Merry Christmas Everyone!

We have had a wonderful Christmas! It has been filled with family and friends, lots of good food and relaxation. It was a simple Christmas and I do believe that is exactly how it should be. We made candy and delivered it to our neighbors (if you are our neighbor and you didn't get anything, you were not home when we can by), we listened to Christmas music and just spent time together. In a year where we are saving every penny we can, we really realized that we had everything we needed this year. We thought about all the Christmas traditions that we want to share with NaHui. We hope she had a good weekend. I am not sure if they do anything for Christmas in China, in her foster home, so I will say we thought about her for Christmas and she will share it with us next year. She had a Christmas present under the tree, we just couldn't resist. We all agree, it is the most huggable bear we have every meet. We hope NaHui will be hugging it soon. Merry Christmas everyone. We hope you had a wonderful holiday!

First Day of Winter Break

Today was an interesting for the first day of winter break. Zane had a chain attached to a canine tooth today. The tooth was still in the bone of his jaw so a chain was attached to pull it up into place. He also had the baby tooth pulled out that was taking up the space. He had an IV and everything so now he is spending the evening laying on the couch watching Monty Python.

Quade had his first eye appointment and is now getting reading glasses. He has very healthy eyes that angle out just a little so he has to spend a little extra energy holding them together when reading. He is also a little far sighted.  Quade had a great time picking out his glasses. He had been wanting a pair of Oakley's, although I think he was thinking sunglasses, but now he has his Oakley's in reading form.

I had the eye doctor look at Na Hui's picture and she is ready to see NaHui when she gets to town. The doctor didn't think that there was really any major worry about getting Nahui to the eye doctor before she comes home, but was encouraging that there maybe something that can be done to help her vision. I guess things really  do work out because come to find out the doctor that Quade saw today was the closest thing we have to a pediatric opthamologist in town. I had know idea when we went to see her today.

Fred and I got a Christmas tree yesterday after we dropped Quade off at Eaglecrest to go skiing. It is a cute little Charlie Brown tree. Those are Fred's favorite. I think we will be decorating tomorrow. The boys and I are thinking about making Gingerbread people sometime this week as well. I think we are going to try to make Grandma Sherry's Almond Roca too and always Cardamon Muffins Christmas morning.
Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season!
Merry Christmas to All!

Our First Weiler Sponsor

Last week we had our first Weiler sponsor. We would like to thank our sponsor very much. This sponsor will be receiving a Weiler Family photo as well as a post card from China. Thanks again for your support in helping make this happen for Na Hui and for our family.

Good Friday

Today we received the news that our dossier was sent to China.  For those of you who are up to speed on the adoption lingo, this is know as our DTC (Dossier to China).   Our next milestone will be our LID (Log in Date).  This should be in about 1 week.   Then the wait will begin as the next step will be our LOA(Letter of Approval). We should here back from China in 2-5 months for this.  Stay tuned for more updates.

Pictures

We have pictures to share!

Name Change

If you have been to our blog before you may have noticed that the Journey name has changed, that is because it is official we have a daughter (as official as can be at this step but that's pretty official). Her name is Na Hui (Na Hwee) and she turned 6 on November 26, which is Fred's grandfather's birthday. As soon as our dossier is logged-in in China, the orphanage will tell her that she now has a forever family. We now can start writing letters, sending pictures and movies to Na Hui so that she can get to know her family while we all wait to be together. Fred is writing her a book about our family with pictures of Juneau and family and friends. I hope it is not to overwhelming for her, but how could it not.  The feelings she will go through when she is told she has a family, the excitement of a family but the fear of the unknown.I just can't imagine being 6 years old and going to live in a new family in a new country. She has been in a foster family sponsored by Half the Sky since January of 2009 and what she has known for the last 3 years.  It is such a strange feeling to know that our daughter is in China right now and we have about 6 month to wait until we can meet her.

December Announcement

  We have wonderful news to announce, we have a match!! We are so excited. We just sent our ” Letter of Intent”(LOI) today, which means that if everything works out we should receive a Pre-approval Letter (PA) within 5 to 7 days. Then we wait for our official approval from the Chinese government which is the “Letter of Approval” (LOA). These are taking between 40 to 140 days, with no rhyme nor reason on who gets them in 40 day or 140 days.  We are still thinking that we will be traveling in early June, but it all depends on how quickly the paper work goes through. We will post a picture after we get our PA, but until then we can tell you that she just turn six on November 26^th and she is in Hefei, China and she is adorable.