Grayson's Cousins...

Kyle and Joe helping Grayson celebrate his birthday - Cousins at Gma Quinlan's house

Elizabeth, Logan and Grayson - Cousins at Gpa Schofield's house

Baby Johnny (Grayson's newest cousin at Gpa Schofield's house)

Cousin's at Gma Bittner's house

Caitlin, Calvin, and Grayson at Gma Bittner's house

more stuff to do....

I've been so busy this week with China paperwork. I'm having "issues" with receiving my RE-approval (for the 3rd time) for my I-171H form. I have to have this approved as soon as my travel arrangements come in or they can't book our flight! It's been a long story that I don't want to re-hash (ever!). I've written letters to two IL senators to get my approval to the top of the stack! I hope to get this resolved next week.

Today was an icy day and school was closed... Here are some pics from our yard....

I thought the trees looked so pretty. We were lucky to have power today. My mom's power went off around 11am. Hope they get it back soon! We have the Bittner Christmas tomorrow in Paw Paw so I'm sure i'll have more pictures with the cousins to post next week. :)

Finally ~ December 10th was Referral Day!!

We finally were able to see our daughter's face yesterday for the 1st time after waiting over three long years!! Please meet Wang Lan Xiang a.k.a. Aleigha Clare Lan Bittner!!!!

She was born on January 25, 2008. She has been in the Social Welfare Institute of Yujiang County in Jiangxi Province. These pictures were taken when she was approximately 6 months old on July 5th, 2008. We hope to receive updated pictures in a few weeks but we still can't believe that we can see her picture!!! We pray that we can travel to pick her up in January or early February. We'll receive more details on the travel dates in a few weeks as well. I have found it very difficult to sleep since seeing her pictures. I have so much on my mind!

SNOW!!!!

Our 1st snow of the winter..... already!!

Dozin' with the Dinos!

Chicago Field Museum - we arrived at 5:45pm.....

Here is story time with Sue the Dinosaur at 11pm!

Grayson made an Egyptian mask.....

Here's our sleeping area that Grayson chose in front of the Polar Bears!

Grayson, Jeff and I spent the night at the Chicago Field Museum! It was so much fun. We got there at 6pm last night and left at 8:30am this morning. There were activities until midnight then lights out at 1am. We were able to sleep anywhere on the 1st floor wherever there was carpet. We brought sleeping bags and air mattresses. Some people brought tents and some people just slept on the floor with their sleeping bags. There was story time next to Sue the Dinosaur at 11pm. Snack time and activity stations before that and an Indian story teller. Grayson thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was his birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa Quinlan. The museum has overnight stays about 10 times a year and it's for kids between the ages of 6 and 12. There was 700 people there last night. It sounds like a lot but the museum is so huge, it's really not that many people. And the activities were just options, you could just look around the museum if you wanted until 1am! I think everyone was asleep by midnight though since it was all families with kids under 12, no one could stay up that late!! :)

Grayson's 7th birthday!

We had a bowling party for Grayson's 7th birthday party. We had 20 kids there!! We rented 4 lanes and had a side room for gifts and cake. Thank goodness for Amy Johnson because she used her awesome 2nd grade teaching skills to keep all the kids in line and following rules! THANK YOU, AMY! :)

Grayson had a great time and I'm really glad that it's over! It was a Star Wars theme and Jeff made the General Grievous cake and cup cakes with candy light sabers. It was the hit of the party!

Grayson's actual birthday is on November 27th.. which happens to be Thanksgiving this year so we'll be celebrating again with family in a few days!

Shana and Johnny stayed the night with us so I've added pictures from this morning too. He's getting to be such a big boy-- almost 6 months old already!! Such a cutie-pie. :)

How much can one person take??!!!

OK... we're still expecting to receive our China referral in December. HOWEVER, we probably won't be traveling until February to pick her up. This is all guessing, of course, but i'm not going to "expect" anything to happen when it comes to this adoption. Chinese New Year begins Jan 26th through Feb 7th. EVERYTHING closes during this time period. I talked to our adoption agency today and she said they used to get travel arrangements 2-3 weeks after the referral was accepted. However, the last two groups took 4 weeks to get their Travel Dates- and the dates were 2-3 weeks after that... With the Chinese New Year in the middle of that, it probably won't be until after their new year is over. I'm still checking the China Rumor Queen website several times a day because I'm addicted to it now. Right now, all she is saying that we should expect the next batch of referrals between December 1 to December 15th --- That doesn't say much at this point!!!!

clothes!

I broke down this weekend and bought some baby girl clothes! I'm guessing we'll need 6-9 mo clothes... but i kept the receipt just in case!

I can't figure out why the bottom picture won't turn?! It's the right way when I upload it and then it changes direction?? Anyway, aren't they sooooo cute????!!!! :)

Confirmed Disappointment...

