Our Care Package to Aiden

Tomorrow we will be sending out a care package to our sweet little boy.

It Includes:

* 2 blankets

* 4 balls

* 1 toy truck

* 1 talking cell phone

* 1 stuffed panda bear

* 2 bags of lollipops (for all the children in the orphanage)

* Several bags of goldfish crackers

* 1 Box of honey grahams bees

* Several packs of cheese stick dippers

* 2 disposable cameras (for his caregivers to take picts. of him)

* 4 outfits

* A photo album/scrapbook of his new family and home

* Bath and Body lotion, American Girl lipgloss and tic tacs for each

of the Nannies

* 1 translated letter asking the caregivers to take pictures of Aiden

with the disposable cameras and telling them we would pick up

the camera when we come to China.

We have had so much fun putting together this care package for

Aiden. We are excited about getting some pictures from his life

in the orphanage and of course can't wait to see him in person!!

We still are anticipating travel in Sept.!!!!!

WE HAVE LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, after 87 days from LOI (Letter of Intent) and 74 days for PA (Preliminary Approval), we have LOA (Letter of acceptance)!!!!! I received the call today at work! Now, we wait for TA (Travel Approval) and tickets! We are sooo excited!!

Tic-Toc....Tic-Toc....

As of 7-21-08, we have heard NOTHING from China about our LOA! This is so agonizing!
I am a nervous wreck! I have a hard time concentrating on anything else , am
very irritable and am eating everything in sight!
I can't begin to explain the many, many emotions I am feeling! Overwhelmed, excited, irritated that it's taking so long, worried, fearful, thrilled....the list goes on and on. I sometimes feel like I simply can not "climb the mountain ahead" and then other times I feel like "let's go already"! PLEASE pray that we will get our LOA soon! We can not move forward at all until this hurdle is jumped. Our agency said it could be any day now.

Shaelyn McKenzie

Shaelyn is growing into a beautiful little lady! We are so proud of her!

Happy Birthday Shaelyn!

Shaelyn was 10 years old on 7-15-08! Happy Birthday Shaelyn!

We Have Updated Photos of Aiden!!

We received an e-mail today from our agency with updated photos of our sweet little guy! We were a bit shocked that his eye was as bad as it was but of course think he is still precious!! His listed special need was a droopy eyelid and of course we will get that fixed once he is home. I plan to contact a Pediatric Opthamologist to discuss treatment options once we are home. This condition is called Ptosis and can be easily corrected with surgery. The upper eyelid is not strong enough to keep the lid up. Ironically I had a "lazy eye" (same eye) and had surgery to repair it when I was 5.

We are so excited and can't wait to hold him! The agency also sent us updated information about his size, weight etc. but we were unable to successfully open the attachment. We could make out a few words among all the illegible characters and it said "follows directions well, and is running everywhere"! He looks very healthy and happy in the pictures!!

Now we are even more anxious to travel!!

LOA Right Around the Corner!

We think our LOA (letter of acceptance) is right around the corner! The trend lately has been 80 - 85 days. Thursday (7-17) will be day 80 for us! We can hardly wait, and I must admit I have been on pins and needles lately. Everytime the phone rights at my desk at work I am thinking "Is this the call"? We have also put in our request for updated photos of Aiden and the adoption agency said they would call us when they received them. So, I "jump" everytime that phone rings. Once we receive our LOA we then wait for TA (travel approval). This generally takes 4-6 weeks then our flights are booked. It still is looking like Sept. before we travel but hopefully EARLY Sept vs. late. We are so very excited yet scared to death! There are a million plus questions floating around in my mind. Will he like us, will he be scared? Will I know what to feed him (what he's use to and likes)? Will he quickly learn his american name or should we call him his Chinese name for a while? The questions are endless. I just have to trust that we are in God's will and that everything will work our according to His plan. Please continue to pray for us as we journey down this long and winding road to China.

Happy 4th!

We decided to do something different this year for the 4th. We took Shaelyn to see the Intimidators play. (Minor league baseball) They were to have fireworks after the game.

Well... mother nature had other plans and she rained the game out. We stayed however, despite the weather, for the fireworks. On Saturday they played a double hitter and our tickets were

still valid so we went again on Sat. and enjoyed 2 games and more fireworks. It was so much fun and Shaelyn had a blast. She got over 14 autographs from the players and even got an autograph from the mascot (Dub)! We made some wonderful memories!

About the adoption.....I called our agency on Friday and they said we should be hearing something from China within the next 3 weeks. Ugh...the wait is killing us!! We know we can not travel in August due to the Olympics so hopefully we can go the first part of Sept!!