D's Big School

D is now officially a big boy in his world as he is now going to the big school. We were fortunate to get a spot at J's school in their pre-K program. D is having sooo much fun and has already made friends. He loves his new teacher (who is awesome) and loves to play with the "barn". He is too funny though - today he told us that he had no time outs but he had to have lots of quiet time. Obviously, not enough quiet time for his teacher to think we needed to know but lots in his world. I was a little nervous that he would miss his teachers and friends at daycare but he is doing very well and is having loads of fun!!!

Soccer Tourney

We had a great soccer weekend, sort of. This was the first game for the boys and there were some tough teams that were nothing short of amazing and it was obvious they've been playing together for awhile, but our kids worked really hard and you could see every game they were getting better and better. I can't wait to see how they progress throughout the year. The first game - I think all the kids were sleeping during the first half but they woke up the 2nd half and started to come back but they fell a little short. The 2nd and 3rd game - the other teams were simply amazing and I don't really need to write anything more than that. The 4th game (all the parents were praying for them to win a game) they came together and won 3-0. For anyone that doesn't know, J plays goalie and does an excellent job. He had a really sweet block in the 4th game towards the end. The player kicked it to the top of the left side as high as it could go and still go in the net and Jake did a cross jump and grabbed the ball. It was awesome!!!! Overall, I think Jake did his best in the 2nd game. We're very proud of all the kids on the team as it was a tough tournament and I think they're starting to figure each other out now.

Adoption Updates

I'm so bad about keeping this up to date. Have a lot of updates on the adoption front. First, we changed her middle name to Shanwei. Several reason for this which I can discuss offline with any of you. Next, we are leaving Saturday, October 4th and returning on Thursday, October 16th. We will get to pick up our little angel on Monday, October 6th. So mark those calendars. Mom is going to be staying with both of the boys while we are out (please pray for her sanity - it's been awhile since she's had to keep track of school, homework, karate, soccer practices and tournaments, etc). We also received our China visa's back in the mail today and on Friday we received our renewal I-171H form from USCIS (we had to have this renewal form back before travel as it expired on 9/21/2008). Finally, we received an email today with our travel group's info. It's awesome to see our names on a travel group, yipee!!!! Can't wait to meet our travel buddies and their children.

Sunday Evening

It's been a busy and good weekend. Hubby was gone all weekend building a barn for a friend, so it was the kids and I. We got all of J's stuff out of his room and put D's stuff in his new room. I think D likes his new room, now we just need to get J a bed and rearrange his room and we'll be set. J also had soccer practice today - I think he's doing pretty good. They've been playing against older girls for practice and his team has been getting spanked by them. The boys and I are watching the movie "Hoodwinked" right now - it's a pretty cute movie.

On the adoption front, we're still waiting for our TA (travel approval). Hopefully, it will come next week. Guess we'll have to wait and see. We did receive our travel packet on Saturday from CHI - it tells us what we're suppose to be doing now and gives us the forms to get our travel VISA.

Tentative Travel

We could be leaving in 4 weeks!!!!! I'm about ready to officially freak out. We received an email on Friday with 3 tentative travel dates: 1) 9/5 - 9/16 or 2) 9/8 - 9/26 or 3) 10/5 - 10/16. The first 2 dates depend on when our travel approval arrives and if we can get a consulate appt (CA) on the requested days. There's still so much to do and I can hardly believe that after all this waiting it's now happening so quickly. Absolutely Amazing!!!!