On Friday, it was confirmed that we are not receiving our referral this month. The cut off was 1/17/06 - the 18th and 19th were weekend days so they missed us by 1 day. The good news is we know that we will receive our referral in the beginning of December and then travel to China to pick her up in January 2009. That means we were on China's list for exactly 3 yrs!! Not to mention it took us 6 mo before that to get all the docs needed to send to China. :( At least we'll have her picture before Christmas to share with family and friends and we can start shopping for her!!! :) We've started working on her room this weekend. We've got tons left to do but it keeps us busy while we wait. Grayson is telling everyone that he's getting a new baby sister. He's excited too!

Disappointed....

It doesn't look like we're going to receive a referral this month from China. As of today, it looks like the cut off is the business day before our Log In Date. There is still a slim chance of us receiving a referral in the next few days but it doesn't look good right now. We are so disappointed. We really thought this was our month finally. No one has any information about why they took a whole month to only get through 2 LID days but so far, that's what it looks like. As soon as the cut off date is official, I'll post another update.....

Grayson updates...

I haven't posted much about every day life lately so I thought I'd add some picture of things happening in Grayson's world right now!

Here are a few pictures from Cougar Pride Night at Praireland last week... This is Principal Arnold with Sawyer and Grayson... Here we are with Grandma and Grandpa Quinlan...
Here are 3 of Grayson's friends from school - Kristyana, Claire and Michael - with Grayson...

I'm also adding a few pics from Grayson's soccer game on Saturday. He plays on the Prairie Cities Soccer League. His team is all 6 yr old boys...

Here are a few pics of Grayson and his friends, Megan and Eliza. We went to the Non-Scary Haunted Trail in Normal yesterday. They had a great time! All three of them went to pre-school together and still love to hang out...

We're all anxiously awaiting to hear about our new addition to the family right now. The rumor is that we'll recieve her picture and information some time between October 31st- Nov 6th. I will let everyone know as soon as we get the call!!!

Disney - 30 years later...

Me and my dad at Disney World in 1978....








Me and Grayson at Disney Land in 2008....

California vacation!

Jeff, Grayson and I went to California the last week of September. We were in San Diego the 1st 1/2 of the week and Laguna Hills during the 2nd half. We stayed with Bill and Marianne while we were in Laguna Hills. We went to Legoland, Sea World and Disney Land! Disney was our favorite. Here are a few pics... (and, yes, that is Grayson fighting with Darth Vador!)

October China update....

China referred babies up to 2/15/06 - which is still good news. That is 5 days away from our 2/20/06 LID. AND in 2006, there is 2 weekend days in those 5 days so if China can get through 3 more business days in their November referrals, then we'll receive our referral! Our agency is pretty confident that we'll get our referral in the beginning of November and travel in mid - December. I really hope they are right! That would be a great Christmas gift..... :)

We just returned from our California vacation and we're working on organizing our pictures. Once I download them, I'll post some here. We had a great trip!

China....

We are currently waiting for our I-600a form to be extended another year. Even though it's our 3rd time of doing this, there is a new form that must be approved by the DCFS regarding our homestudy. There is nothing wrong.. just a new form. This new form must be received by October 15th or we would have to start the form all over again which would be terrible! Our social worker says that she's confident it will be approved by then. There is a rumor that China may get to 2/17/06 in their October referrals. We should find out the 1st week of October. If that is the case, then it's almost positive that we would receive our referral in November because that is only 3 days away from our date. I guess we better get started on getting her room ready! :-)

Sept China update...

China has completed referrals for Feb 1-9th, 2006. Soooo... they have to get through 11 more days for us to receive a referral! (reminder: we are 2/20/06) I have a feeling that it will be November when we finally see a picture of our baby girl... and then travel 6-8 weeks later. We'll see but at least it's moving forward. :)

1st spelling test

Grayson had his 1st spelling test today and he received 100% AND the "Best Handwriting Award!" We're going out to eat tonight to celebrate. He worked very hard this week practicing his spelling words. :-)

1st day of school

Grayson had a good 1st day of 1st grade! He has his own desk this year which is exciting (instead of tables). I didn't get much else from him. He wasn't in the mood to talk. I think he was exhausted! He said PE was boring because the teacher talked about rules that he already knew and they didn't get to play. :-)

OH.. one other thing - he didn't like wearing his "fancy pants" to school. He just wanted to wear jean shorts "like all the other kids." He never wants to wear "fancy pants" again!!! LOL

China update.... :(

Well, August is not a good month for China adoption referrals.. thanks to the olympics. They only matched 2 days in Aug - the average has been 6-7 days a month. They are now up to to LIDs on Jan 27th, 2006. We need China to get through a little over three weeks before they get to our LID of 2/20/06. It sounds so close.... but then so very far away... seeing they are taking a whole month to get through 2-6 days of referrals. Maybe I'll have better news next month.

Spa day!

We celebrated Stacey's birthday with a girls day at the spa today! We had lunch at Moe's Grill and then headed to the spa for facials, pedicures and/or manicures all afternoon. After the spa, we hung out at Stacey's house and ate more food! It was a good day!!!! :)