A Very Special Play Date and Catching Up

It has been awhile-- sorry, but I warned everyone I would be busy over the next few months and busy we have been!

All of our immigration paperwork for Clara Rose was submitted the week before last along with our Visa applications. Wim and I have decided that we will both travel to China and bring Josie with us-- what a trip this will be!!

Josie is currently napping on a very rainy Sunday. She had a very special play date today. This play date was even more special because Josie's friend Angeline came over WITHOUT her mommy and daddy. They both have colds and I offered to bring Angeline over so they could rest and Angeline could still play with Josie.

Before I left to get Angeline I explained to Josie that Angeline would be coming here without her Mommy or Daddy and that Josie would need to share with her even more than her toys-- she would need to share her Mommy and Daddy with Angeline. Josie said, "I share Mommy Daddy Angeline."

I was very proud of Josie! She did really well with Angeline-- she shared her toys and she shared me, Daddy, Jie Jie and Guh Guh with her friend. She even told Angeline that she loved her while they were eating lunch. It was a really wonderful time and I am so happy with how well Josie handled sharing!

Joise's friend Grace and her Mommy also came over to play. The girls enjoyed playing and eating some tasty doughnuts! What a great way to spend a rainy Sunday Morning!

Early in the week Josie had fun making some chocolate cookies with Gabrielle. Actually, Gabrielle did more actual cookie-making and Josie did more eating of the cookie dough!

Last weekend we went to the Autumn Moon Festival hosted by our local FCC. Josie had a lot of fun making a lantern and then running around on the beach at night-- floating her lantern in the ocean.

I am just about done with Josie's adoption story book. Actually, it is done-- I just a to put the last few pages in the binding. I am pretty happy with this progress.

I have also made great progress on Josie's quilt-- 80 squares are done. I plan to finish the top this month and then complete the batting and back the first two to three weeks of November. Josie's birthday is coming up, so I have to count for that as well.

Other big news for Josie--she is making tremendous progress with potty training and will be moving into the Preschool room at her day care shortly after her birthday in the next few weeks.

YEAH!!!!

Testing Email

Hi Folks,   Rumors have it that accessing our blog in China has become more difficult. I am trying out the email setting to see how emailing to our blog works with posts.   Picture of Clara Rose.   I will also be looking into providing a link on our blog to our shutterfly account. More updates on that when I figure it out.

REFERRAL!!!!

It was with great pleasure and quite a bit of shock that Wim and I are announcing our official referral for Clara Rose!

We are quite surprised with this news! Our paperwork was processed pretty quickly! We knew that eight other families with our adoption agency received their referral news yesterday. We were not really expecting to hear anything this round and since we didn't get a call we figured not this time, maybe next.

One of our agency reps just called me and started talking about travel plans and timeline. It was a very confusing phone call. She apologized that the office was a bit disorganized because the other lady who helps with the China adoptions is on vacation this week and they received several referrals from China yesterday.

She asked me to hold on for a mintute and put me on hold.  She got back on the phone, apologized again and then told me, "Your Referral did Arrive yesterday."

She mentioned that our paperwork was processed rather quickly etc., that we may not be able to travel in early December because China's big Autumn Moon Festival is now and everything is shut down through next week. Coupled with new laws in the US for international adoption that takes a little long yadda yadda.

But, early January is OK too!!!! It is looking like being with Clara Rose on her 2nd birthday, Janaury 17th if not having her home is a real possibility!

We should receive the paperwork from our agency Saturday or Monday.

Savoring the Taste of Fall . . .Sort of

What does one do on a rainy Sunday the day after picking apples?

Too obvious-- right?

Here are some pictures of Josie Dong Dong helping me make an apple pie.

I think she did more taste testing of everything than anything else. LOL.

"Mommy, I wanna eat'em"

"I eat dis one, Mommy."

"OOooo. I woll it myself!"

"MMMMmmmm! Taste Goooood!"

"I help Mommy!

After our hard labor and Josie's full 2-hour nap (YEAH!!!), it was time to tast the fruit of our labor (pun intended).

"Hmmmm. What dat?"

"I no wike it Mommy!"

So there we have it-- the honest truth from the mouth of babes-- Josie Dong Dong doesn't "wike it" Apple pie. To be truthfull, it isn't my favorite kind of pie either, but what the heck else were we going to do with so many apples?

You may notice that Josie is wearing her jammies. Last night when I put them on her I realized they are size 2T-- way-- WAY too small for her. She still wanted to wear them to bed. I told her they were too small and this would be the last time she could wear them. This morning she said wanted to wear them all day today. It was a rainy day and we had no plans to go anywhere. We had even decided to play hooky from Church (what vixens we are!). So, Josie got to wear her fuzzy reigndeer jammies one last time for a full 24-hours! She's still in them as I type.

No more news about Clara Rose, so we are still waiting. I did manage to get 20 more quilt squares sewn togher and another 20 are pinned and ready for thread. I hope to have those all sewn next weekend. Weekends, during Josie's nap, are really the only time I have to work on it.

A Taste of Fall

Josie and I had a fun morning today picking yummy apples at a local apple orchard. Josie first response to the apple trees:

"Oooooooooooooo, wook! Apples! I eat'em!"

"Look Mommy! Apples on twee! I get'em!"

"MMmmmmm! I wike'em apples!"

On our way home from apple picking, we stopped at a nearby school yard so Josie could ride her bike for a little while. Ride it she did  . . .

All across the USA from coast to coast . . .

And across all of Africa, Asia and Russia

Before we new it, it was time to go home for lunch!

Happy Fall!

R--rrrrrrrrrrrr is for Let's Ride

Hi Everyone, I am trying some new functions with Blogger without putting much thought into it so who knows how this will turn out. 

Josie is finally able to really reach the peddals on her bike and it has fast become her new love! 

Just look at the big happy smile on her proud little face! It was all I could do to keep up with her as she pedled along yelling back at me to, "Come Get Me! Get Me! Get Me Mommy!"

And then she was off-- through the gate into the wild unknown-- well, actually, she was headed for the basketball court.

Nothing Much

Hi everyone,

Between a good friend suddenly getting a job in her home country of Canada and moving from nearby Massachusetts to Vancouver (somebody give me a tissue) in a matter of a few weeks notice and trying to organize Josie outgrown clothes that are still in good condition to store for Clara Rose-- I have not had a lot of time to work on the quilt. I do have 20-squares sewn together-- this is two rows and I have 40-squares trimmed and ready to be sewn, so a little progress has been made.

There has not been a whole lot of excitement in our home these days, pretty much the same old thing that we have fun with, but doesn't make for interesting blogging. I thought I would post a quick few pictures from our walk to a nearby playground.

Josie is always up for a run around a park. She loves to play at the "Ground," which is what she calls the playground.

Wim found a caterpillar. He showed it to Josie who was less than enthused, but managed to simply say, "Noooooo" without screaming and crying like she often does if shown something that is less than fuzzy and cute.

Josie also enjoys walking our dog, Phoebe on the leash. Phoebe is generally pretty good about not pulling when Josie has the leash, but today it was more like Phoebe was walking Josie. You can be sure that Josie yells at Phoebe when she doesn't behave nicely like a good doggie should.

Gathering some sticks to feed to Phoebe.

Josie playing some baby B-Ball with her Daddy. She may be short, but she gives it her all!

Almost nap-time and time for us to head home for lunch before she crashes!