What????!!!!!

I'm Getting a Baby Sister???

You're Kidding!

Wow!

I want the full scoop!

Wim and I have decided to add to our family one more time.

We began the paperwork process about a month ago while we looked at our options. The wait to adopt a healthy child under the age of two from China is currently a little over three years and growing.

We have decided that we will stick with China as our preference is for Josie and her new sibling to have a similar birth culture as well as be close in age.

We decided to adopt through China's waiting child program which matches parents with children who have medical needs or who are older and considered hard to place because of their age. The adoption process through this program is much quicker than the healthy under 2-years program.

We currently have pre-approval to adopt a little girl who is 15-months old and who has microtia atresia (malformed ears). Her medical condition is correctable by surgery and other than this issue, her medical and development report indicates she is a healthy little girl.

She is currently living in an orphanage located in Tianjin, which is just outside of Beijing.

She is 1 year and 2 months younger than Josie.

We plan to name her: Clara Roselee-Chinese name

Josie's full name, Josephine Orangelee-Fudong has strong family ties and is linked to her Chinese name. We want Josie and her new sibling to share the same name form.

Clara is for one of Wim's great-grandmothers (and a name that I have always liked). My maternal great grandmothers had floral names. There is also an adoption story with my great grandmothers that I will save for another day.

Our agency has told us that China typically issues the formal approval, referral, 4-5 months after a family submits the formal dossier (big huge packet of official paperwork in which every document is individually signed, notarized, certified, authenticated and then signed in blood). Travel is typically 6-weeks after the referral.

If everything continues to move along as well as it has, we think we will have this paperwork, the dossier, ready to submit by early August and travel in early January.

We will post pictures when we receive her referral.

Busy Bees

Hi Everyone,

Spring has finally (and I mean FINALLY!) arrived here in little Rhody. I am finding myself to be very busy these days so my posts are likely to have less flair than usual-- not that they are ever all that spectacular to begin with.

Most of the pictures are from last weekend. It was still cool, but mild enough that long sleeve shirts and sweatshirts were all that was required.

Saturday was the official opening day of our favorite playground, ImPossible Dreams and Josie had a great time! Her current favorite is this car.


Marching confidently and determined to the car.

Gabrielle and Josie's friend Angeline tried to coax Josie out of her car to play on the pirate ship and slide down the plank.

Josie only had interest in her wheels.

After some doing, Josie was coaxed out of her car and enjoyed playing on the slide and swings with her big sis and her friend Angeline.

Josie even managed to get Gabrielle to push her on the merry-go-round.

On Sunday Josie spend to some quality B-ball time with her big brother after waking from her nap.

After she had time to wake-up completely from her nap, we brought out a surprise for her.

A shiny red tricycle!

Josie wasn't sure exactly where to sit or what to make of this new toy.

It's great to have a big brother to help you figure out where to sit.

Lucky for her, Xavier and Gabrielle took turns showing her how use it.

Josie even got a few helpful pushes around the driveway.






We soon learned that Josie's legs are just a hair to short to reach the pedals when they are down. I think she could do it if she got it going, but it may take a little while. In the meantime, we are all having fun watching her learn how to make it go.

A slightly sloping driveway sure does help get the job done!

The new bike was a little emotional for Josie-- growing-up is a hard thing. She needed some love from her Daddy to know that everything was still OK.





After the tricycle adventure, we all moved to the backyard. Wim is trying to clear some of our "yard" where we believe there is an old parking lot underneath. In case you are wondering-- you did read that correctly.

If it is there we want to use part of it for B-ball and the tricycle etc. so Josie can do all of that in the backyard instead of the driveway.

Gabrielle, Xavier, and Josie worked on putting together a soccer net so they can practice in the backyard.

After the net was up, the kids enjoyed kicking the ball around.

Even Phoebe and Josie got in on some of the game action!

On Monday, I actually got to have my very own Mommy-playdate! I took the day off from work and met two of my best girlfriends at a Day Spa. It was great! We enjoyed the hot tub, steam room, facials, pedicure and a wonderful lunch. Pampered all day long in bathrobes!

Today Josie and I spent the morning at our favorite playground-- ImPossible Dreams. Josie's friends Grace and Callie also came to the playground with their Mommies.

Try as we did to get pictures of all the girls, this is as good as it got.

Josie and I had a great morning. We are really looking forward to fun outdoor times in the coming seasons.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

We are enjoying a bright and sunny, albeit briskly cold, Easter Sunday.

It is a quiet Easter for us this year- Wim, Josie Dong Dong, and I, but we are definitely making the most of it!

Josie knew something special was coming up with a bunny because everyone at her baby school has been talking about ALL week and we have been reading special Easter stories at home as well.

Saturday-morning was spent decorating eggs and Josie Dong Dong had a great time coloring eggs. She squealed in delight when we took the eggs out of the dye and she saw how pretty they were.

"We're coloring eggs for Easter!"

"Look at my pretty eggs!"

I explained to Josie that the Easter Bunny likes to play games. My experience with him is that he will hide my colored eggs and then I have to find them. He also leaves fun presents!

Josie was quite happy on Sunday morning to find present from the Easter Bunny and her very own new yard chair.

Uh oh! The egg carton is empty! Josie Dong Dong will have to find her eggs!

The egg hunting had to wait until after church. We've found that the early services work best with Josie-- they are much shorter than the later services. So we were up and running soon after Josie looked through her Easter Bucket, or Ducket as Daddy calls it.

As soon as we returned home from Church, the hunt was on and Josie Dong Dong knew exactly what to do!

"I'm finding all my eggs that the Easter Bunny hid."

Josie Dong Dong showed off her multi-tasking skills by munching on jelly beans while still hunting for eggs.

"The Easter Bunny hid extra eggs with Candy in them!"

After Josie Dong Dong found all of her eggs, she put them right back where they belonged-- in the egg crate!

"I'm putting you back where I left you!"

Josie enjoyed the Easter Egg Hunt. Shortly after she was done she announced that she wanted her dress and shoes off! She wanted her pants and her new blue cheap-o croc knock-offs. She saw these crocs at Walmart and ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE THEM.

After changing into her comfy attire, Josie Dong Dong kicked back in her knew chair.

"Happy Easter!"