TWO YEARS!

We celebrated two years home with Emily this summer.  She has changed so much from the 17 month old toddler we met in a hotel lobby in 2014.  Now, she is a confident, sassy, and VERY independent 3.5 year old.  She attends preschool, takes ballet, is starting soccer this fall, and loves Mickey Mouse, princesses, dress-up clothes, and bossing around (nicely) her brothers.  I asked her brothers recently whether they remembered our family before Emily came to us.  Even though they were 7 and 5 when we adopted her, they said that they don't really remember waking up or existing without her in our house and in their lives!  She has worked her way deep into their - and our - hearts. 


We met another China adoptive mom in person (vs. just from online groups) while on a summer beach vacation.  This mom lives and works where we were visiting and is a part-time photographer.  She took these beautiful pictures of our family and we were thrilled to be able to meet her family and to tell her boys that Emily is from China just like they are!

Home

A little more than two years ago - on March 15th - we received this email from our agency:"Your LOI has been officially submitted to CCCWA! Congratulations!! 

My computer here at home won't save a copy of your PA as a pdf and isn't formatting it right so I can email it to you, so I will do that on Monday from work. In the meantime, I took a screenshot of it for you.

So excited for you guys!!"

It was the day we submitted our "Letter of Intent" (LOI) to adopt Emily and was the day China issued its Preliminary Approval (PA) for us to adopt her.  A big day for sure!


On April 11, 2014, we received word that China had issued our LOA.  That meant that we were finally in the home stretch and that we would likely travel in a couple of months.

In many ways, it's difficult to believe that these things happened years ago.  In other ways, it seems like a lifetime ago.  As of today, Emily has been our daughter for 22 months! 

We moved last month to a new house - just under a mile from our old house.  It will be (hopefully) a good for our family.  It's a house with a little more space for 5 people.  Still, it was very difficult for all of us to leave our "old" house.  We had been there almost 9 years.  When we moved, Jackson was 9 months old.  Now, he's nine and a half.   This was the house in which my boys learned to walk and talk and run and throw and catch balls and ride bikes.  It was the house that saw them through preschool and into elementary school.  They grew from infants/babies into the 50 and 70 pounds big kids they are today.  It was the house in which we dreamed of a daughter in China and in which we dealt with all of the paperwork and craziness to find her.  It was the house in which Jackson asked God (in a family prayer in March 2013) to please send us a sister because we "were ready to love her."  It was Emily's first house.  It was the house in which she learned to speak English, to run and play, to ride a tricycle.  It was the last house my mom ever came to before she passed away.  So many memories.  We've all shed some tears - even though we hope the "new" house will be just as good for all of us.

Emily, though, has the best perspective on things.  A few days after we moved, she and I went back to the "old" house to get a few things.  She saw how it looked without furniture and started running and twirling through the big, empty rooms.  I asked it made her sad to be there.  Her answer:  "I miss this house, but it's OK because my FAMILY is at the other house.  So, that will be my home." 

Out of the mouths of babes - as my mom would have said.  What perspective from a just-turned three-year-old little girl who came from an orphanage on the other side of the world. 

She's absolutely correct.  What really matters is family and love.  Wherever we are together, that's our home.