Fingerprint News!!!!

We just got our fingerprinting date!!! We go next Thursday, August 28 at 1pm to the CIS office in Norfolk! HOORAY!!!! After that, we wait for official approval, sent it to our agency, get it certified, and then SEND IT TO CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Recap

I've been bad about keeping up with posting recently, so here's some pics to recap what's been going on!

We received a quick notice from Immigration today again stating they received our application and that we would "soon" receive notice of when we need to get fingerprinted. I already knew that, but I guess some correspondence is better than nothing.

Reagan coloring...or eating the crayon...I'm not sure which.

Kings Dominion

Race!

At Maymont

Those are some big fish!

Jonah hiked up to the waterfall

Seriously?

I was cleaning out our coat closet and Jonah decided everyone needed "superhero "costumes.....I guess superheros tend to get a little chilly. Rush joined in on the fun too.

Jonah just finished his 2 weeks of swimming lessons! He did great! He can jump in and swim from one side of the pool to the other and lots more!

Sibling love...sometimes. I don't know what's up with Reagan's hair in this one! :)

Night Night!

Reagan is talking like crazy. She recently said her version of "football" and "spaghetti." Unfortunately, there's a lot of things she'll say a few times, and then won't say any more. By far, the cutest thing she says right now is "Mmm Hmm" for yes. She gives us her fair share of "no" as you can imagine. She also likes to come up to you with her lips puckered and give you a kiss followed by a big "Mwah!" She also took about 10 steps today. She's done a few here and there before, but this is by far the most we've seen. Of course, now she won't demonstrate any more of her skills! Oh well....I caught a little on video. Sorry it's sideways! Enjoy!

2 good books

I've actually made it through 2 books recently...well, ok, it's taken me a few months. Anyway, they're both about experiences of Chinese adoption and both are awesome. They are both written by journalists so their descriptions of the journeys, the details, the process, the country, the political situation, etc. are amazing , eye-opening, and thought provoking.

The first, China Ghosts by Jeff Gammage, was interesting to me because it was written from the perspective of a father. Most books I've read have been written by women, so this was definitely a nice change of pace. Their daughter was about 2 when they adopted her. When they first were united with her, they discovered a large gash on her head which no one could account for, no matter how much they tried to find out what happened. For a while, they even thought she might have brain damage. He describes so well his feelings of uncertainty, anguish, anger, and worry. His daughter turned out fine and they even adopted another little girl a few years later, but it was a great read. The next book, by Karin Evans, The Lost Daughters of China, goes into more detail I think about her pre-adoption journey, the wait, and the details within China and the political and social situation. Also a great read...and they also adopted a second time.
I read another book as well, Forever Lily (I forget the author's name) which was a little crazy for me...she had these weird dream sequences in which she came to believe she was a Chinese Empress in a past life and was killed after becoming pregnant by another man....yeah...a little distracting from the real story which would have been really interesting had it not been for the weirdness of the other stuff.

Anyway, I came to realize that all of these books were written by agnostics. I thought this was strange because it seems like a lot of people that adopt internationally, or at all, are Christians seeking to care for the fatherless as mentioned Biblically. So, where are all the books from a Christian perspective? I'm on the hunt now for a change of pace. Our faith is a huge factor in this process and in our decision to adopt so I'm curious to hear some other similar stories.

Boring.....

Not too much going on around here....hence, not much blogging. I guess I'll give a quick recap of recent events though....

• Jonah captured a grasshopper at his grandparents' house which has now become his pet of sorts. He named it "Pharaoh." Guess he's a little too into the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and the plagues.... I tried to take a picture, but let's face it, it's a bug.
• Reagan is still not walking....she weighs 26 pounds now. So, my back hurts.
• Jonah started swimming lessons today...he did great! He loves his instructor...Miss Sarah.
• Still no word from Immigration. :(
• Our front porch has the biggest spiders I've ever seen building their webs there at night.
  
• Comcast cable stinks so we now have Verizon FiOS! It rocks.

Really....that's it. Now you understand why I haven't been blogging???