To take the children or leave the children, that seems to be the question! Quite frankly, it seems to be a question to many but ourselves. Adoption is costly. The travel is costly. Being fortunate enough to take Colin, Pryce and Mason-Kate to meet their baby sister in China will be priceless. Colin and Pryce were 5 and 8 years old during our first trip to China. They each kept a journal of their experiences that they will one day be able to share with MK, experiences in China, her birth country, through the eyes of her then 5 and 8 year old siblings. Too, they each were given a camera and they each took pictures of the sites in China, again, as seen through the eyes of a 5 and 8 year old. Every single night as I lay in bed with MK, she now asks, "Can you tell me again a story about me when I was a baby in China?" The only "stories" I have of her time in China to tell are those that include all of us, her family. She knows we were all there, we all welcomed her into our family at the same exact time. It was a life changing moment for all of us. She will say, "I love that you got on dat plane to come get me with my boys and my daddy. I so happy you did dat." How can we deny that same story to our next child? How can we deny our children the opportunity once again to experience the joy of welcoming their baby sister into our lives - all of us together, our family - especially when our tender hearted little guy states to us that he wants to be the first one to hold her? Simply put, we can't. We are building our family. The children have been lugged all over our town and state to get this document certified or this document mailed. They have celebrated every step of the way, every minor detail as well as every major one. They have run eagerly to the mailbox daily to see if another letter has arrived or to see if we have received an approval. They have set up selling booths all summer, not at our suggestion, and sold their toys to make money for this adoption. It is like when I was pregnant with the boys. Ryan went with me to EVERY appointment and heard every detail along the way. Our children have done just that during our adoption. They could probably recite the entire process in their sleep - they are part of this process, the building of our family. That is the emotional side. The realistic side is quite clear, we do not have anyone to take care of all three of them, together, under one roof, for 2 1/2 weeks or more. Most people work. Most children go to school or daycare. Ours do not. They are with us, for the most part, 24/7 and would require just that, 24/7 care. Could we make it work? Yes, if we absolutely had to but at what expense? And logically, the travel costs for taking the three of them are really quite minimal in comparison to our adoption costs as a whole. We understand that all families and all situations are different. Ours is no exception. It is important to us, all of us, that we be together in China when our daughter, our baby sister, is welcomed into our family.

Our Week

• We played a game of hide and seek as a family. This proved challenging with a three year old and a dog. If the three year old did not give your spot away, the dog did!


• MK has asked over the past few days what orphanage the boys lived in. We have explained to her that they were born in the US. She still insists on locating their orphanage on the Chinese map. No luck with that yet :)


• Pryce lost another tooth and the Tooth Fairy was all out of Wonka Bars. Improvisions were put into place :)


• Pryce had his first piano lesson and loved it!


• MK began speech again. She hasn't been participating over the summer. Though there are still times that I do not understand a lot of what she says, she is using these big words and enunciates really well. All that said, she is currently working on the S sound. She announced yesterday that only boys can say the S sound, not girls.
• School continues to go well. Colin, thankfully, is enjoying his writing class. It is a program called Institute for Excellence in Writing. He participated last year and was a bit dismayed when I announced that I had signed him up for the class this year. It is challenging but something he is so capable of doing. After class this week, he talked the entire way home about what he had learned, the games they had played to reinforce the learning and how he had impressed his instructor with an alliteration he threw in his latest writing just for kicks. We began our homeschool adventure last year very unsure of how it would play out. We all agreed to one year and then we would assess the situation to see what we would do next. Last night I found myself praying that my children will continue to enjoy it as much every year as they are now! I love this time with them and I love learning with them and seeing their eyes light up when it all clicks together. Truly exciting!
• We are one document away from our dossier going to China! YAY!