Official Update from Sarah's Orphanage and LOA!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I feel like I might have a little bit of the luck of the Irish with me today because we received some new pictures of our cutie patootie this morning, and the answers to our five questions. They answered every single question. That is amazing!

I feel like I know just a little bit more about our sweet little girl. We know her finding spot now, we know she has never been hospitalized, we know that she sucks her thumb (so cute!), we know that she loves all of her nannies and she has a best friend.

Every single thing I learn about our Sarah is a blessing and a gift. Can I say how happy I am that we are finally on the countdown to China?! I realized today that I do not have one item of clothing for our girl. Lucky for me, this is a challenge I am definitely willing and excited to take on!

Can you stand how cute this girl is? - Even with the dirty clothes.

Love how the other girl is in focus and Sarah is blurry - oh well, so happy to have the smiling picture!

UPDATE:

This has been an amazing day. Around 5pm we got notification that we are LOA now. Things are starting to move!!!!!!

Soft LOA!

We received a soft LOA yesterday, or an electronic LOA. That took 55 days. Hooray! (Our wait for John was 114 days.) That means 10-14 weeks until we are getting our little Henan cutie. I sent the next step of paperwork in to my adoption agency so that as soon as they get the hard copy, we can really get things moving quickly. When we adopted John we never heard of a soft LOA, so I am excited but still a little unsure of exactly what that means. We are so excited to be able to say more definitively now that we will be traveling somewhere between May and July.

Our agency will ask Sarah's orphanage 5 questions from us. I keep wondering what to ask. The questions I want to know, I don't think anyone will be able to answer, and most of what we were told about John ended up not being true with us at all (not that they were untrue before us, but once he came into our family he threw everything  he knew out the window). So ...  I'm thinking about asking these questions:

1. Where was she found? (We knew this with John but not with Sarah).
2. Has she ever been hospitalized? (We found out with John that he had been hospitalized a lot)
3. Who is her favorite nanny?(I want to know the names of those that loved her in China)
4. Does she have a favorite sleeping item?
5. Does she have a really close friend?

If anyone can think of something better to ask, please let me know. All adoptive parents - especially when adopting from China - want to be able to piece as much of their child's life together as possible. The trick is no one really knows, so finding out any information about our children's lives before us is priceless.

Pictures of Our Sarah!

Another new friend took these pictures of our Sarah. It feels like it has been forever since we have seen her or had an update. This brings some peace to my heart. She is 19 months old and growing up through pictures so quickly. What a great way to start our day!

Missing Our Girl

For anyone who has or is adopting, you will understand it when I say I am missing my girl. True, I have never met her. True, I know very little about her. True, I don't know when I will have an update. But boy do I love her, and boy do I miss her. I am her mom and we are her family. This wait can feel excruciatingly painful and long at times.

Last week I was feeling like this a lot. Her absence was so tangible, that I was certain that I was going to get a phone call every single day saying that we had our LOA. You can imagine how disappointed I was every single day last week - to the point of distraction - no LOA. I could barely think about anything else. This week I have resolved to be a mom to the kids I have in my presence because I can actually control that, and things are much better.

I thought I would share a little excerpt of a book we made for her and sent to her at Christmas. It is an introduction to our family through the ABCs. I hope they are sharing it with her so she can sort of get to know us too. I made one for John, and it was very clear that he had seen it a lot because he totally new us when he saw us - pretty awesome experience actually.

Are They Twins?

I get this question a lot! Strangers are always stopping me asking if John and Kate are twins. When I first started getting these inquiries I would laugh out loud. I mean come on, there are some obvious things proving the contrary! One is Asian. One is Caucasian.  They are three months apart. They don't look a like. I couldn't help but laugh.

However, as time has gone on I have had the privileged  of observing these two on a daily basis. They are always together. They are either laughing their heads off together or crying their eyes out because of the other. They love to play together, they have their inside jokes. They go to school together, are in the same church class together. They love the same movies. They love each other dearly (and dislike each other sometimes). They are the best of friends.

So my answer now when I get asked, "Are they twins?"  I reply, "Sure!"

Kate is all girl! She is always in pink.

John is all boy! This is his favorite outfit - he wants to wear it every single day!

They share secrets and inside jokes

One is always copying the other

They laugh together

They love each other

They are always found together

They are always involved in some sort of conversation

They look like twins to me!

The Love Month

Since it is February, I thought I would share these pictures of my kiddos loving on each other, and pictures that make me feel such raw loving emotions towards my kids when I see them. I am taking a photography class again. It is really getting me out of my comfort zone and pushing me to try new things. I really am enjoying it.

Look who turned 15!

Cora is now 15!!!! I feel like this really ages me. She is such a great girl, and I feel really lucky to be her mom. She just made National Honor's Society and has had two challenging ballet auditions two weekends in a row. She has really stepped out of her comfort zone and is really pushing herself to accomplish more. She has her driver's permit, is a great big sister, a great daughter, a wonderful friend, and a terrific person! Happy Birthday cute girl.