It's official!!!

We received final approval from the CCAA on Monday, November 16th! This is moving so fast! Thank you Lord for this beautiful boy! It almost feels like a dream that we are getting a son. We have a lot of be thankful for this holiday season.

Ms. sassafras is obsessed with Rudolph (and his lit up nose, of course) and cannot wait for Christmas. I know - let's get through Thanksgiving first. I agree. It is so cute though, and she found out about the ol' naughty and nice list from Santa. Oh yeah, all of us moms know to put that into our bag of tricks to encourage good behavior....

Okay, I won't keep you in suspense any longer....

And.....

Here he is.......

Sweet boy. We CANNOT wait to meet you!!!!!

drumroll please.....

So, time has passed, and I am happy to report that Miss sassafras is fever free! Yes, we are excited too. An ill child makes Motherbird very worried. And I am happy to report that the virus was not spread at all throughout the house.

This upcoming Thursday will mark the three week point since we have gotten pre-approval on our son, who Miss sassafras calls "Big brudder". Our social worker told us that a final approval is generally received within three to five weeks, so hopefully it won't be long. We can't wait to see an updated picture and get Big brudder's measurements so that we can start getting him some clothes to wear. So exciting!

It's that time of year...

Well, the virus bug has offically hit the household. Miss sassafras woke up yesterday morning with a temperature of 101 after having had some mild cold symptoms since last Thursday. And she had been doing so well keeping healthy, really since the early summer. Thankfully, her fever broke early this morning and we will just monitor her to make sure that she continues to be on the mend. Funny how she acts just like our pediatrician at home doctoring all of the babies, and then when we got to the office this afternoon, it was nothing but drama. Crocodile tears. Can't blame the child - I don't like people looking in my ears or down my throat either. The good news is it's probably not H1N1 based on her symptoms. The pediatrician did say that the H1N1 virus is vicious - some of her patients have had temperatures of 105 degrees, not easily responding to fever reducing medications. Very scary.

One great thing is that we told the pediatrician about her big brother, and she was so excited and said that she would accept him as a patient after I prompted the question. I don't think she is accepting new patients, so that is a huge blessing. We just love that woman for the way she is with all of the children, and of course, her intelligence.

So now we just have to pray that daddy and myself don't get sick next, as I am hearing stories of these illnesses traveling to each member of the family. Time will tell.

We have a son and some fall fun

So I'm jumping into this blogging thing to follow our second adoption journey and the day to day life of our spunky 3 year old daughter, who I'll call Miss sassafras.

We are so excited to announce our referral for our second child - a boy! He is from Guangzhou, China, and he just turned 7 years old in September. Our request was submitted to China electronically on October 25, 2009. We were over the moon to get the pre-approval on October 29,2009. We hope to have a final approval by Thanksgiving, and hope to travel to China in March of 2010. We knew instantly that God had completed our family.

So yesterday, it was a beautiful day in the midwest. The tree lined view from my kitchen window showed a beautiful display of golden yellow leaves peacefully falling to the ground. Miss sassafras was able to play in the leaves, and she absolutely loved it! She was throwing the leaves all around, and daddy even thought to put the plastic slide in the mix of the pile for some extra fun. Good times.