!!!!!Our New Daughter!!!!!

Name: Shang-Guan Xin Shi (means "new poem")
*pronounce shin-she*
Birthdate: January 3, 2006
Province: Jiangxi
Orphanage: Shanggao -- she was put in foster care when she was one month old.

Her medical information is from when she was three months old, but she supposedly weighed 13 pounds in April.

They say she has a ready smile, is fond of music and has quick reactions. She could hold her head up and rolls.

We think she is so precious and are overjoyed to finally recieve our referral! We are so thankful to the CCAA for letting this little girl join our family and we can't wait to have her in our arms!

The stork is flying!!!!!!!!!!!

The CCAA has sent our referral and it is in the air and on the way to our agency in Houston! I'm still trying to figure out if they will arrive on Friday or Monday! What a relief to know!!!!!

What a trip

Well, Colorado was wonderful, but the trip up there was quite an adventure. My friend's 20 month old split his chin (lots of meat showing -- ugh!) on a playscape in Amarillo. Two hours later we were back on the road and my side view mirror hit an orange pylon and smashed the bejeebers out of it. Pretty useless the rest of the trip, but a good metaphor about how we were feeling about then! Somehow we still made it all the way to Raton, NM. I would not let her drive the entire time because I knew it was worse in the passenger seat having to cater to 5 kids!

MORE delays

I thought I would come back from Colorado and have only a few days to putter around before our long, long awaited referral arrived. Unfortuantely, the news I came back to was that the CCAA has now decided to move their offices! This is one of those rumors that has been going around since last year and hundreds of us waiting have speculated time and time again about how it would affect the wait times for China adoptions. Wouldn't you know that it would have to happen now! At least only our referral will be delayed. My friends who already have their referrals may have to wait extra time before they get the okay to go get their children. I am sure that would be even harder so I'll try to see the sunny side of my situation.

Keeping Busy!

We are trying to keep busy so that time will fly, but in classic Lela form, I have probably overdone it. Three moms took 8 kids (ages 18 months to 7) to the beach in Galveston. How we all fit in two hotel rooms is beyond me. There was A LOT of sand in that room after we left.

I love taking trips with friends. We had a great time and the kids were really well behaved! Each time we go somewhere, Kristen does her best to get a picture with all the kids in it. There seems to always be at least one trying to get away though.

I was home from that for two hours before our family headed to the ranch and worked on the farm with my dad the whole weekend. Dylan got to help Poppy pull down a huge rotted tree with a bulldozer -- does life get any better than that when you are two? Now look at those kids playing in a hole in the ground -- who needs toys?

After all the manual labor we were home for one hour Sunday before we headed off to a July 4th party. All the kids had a great time and an even better time attacking an adult with their shaving cream (poor Doug).

The next day the kids headed off to hang out with their grandmother, great-grandmother and most of all, Uncle Michael who was in town for just a short while. They adore him, but he lives in AZ and they don't get to see him as much as they would like!

They got home after 10pm that night and were up first thing the next morning to decorate their bikes for the neighborhood 4th of July parade.

Later that week I hosted Bunco (and chopped six inches off my hair so there wouldn't be so much to take care of in China!)

Next up we attended an Express Baseball game! By now the parents are so exhausted that we only stayed for the first half of the game!

The current crazy days ended after a great trip to where we celebrated Jason's grandmother's 90th birthday with lots of family. We thought we would get the kids home in time for their "regular" bedtime, but it turned out that Jason's cousin and his family showed up at his other grandmother's house with their new 6 week old baby so we stayed for dinner and time for the kids to play with even more cousins their age.

I now have a couple of days to catch up my paperwork, get the house in order and pack for a trip to Colorado -- two moms and five kids this time. I can't wait for the cool weather! I wish Jason could go but he has to save up time for that China trip that is just around the corner!

Two more weekends before our referral!