the best mama ever! You do a great job on that!"

She knows just how to melt this mama's heart.

Celebrating M's Birthday at the "Wah Wah Store"

When M was 3, she used to call The Amer*ican G*irl Store, the wah wah(doll in Chinese) store. It is her favorite place to go for her birthday. She chose going to eat there with Mama and Baba over having a party with friends. We had a great lunch and did some shopping too.

While waiting for our food we took advantage of the conversation starters on our table. One of the questions was "What is the most beautiful animal in the world?"

Can you guess M's answer????

"Muffin the Goat"

Yummy pasta!

M had been asking for a bed for Ivy, but while we were at the store the babies at home sent her a "text" on her cell phone saying they did not need a bed they could continue to share the crib. Not sure where she comes up with this stuff, but she never ceases to entertain us. Well, we skipped the bed and she picked out some other items instead.

It was a fun day.

M's only complaint was that she had to go to China school first.

She thought she should be able to play hookie on her birthday.

Um...yeah..I don't think so!

Another step closer!

We are officially DTC!!!!!!!!! (Dossier to China)

That means all of our paperwork was sent to China today.

Our dossier arrived at our agency on M's birthday from the Chinese Councilate in Chicago and our agency sent it on to China today. I can't wait to hold our new daughter! We tenatively still hope to travel in April. We will have a better idea when we receive our LOA (letter of acceptance) from China. For now we are just happy to have our paperwork in China, finally!!!!!

Oh my my, our baby is......

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

You are such a joy and so much fun.

Baba and I are so proud and happy to be your parents.

We love watching you grow, only sometimes wish you wouldn't grow so fast!

Halloween* Happenings

M and Baba carved the pumpkin together this year. M wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty and did a great job cleaning it out.

Shadow got into the action this year in his ladybug costume. He was a great sport, but only made it 1/2 a block. He was a little overstimulated, especially after a neighbor giving him a dog treat.

We had a fun Hallowee*n. M picked out her costume and surprised us all, with a bat! Yep our girly, girl picked a bat. I do see what she loved about it though. It is accented in her fav color and the wings are great fun!

After trick or trea*ting on our block, we headed to a friends house for a party. M had a great time with some of her preschool pals and the adults had a great time of conversation also.

Our Day on the Farm

Today we were able to visit M's favorite place, the Child*ren's Farm*. Look at that happy face as she holds one of her old pals, Fer*gie, now known officially as Mr. Ferg*uson since the staff discovered "she" is actually a "he".

M was not near as impressed with Afro the duck, (not even kidding) as I was. He we super cool looking and nice too. He just sat on a bench and let all the children pet him.
The Chicken Whisperer

The new calves, only a few months old. They were so soft.

A fluffy sheep

I don't know what joke M told Bella the donkey, but it sure must've been a funny one.

During October the farm has some extra special activities including a huge bin of corn for kids to play in. Ever make a snow angel in corn? M gave it her best shot.

We also had some serious business to take care of, picking the perfect pumpkin.

And last, but certainly not least M reunited with her favorite buddy on the farm, Muffin the Goat. This sweet goat has the patience of a saint. M hugged, snuggled, laid on(serious), brushed THROUGHLY and generally smothered her old friend. Muffin just took it all in stride and let M have her way.

Mei Mei's Tulips

We anticipate bringing Mei Mei(little sister) home in the Spring around April. M is having a hard time with the wait, as we all are, but her 4 year old sense of time just has a hard time grasping when we can go to China and why we can't just go now. On Saturday the neighbor gave her 2 tulip bulbs as she was planting in her yard. M was so excited and couldn't wait to plant them. On Sunday we talked about how even though we would plant them now, the flowers would not grow until the Spring time. "Like when we go get Mei Mei?" yes, M exactly! So today we planted Mei Mei's tulips as we look forward to the day when we can share of picture of 2 sisters standing in front of our home holding these very flowers in their hands.

Today was a very special day for another reason also, we packed up all our dossier documents for China and sent them to our agency. So now we pray that we are DTC(dossier to China) very soon!!!!
Who knew I would ever anticipate the growth tulips so much?

Growing by two feet

These 2 feet to be exact!

We are adopting again. Our daughter is presently 3 years old and in Hunan province, just south of where M is from. Because we are still working on our dossier we are unable to share a full photo at this time. We are super excited! In fact, it is about the only thing M talks about these days. We hope to have our dossier in China sometime in Oct. and travel in April or May of 2011. Please pray that God will have his hand over all of our paperwork and that things will move along as quickly as possible. We are so anxious to bring our daughter home!

Snapshot of Summer

Wow, hard to believe the summer has come and gone. Time really does fly when you are having fun. Here are afew of our summer shots in somewhat random order.

On the shores of Lake Mich*igan

A visit to the Longaber*ger Home*stead

Watching 4th of July fireworks in Michigan.



Chillin' at the Splash* Pad

Happy 4th of July

Chinese New Year

Still attempting to catch up. In February, we did some painting and pulled out our carpet. Our dining and living room are now Crisp Celery. The floors are hard wood. You can see we are still in process in this pic, as the carpet tacking is half pulled up in the background. Luckily the floors looked pretty good under the carpet, so for now we'll leave them as is.

We celebrated Chine*se New Year* for the better part of 2 weeks in February. Here is our China playgroup party.

Here is M in her Chinese school performance.

Chinese school

We also attended our FCC* CNY party. M loved them all!

Walt* Disn*ey Wor*ld

Well, this was the end of January. I guess we've been a little busy. We spent a week in Florida with my mom and dad. During the week we took a 3 day trip to the "happiest* place on Ear*th". To say M loved it would be an understatement. She relished in every moment. Loved the rides, loved being called "Princess*" for 3 days straight by every crew member we encountered, loved the parades, loved the shows, loved the fireworks, loved the characters and ESPECIALLY loved meeting the PRINCESSES*. The only movies she had seen before our trip were "Peter* Pan", the Tinker*belle movies and Snow* White*, so she really wasn't familiar with many characters, but she loved them all regardless.
The joy of riding Aladdin's* Magic Carpets* and getting to control the up and down switch.

Meeting the mice.

The face of pure happiness upon meeting her first princess.

Meeting her favorite princess. M was just in awe.

Spending time with Mul*an. Mu*lan was so sweet. She spent about 10-15 minutes with M, talking to her and walking with her. In this photo, Mula*n is showing M her favorite bird in the pond.

M got her own camera for the trip and has become quite the little photographer. She snapped this one in front of the Temple* of Heaven* at Ep*cot.

A great time was had by all!

A couple of beach shots.

Musher Mania and other Winter Fun

We have a little catching up to do. These events happened in January.

Our first snowman of the year. M was so excited and begged and begged to go build him from the moment it started snowing on. I told her we had to wait until the snow stopped before we started, which happened to be 2 days later.
Even though we didn't have the traditional embellishments, we think he turned out quite fine. He has cranberries for his hair and smile, grapes for eyes and a sesame candy for his nose.

Then with the hard work behind us, it was time to make a few snow angels.

Here's M at our annual trip to Musher *Mania. This event is put on by a husky/mushing club. They have dog visits, demonstrations, stories, and ice carving. It is a great event.

M really enjoyed visiting with the huskies this year.

I got to try pulling M on the sled. She thought it was great, me not so much.

Those dogs do some hard work.

After finishing up our fun with the dogs, M and Baba had snowball fight. M is about to get plastered by the one you can see in mid-air.

M getting her revenge up close.

And Baba goes down.