We received TA!!!

We had an email this morning telling us that our travel approval is on its way from China. After our agency gets the physical copy, they can fax to the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou for the immigration paperwork.

We are working on getting our flights now, and so far it looks like we will leave on Sunday the 7th and return the 31st. Hopefully our flights and our appointments line up. We are also hoping to stay with my sister on the way back because we will have a 22 hour layover in Portland (oh the thrills of frequent flyer miles). We need to call her to see if what kind of reception we'll get with this idea!

It will be fun to have Olivia baptized on the 6th and the leave the next morning for China.

Steph says: I just have to add to Mike's blog an update. We were able to get all our flights together using our frequent flyer miles!! Yes, it is a long time to be gone but I feel really blessed to have it work out for Kirk, Zach and Olivia to come with us to get Grace. It will be a wonderful experience for them and will be good for Grace to have her older siblings to be with her. Eliza will be well cared for, or spoiled would be a better word for it, while we are gone. Fortunately, she has her Grandma Renee who lives close by and Grandpa Albert and Grandma Carol who will come and stay for a week. Also, we have other family and friends who would probably help if we beg them!

Take care and Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for today!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Sign for the front door. Yes, she is a princess!!

We already had 2 cakes (friend party on Saturday and family party on Sunday), so Olivia chose ice cream for her birthday dessert. She was ready for bed when we realized she hadn't been sung "Happy Birthday" to by us! Zach has her "birthday candle" and he, Kirk and I came in right after I turned out the lights and sang to her.

Her new Barbie Diamond Princess!

"Yes, I got the movie I wanted!" Olivia opening her gifts from us and her grandparents. We made a stop at her Grandma Rene's before we ate at Apollo Burgers for dinner.

Olivia had a great birthday! She brought home the sweetest cards from her class. Most of them had pictures of "chitas" aka cheetahs, since they found out today it is her favorite animal. They also said things like "I love your glases" and "I like you becaus you are always nice". 2nd graders are so adorable!

We love you Olivia!

Olivia's Tea Party!

Olivia opening the presents.

Lighting the candle on Olivia's cupcake.

Kirk and Zach were the "man-servant" and "butler". Kirk would only do what Olivia told him to and Zach used an English accent. The girls absolutely LOVED it! They just laughed and laughed. By the way, the boys VOLUNTEERED and came up with their jobs. Seriously! Could you find a nicer pair of brothers??

The "tea" was apple juice and we had ham and cheese sandwiches cut out with little cookie cutters. I found the cute toothpicks at Target! We have several tea sets, so they each had a cup and plate.

Another visitor...

Grandpa Montgomery from Missouri decided, finally ;) to come for a visit! It's been a few years but usually I take the kids out for a visit.

Grandpa and the girls

Olivia and Lauren at school

These are the happy smiles of two best friends who show up at the "evening of reading" and find that they have the exact pajamas on! They were giggling the rest of the night. It's so fun to be young and carefree.

Never point a laser at anyone's eyes

I had put extra money in our Flex account for braces for my two sons. Turns out, however, that the doctor decided Zachary should wait another year and so I was left with extra money that we were going to lose if it wasn't used. Stephenie thought about Lasik, but decided with the adoption it wasn't a good time for her. So, at the last minute, I decided to have my eyes burned. I was scheduled for Lasik yesterday. It seems funny to let someone shine a laser in my eye to make me see better, but I'm hoping for the best. Anyway, just as we were leaving for the eye center I got a call saying that when they fired up the machine it had an error code and the technician needed a new part. So, my surgery was put off. I was a little irritated because I had arranged for the day off and had everything scheduled for work so I could do this.

They called back an hour later and said they could have me go to another of their centers an hour and half further two days later or I could wait a week and then have it done at their center. They told me they would provide a shuttle for me and take another $200.00 off of the price. So, I guess it will all work out somehow (I told them I didn't want to be the first person since there ws a repair on the machine, though!). I still have to pay for a portion of the surgery and having that much more taken off is actually quite nice. This is Olivia's birthday and I hope that we will have no problems going somewhere for her birthday that evening. She's turning 8 and it should be special for her.

So, maybe next Wednesday I'll be without glasses and our Flex account will be empty and Olivia will be ready for baptism!

The Calm Before the Storm?

It feels like we are leading a "normal" life for the moment. The usual things that fill up our days: school, dentist appointments, homework, etc. But knowing we could get our TA in a short time makes me treasure the everyday stuff. When it comes, life will be crazy for awhile and it won't slow down until after the holidays!

Next week my dad comes to visit, so we will have a big week ahead. Hopefully Grandpa can handle a somewhat boring schedule. I can't think of lots of exciting things to do right now but we will at least make it to Thanksgiving Point and Cabella's. Most of all, just being together and of course, good food! I know what my dad likes! (And he is just going to love Arctic Circle. They have awesome ice cream shakes, which is conveniently close to our house!) "SISTERS"

We came to Olivia's school to hear her play piano for her music class. I snapped this picture of the girl's heading to the bathroom. Eliza had to go NOW and Olivia insisted on showing her the way. It was one of those "big sister is proud of little sister" moments. Kind of warms the heart doesn't it?

The "cheesy" grin

This may be hard to spot but look for the TWO rooster pheasants in our backyard. It was such a chance thing. I happened to glance out the window in the morning as I was doing laundry and there they were!

Zach in a rare moment of actually doing his homework ;)

"Will work for food!"

Kirk made his famous chicken stir fry for dinner. It was delicious!

Waiting for China

I just got an email from Fedex saying that our LOA paperwork was signed for at the CCAA. That means that we are waiting for them to send the Travel Approval (TA) so we can make our final arrangements. Normally, this takes 2-4 weeks to receive. We are hoping for the 2 and not the 4; and definitely not 6!

We are getting our visas from the Chinese embassy ready. We have to fill out paperwork for everyone and they cost $130/each plus a $35/each courier fee. Hopefully, if we get an answer back today about some questions on it, we will send them all off tomorrow to get processed.

We are trying to figure out how to get everyone except for Eliza to China using our frequent flyer miles. I've been saving them up for over 20 years, and I hope to be able to use them now. Eliza gets to stay with her grandmas while we're gone. Anyway, I'm trying to find flights into China using those miles. There are more restrictions on them, so we might fly in/out through Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Hong Kong. It makes planning a bit more hectic since we're not sure what days we can go and whether there will be flights available then. I'm hoping we can travel during the Christmas break so the kids don't miss too much school, but we'll see.

LOA off to China...Takuya is home safely in Japan!

Yes, we finally received our LOA 10/31/08 but our sweet translator was so excited to send each of the 13 families from our agency their packages that she forgot we were planning to pick ours up in person! We only live about 35 minutes from her but it took 3 days for it to get here (counting the weekend of course). Oh well, we did get it and signed it today. Now it should be on its way to China and hopefully our TA will come in just a few weeks!
Also, we got an e-mail from Takuya's family. He made it home safely to Japan after seeing Las Vegas and Los Angeles, including Disneyland. Sounds like fun! Hopefully, we will get to see a few of his pictures from the rest of his trip.

Eliza had a great time trick-or-treating!

I need one of these!

I just love this neighbors decorations!

Eliza, me and Olivia riding the Halloween train. Eliza was terrified but Olivia wanted to go again. The family has made this amazing train that goes all around their property including spook alley type tunnels, a movie in the barn while you wait your turn and free popcorn. It's so fun at night but it was scary enough in the daylight for Eliza.