Lily's Adoption Video

I-800A Approval!

I am about to jump out of my skin! We received our I-797 today. One step closer to Liam and a huge milestone. Getting documents notarized today and mailing off to get certified. Wahoo!!!

Annual Beach Trip With Our Dear Friends

We headed back down to Daufuskie Island for one last time for the summer. This time everyone was together and we spent our time with our friends, the Gantz family. This is our 12th year going to Daufuskie with them. We went from families of 3 to families of 5...and we keep adding. We have a lot of special memories. We always spend time reminiscing about our adventures from the past. This year we have definitely added to the memories with 3 days of no air condition. To say it was HOT is an understatement! On a positive note though, we did get to see a loggerhead turtle, weighing about 300 lbs, dig her hole on the beach, lay her eggs and head back to the water. Some of our group were able to see some baby loggerhead turtles hatching as well. This is a first for us in our 12 years there!
Here are some of my favorite pics.

Morgan, Mason, Abigail, Chloe, and Sophie

Morgan, Chloe, Abigail, and Sophie

I had to crop everyone else out to get a good picture of Lily - before the meltdown

Lily and Mason on our boat adventure

Morgan and her best friend, Abigail

Lily

Mason

Morgan

Me and Morgan

Me and the kids

Morgan, Abigail and Chloe with the barn cat

Me and Fred

Best attempt at a family shot - during Lily's meltdown

Fred and Morgan

Fred and Mason

Morgan, Chloe and Abigail by the bus on the side of the road

Me and Morgan at the barn

I Love Waking to See This Little Face

It fills me with such joy to wake up in the morning and see this little face on my computer screen. He looks like such a happy little guy. It is wonderful to know that he is being well taken care of by a group of ladies who love what they do. In these pictures he is in the bathroom while his little girlfriend, who I have referred to before, is being bathed. He is not following the rules, but it looks like they let him get away with it. I guess they just can't resist that smile. I can't wait for the day when I get to see his little face in person each and every day! Come on I800-A approval...come on!

Lego Camp

Mason went to Lego Camp this week and had a great time! How could he not, he was with two great friends, Max and Peyton, and there were thousands of Legos. The Legos were grouped into sets, dating way back to the first Star Wars...very cool. Here are some pictures from his week.

We are Official!

Officially on the wait list that is for Miles! I received a call from our adoption agency yesterday with the good news. They have received our dossier and everything looks good and has been sent on its way to Ethiopia. I talked briefly about the recent slow down in March when the case load went from 50 cases being processed a day to 5 cases per day. According to our agency, they are back up to processing 25 cases per day and they seem optimistic about Ethiopia's dedication to working through the corruption that has taken place there. She was not concerned about Ethiopia's government shutting down adoptions at this point. That is "Great" news!
So, this is what our timeline is looking like right now:

From dossier to referral: Approx. 4 1/2 months
From acceptance of referral to 1st travel: Approx. 4 months
From 1st travel to 2nd & final travel: Approx. 2 months

That means, we could have Miles home with us in 10-12 months. By next year this time we will have two new additions to our family! God is just amazing and I am honored that he has chosen us to be the parents of this two boys...Miles (Ethiopia) and Liam (China)!

Our July 4th!

Last year on July 4th we were in China...

This year we were at Daufuskie. Even though Lily fell asleep at 8:00 with a fever, I still managed to get a few pictures.

Beach Trip with My Sister

We headed back down to our place at Daufuskie Island, SC for a week with my sister and her kids. Lily was a trooper even though she came down with a nasty ear infection on the first full day we were there. I have never seen one so bad and we have had our full share of ear infections in this house. We initially treated her for an outer ear infection, due to redness, drainage and blisters around the outside of her ear, with antibiotic drops which had to be sent over on a ferry from Hilton Head Island. After 2 days of drops she came down with a high fever and the ear wasn't getting any better. So, another antibiotic was called in and ferried over. Come to find out she had an inner and outer ear infection which needed to be treated with an oral antibiotic as well. She ran a fever for 3 days and then it broke. She is still on her oral antibiotic and drops. Oh, and did I mention that the oral gives her a yeast infection...not fun! We still had a lot of laughs and tons of fun! Here are some pictures of our trip....you would never know she wasn't feeling good. What a champ!





and some more...





there are so many..how do you choose....



almost done...





and finally...