Dare I Really Post This

Our adoption agency has informed us that they are able to *see* that the CCAA (Chinese agency that processes adoptions) is working on our paperwork. We're not really sure what is meant by *see*, but our agency has told us they expect us to get our official referral in one to two months and they think we will be traveling to China in early December!!!

While we are very excited about this news, we are also cautious about it as well. We learned while adopting Josie that these time frames can change--mostly grow longer.

So we have decided to be cautiously optimistic and with the chance that our official referral for Clara Rose is on the way I am re-listing some of my former informational posts about adoption. We will be doing the same types of things as when we first came home with Josie-- meaning, we will not be doing much. We will keep things quiet the first few months after we bring Clara Rose home so she can adjust to her new surroundings and family.

I am have also posted some new information about our decision to adopt a waiting child and also information about the medical condition Clara Rose has, Microtia Atresia. Please read these posts and feel free to ask us if you have any questions. We hope to answer most of people's questions before we bring Clara Rose home. These posts are directly below this post.

Now that this information is out to you-- here are a few updates and picts of our typical family excitement-- that wasn't too typical after all!

Wim, his mom and the kids all went to Disney. They didn't take a lot of pictures, but more than I am able to post. I will leave it up to Wim to post more pictures if they want to.

The kids and Judy arriving at their hotel room. They don't look too excited do they?

Wim and the kids.

Hmmm, I wonder what Gabrielle and Xavier did to get in this trouble?

A party parade that the kids enjoyed a lot!

This past weekend I took Josie to New Hampshire for a day at Story Land, a theme park for little kids.

It is already cooling off in New Hampshire and Josie was very excited to get to wear her favorite sweatshirt again-- Elmo!

She had fun playing in the shoes from: One, Two, Buckle my shoe . . .

Lots of laughs during the carousel ride. These horses rock back and forth and there are only two like it in the world-- this one and one in Munich, Germany!

Josie and I rode on a big Swan Boat-- which Josie referred to as the Duck boat. She really wanted to go on it, but then wasn't so sure about all the other people on the boat with us.

Josie had really big fun playing at the mad lab-- it was filled with lots of squishy balls, suction hoses, and ball guns.

Here is Josie trying to figure out where the balls go in the hose.

Josie caught on quick and did her best to keep up with the bigger kids in the lab.

How many balls do you think she can hold at once?

"Oh SNAP!" Josie Dong Dong is taking aim-- forget the names!

I think the biggest thrill of the day for little Dong Dong was getting to drive Mommy in her very own car!

This is one satisfied little Josie Dong Dong! She was very proud to drive Mommy around in the Old fashioned car.

After driving the car, we went for a ride on the Choo-choo train. Josie Dong Dong wasn't too sure about the little girl and her Mommy who jumped on in the seat behind us.

She addressed the situation in true Josie Dong Dong fashion---


It was a great day and we look forward to twice as much fun at Story Land next year when we take Josie and Clara Rose.

I am not sure how regularly I will be posting to the blog in the coming weeks. I will definitely post if we have big news to share, but the regular family updates may be a little sporadic. I am starting to work on the 100-wish quilt for Clara Rose and I need to finish Josie's adoption story book-- so my free time-- well, I'm not going to have much free time.