100 Days

We have now been waiting 100 LONG days for our LOA.  (This is the letter where China says that we can officially adopt Claire.) 

We need this letter in order to continue all of our other paperwork and get our travel approval. 

100 days is a LONG time to wait.  People can get it anywhere from 40-100+ days, but 100+ days is not very common. 

Our agency found out a few days ago that the reason it's taking this long is because the agency who issues the LOA lost a receipt that we sent to China back in August saying that we paid for our dossier.  Because of that one little lost receipt, they didn't complete our paperwork.

The most frustrating part is they never told us!  A few weeks ago my agency inquired about our LOA and we were told it was "in process."  We were never told we were missing any paperwork! 

Needless to say I am getting very tired of the wait and very frustrated, and mostly just dying to see our girl!! 

Please please pray that our LOA will come any day now, especially before the Chinese New Year which starts I believe February 10, and will go on for a week. Everything shuts down during that time.

Thank you!!!!

Cute Cute Brothers and First Lost Tooth, and some Birthdays!

One of my friends has two older daughters with these two babies that they never use anymore and she decided to give them to us!  We are slowly starting to gather girlie toys and clothes :). 

 

 They are the most interesting dolls because they actually move their mouths to suck, they burp, cry, giggle, and sleep!  It's crazy and I was actually having fun with them!  Jackson LOVED them and was kind of obsessed with them for awhile.  He would carry one around with him and actually let them sleep in his bed!  We talked about how he was learning to be a good big brother to Claire.

 Cooper recently hit a major milestone!   His first lost tooth!  It started to be loose Christmas Eve and on January 2 it fell out!

 Sorry for the slightly bloody look-this was literally after it fell out.  He was eating an apple at dinner and it just came out!

 He had to call Ben and tell him all about it.  Ben's already lost at least 3 or maybe even 5??  So Cooper was pretty happy to catch up.

 I convinced Cooper to practice being a big brother and to feed the baby.  You can see how he felt about me taking a picture of him :)  I just had to get it on record!

 Love how sweet he was with the babies!

 

We went to our little friend Holly's cute birthday party!

                                           LOVE the cake and all of the cute decorations!

                           We also had our little friend Blake's birthday!  Another cute party!

                                   These boys just sat and ate and ate and ate!  It was hilarious.

Emma and Evan's Visit!

A few days after Christmas Cousin Emma and Evan (along with their parents of course :)) came to visit.  We had a great visit!  One day everyone came to our house for dinner and the kids made quite a mess!

 

Christmas!

The pictures posted all crazy so I'll just label them and you'll get the drift! :)

 

Christmas eve we went to church and afterward we took a few pictures.  There was a band playing and my boys started dancing around and trying to tackle.  Needless to say it was time to leave right after this!

 

 

We always take a photo in front of the Christmas tree.

 

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house right after church to have dinner and open a few gifts.

 

The boys helped to open a present for Claire!

 

Our tree Christmas Eve.

The stockings are hung ready for the boys to wake up!

 

 

The boys are ready to see if Santa came!

 

Cooper LOVED his bike!

 

Jackson with his presents.

 

Cooper with his.

 

My favorite gift that we gave the kids...because it included Claire!

 

Christmas day after we opened presents at our house, we hurried over to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The kids enjoyed opening more presents!

 

Jackson received this tricyle and he LOVES it!

 

It started snowing on Christmas Day!  A Christmas miracle!

Jackson wrote "cooper" on a present for him! This is upside down, oops.

 

Christmas Eve morning the boys exchanged presents.

 

 

Cooper gave Jackson some army trucks.  He obviously loved them! :)

 

Cooper loved Jackson's present too.

 

Christmas Eve we all went to church together.

Peppermint Party, Santa, and Christmas lights!

 

My mom host an annual Peppermint Party with the boys around Christmas time.  This year each boy was able to invite a friend.  Isn't the table cute?

 

 Here's Jackson and his friend Henry.

 

 Here's Cooper and his friend Zachary.

 

 The cute peppermint treats.

 

 All of the kiddos at the party!

 

 We of course had to play "hot rudolph."  This time Jackson played for a bit!

 

 Cooper loved it!

 

 This little "bridge" is a favorite activity at Grandma and Grandpa' house!

 

 The cousins.

 

The boys loved meeting Santa!  Even Jackson did and I was kind of worried he'd be scared. 

 

 They each told Santa what they wanted for Christmas and got a candy cane-they were so excited!

 

One evening we went out to look at Christmas lights and of course had to take a few photos first. 

 

 

 

 They loved the hot chocolate!