Fabric

We have received more fabric in the last 2 weeks. We are so grateful. Thank you all for your wishes & fabric. Ethan is going to love seeing how loved he is even before he's home.

Keep the good wishes & fabric coming! :-)

P.S. My Princess Journals has been updated. I do not know why it does not show up on the side as being updated. Tons of photos of the girls.

Until next time....

UPDATES!

I received updates on Ethan today. I'm so happy. No photos yet. The orphanage said they would send some. I pray it's soon. Angela (the lady getting the updates for me) said that she thinks they are having issues with their internet.

He is 17 pounds 6 ounces and 25.5 inches long. He's little.

By comparison, Abby at 14 months was 21.3 pounds and 30.25 inches tall.

He has 4 teeth on the bottom and 3 teeth on top.

He is crawling. He's not walking yet.

He likes to play with all kind of toys.

He eats formula, rice cereal, fruit & crackers

He drinks Nestle formula & Duo Wei Dan Nai rice cereal

He has a friend. His mom & I met on the yahoo group. Max is 3 weeks older than Ethan. It's nice knowing that they are friends.

I'm so happy to get this info. Now I hope we get photos very soon. :-)

Until next time...

Happy 1st Birthday Ethan!

I've been thinking about this day for weeks. Wondering how I would feel. And right now I am sad. I'm sad because we're missing his 1st birthday. Sad that he's not home to celebrate.

But then I think about what is to come, and I am happy. I'm happy knowing that in a short time he will be home, in our arms FOREVER. I'm happy because he will never spend another birthday in an orphanage. I'm happy because I know God is caring for him while we are not with him.

We are going to celebrate today. We're going to have cupcakes and sing Happy Birthday to him. I'm going to have the girls make him a picture.

And I'm praying that tomorrow, or at least someday this week, I get updates on him.

So until then, HAPPY BIRTHDAY precious boy! We love you and we can't wait to meet you.

UPDATE: We had a little party this afternoon. The girls did make a picture for Ethan. And we had cupcakes in honor of his birthday. Here are a few photos...

Notice from USCIS

We received in the mail today a notice saying that USCIS has received our I800 (Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative). This is good news. This means they are working on our file and they have our address and can contact us if they have any questions.

Now they process our petition, then send it off to the US Consulate in China.

We've been waiting 2 weeks now. Hopefully we'll get TA within 5-7 weeks MAX.

Just keep praying.......

And his name is......

Ethan William Junhua.

The travel papers are filled out for our agency. Bill told me it was my decision on the name. He did not have a preference. So I decided to use his full name. It means "handsome and outstanding".

We have chosen to have our agency take care of our Visa's. We are also going to do Beijing again. I wanted to originally skip this part, but then I thought about it. Maybe I'll actually get to enjoy the city this time because I won't have any kids with me to worry about. Plus I want to have the time to get to know some of the other travel group families. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to climb the Great Wall! :-)

We are almost 2 weeks from RA. It is going by fast. Praying we hear about TA in Nov.

Still hoping and praying for updates. It's been a week since I ordered them. I hope to get an email very soon.

Until next time....

Name

This week we received a stack of papers that we need to fill out and return to our agency. It's our travel papers. No, we are not traveling yet. But we need to fill everything out so when we do get our travel approval, we'll be ready to go.

Well they want to know what we are naming our child. Bill & I talked about not including Ethan's Chinese name. But I've changed my mind. I think we should. We did for the girls.

I'm not sure what to use. In his referral, it says Junhua. But our agency put it as 2 names: Jun Hua. Do we name him Ethan William Junhua, or Ethan William Jun, or Ethan William Hua? Do we leave William in his name? Or just name him Ethan Junhua? Jun means "handsome". Hua means "outstanding". I'm not sure.

I also ordered updates on Ethan. I hope to get updated measurements on him, and praying for updated photos. I was also allowed to ask 10 questions. I hope to get the update within the next week or two. Once I do, I'll post it here.

I think the next 2 months will go by fast. It's already been 10 days since we received our RA. That has gone by fast.

Until next time......

Quilt Fabric

We have received more fabric this week. The first was from my friend Antje. It is from Germany (where Antje is from). We are so excited to have fabric from Germany. Thank you Antje and family.

The second is from my parents. Thank you mom & dad. We love the bright colors. I know it will be perfect in his quilt.