Nothing new....

I just wanted to add more Chewy pictures! He's being a very good puppy. We are very lucky!

I also added a picture of Grayson with Eanna. She adopted Chewy's brother on the same day.

Then there is a picture of Grayson and Jeff on Easter.

The last picture was taken at Shana's baby shower. She is due at the end of May!!

Grayson's new best friend...

Meet Chewy! He's 1/2 Maltese and 1/2 Shih-tzu. Only 3 pounds right now and will be 8 pounds fully grown. Here are a few pics and I am adding a short video of Grayson and Chewy playing in the backyard. Hope everyone can see it!

Since Chewy is only 8 weeks old, he still takes lots of naps which is very helpful during the transition period. The cats don't really know what to think yet..... :)

China in a nutshell... so far...

So as you can see from the dates on the right side of the page, our journey to adopt a little girl from China began (on paper) on 7/31/05 when we signed the application. Actually, we've thought about China for many years before then. We pray that we receive a referral this year. The group in front of us is expected to receive thier referrals sometime in May. That would mean that China is working on referrals for families that have Log In Dates (LIDs) in January 2006. Our LID is 2/20/06. We are the next group BUT they send referrals only 5-6 days at a time so it could be MONTHS before they reach Feb 20th, 2006 dates. China has become very, very, v e r y slow since January 2008 (like they weren't already slow - it actually got slower!) due to some govermental changes and updating their adoption program. It's all very confusing so it's hard for me to organize all the information.

Here is what our trip will look like when we finally get to go....
We fly into Beijing and stay for 2-3 days to complete paperwork, etc.
Then we fly to the Providence where our baby will be to pick her up. We stay there for 5 days. Then we go to Quangzhou for 5 more days and that is where we will fly out of to come back home.
Total days in China = 12-13

We are not matched with a baby until 6 weeks before we travel. The average age is 12 months old and it will definitely be a girl! We still have put her room together yet.. we have plenty of time to work on it. It's all here - just not all together.
When something changes, I'll definitely add it to my blog..

1st time blogging.....

I finally did it... I've become a "blogger." Stacey gave me inspiration with her great blog! I love reading her updates from England and since we've been waiting for our China referral for a LONG time, I thought it would be a great time to get this started. I'll try to give a China update every time I add something but usually there is nothing to report. Right now, we have one travel group in front of us... but it still could be the end of the year before we receive a referral. No time lines are guaranteed in this process. :-( It makes it very hard to plan anything but so far we have been on the China waiting list since Feb 20th, 2006 - 2 yrs and 2 months!

I can't believe Grayson only has a few months of kindergarden left!! He goes to swimming lessons once a week at Swim America in Bloomington and he really likes it. We've been on several play dates lately. I'm adding a picture of him and Nicholas at the Miller Park Zoo. Also, I'm adding a picture of Grayson with his classmate, Michael. They played at Anderson Park in Normal for hours!

Amy and I went to an Oprah show last week! It was really cool. We saw Jamie Lee Curtis and Salma Hayek. We weren't on TV but it was still awesome to see Oprah in person!

Grayson lost his 2nd tooth last week too! Very exciting stuff... :-)

Until next time!!

Love,

Shelly