Slowly, slowly...Step By Step

Well, I know it has been a long time since our last post, but in the adoption world there is a lot of paperwork and even more...waiting! In our wait we try to remain patient and remind ourselves that God is in control of everything...even His perfect timing, but it still doesn't make it any easier for sure! Everyday that passes, Jax gets a little bit older and we just want to have him here in our arms so he doesn't get another day older without the love of his forever family!

We did want to update you all to let you know that things ARE moving along with our adoption of Jax. We have had a couple of timeline setbacks with a couple of paperwork items, but nothing out of the ordinary. We are just waiting for our paperwork to finish up the authentication process at the Chinese consulate here in the U.S. and then we will finally be DTC, which stands for Dossier to China. At this point, everything is done on our end and the rest is a waiting game for China to send us our Approval letter that we can adopt Jax and then of course some more waiting after that for some more official paperwork jargon and then we will get our Travel Approval and then travel a couple of months after that. So, we were initially hoping that we might travel around Christmas, but it looks more like it will be after the first of the year and even into February or March. Much the same time frame that we traveled for Jaida, unless we hit some better averages this time around in our waiting process! We can always hope!

We did receive some updated measurements for Jax a few weeks ago and from what I can tell we are not only going to have virtual twins based on age, but it looks like Jaida and Jax are currently about the same size with regards to height, weight, chest size, head size, and foot size. Actually, Jaida may be slightly bigger than Jax right now as she is getting really good nutrition over here and he is not. So, we will have some fattening of Jax to do when we get him home.

Well, the summer has been a whirlwind for us and it is hard to believe that the kids start back to school in two days, but I think they are as ready to head back to school and their friends as I am to have them go back to school! We have had a fun summer with wrestling camps, running club, golf leagues, church camps, mission trip to Beaumont, TX, vacations to Omaha, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, the lake, grandparents, and Trish's 20-year high school reunion in Montevideo, MN! We have truly not had a spare moment, but at least the kids can't go back to school and say they had a BORING summer!!

Now, as we head back into the fall, Mikayla and Ty will be sophomores in high school this year, Josh in the 3rd grade, and Jaida will continue at her preschool programs and speech therapy. Josh has decided to play football this year, so practice has begun for that. Shon is the assistant coach for his team, so Josh loves that! Mikayla is going out for the Girls' Golf Team again and will start practice on Tuesday and Ty will have some free time until Wrestling season starts later towards the winter. He will be busy with his Debate class and Chess Club. Of course, we are also venturing into teaching our twins how to drive this fall as they get their driving permits and take driver's education. Wow, I never thought I would be at this point in my life where we are dealing with driving, dating, and all of those "wonderful" teenage issues, but here we are in the midst of it all and there is no turning back now! My one-pound preemies are now taller than me and I wonder where the time went!

Hope you enjoy our family update and I hope to have more frequent posts as our adoption journey moves along. We hope this finds each of you well and know that you are thought about often!