Gotcha Day 1 and 2

Jake's Gotcha Day Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

                                                

Here we are in Xi'an.  We're in the civil affairs office with "Jo" our coordinator and Jake's orphanage staff.

                    Joy's Gotcha Day - Jan 14th, 2013

 Gotcha Day was in the hotel room with "John", our coordinator, and Joy's orphanage staff.

 Joy, smiling for mom, during our tour of the springs.

Jinan is the city of springs.

It was freezing cold on this tour and we couldn't wait for it to be over.

 

Joy, signing the paperwork, at the civil affairs office.

She did a great job!

It took me awhile to get these few pictures loaded with 5 kids running around me.  We do have more pictures to share, but they'll have to wait.

Thank you so much to our friend, A.A., who brought an incredible dinner tonight!  The kids were asking for more after their 2nd and 3rd helpings.  

Things are going well.  All 5 kids are doing pretty well with the adjustment.  I'm not quite back to feeling normal yet with my body.  I know it'll take some more time to recover.
Thank you to all who have prayed for us & continue to pray for us.  

I'll try to keep posting on post-adoption life!
With love,

Marta's "We Love You" Treats

     Tom and Marta will be holding down the fort while we are gone.  As you probably can imagine, Marta is not to happy about mommy being the one who has to make the trip to China.  I know that I need to communicate to her how much we love her and will miss her.   So I decided to leave some small gifts for her to get while we are gone.

     I put dates on each bag so Tom will know when to give them to her.  The 1st one will be given on Mon, Jan 7th.  The next one, a week later, Jan 14th.  The 3rd one, on Sun, Jan 20th.  And then the last one, on Jan 24th, the day we come home.  This may be the hardest day because he don't get in until 9:30pm (if all goes well).

"The Present Bag" 

Packing, Copying, and a New Year!

We have 3 days until we leave for China!!!! We are all very excited, and just trying to make sure we have everything. Things are going well, but I am tired of packing. I think we have all packed our bags about...12 times.

On Friday, we'll eat lunch with our grandparents before going to the airport. Then we fly to New York.  Then from New York to Korea, then China. Thanks for your prayers!

Me copying my math to take on the trip

Our suitcase (Me & Joy)

Mom's stuff....right now

Dad wanted a picture of Shane and Marta. Silly girl!