fingerprinting and a retreat

We got our fingerprinting letter this week which informed us that our appointment is scheduled for next week. After we are fingerprinted, we have to wait while the immigration people make sure we are not criminals. The approval form that they will send is an essential piece of paperwork that will go to China. One more step in the long journey....

This past weekend we spent with many of our Eastern Ave CRC friends up at AuSable Institute for a winter retreat. Here are some pictures from our weekend!

Happy Gotcha Day!

Today is Meili's "Gotcha Day" and our "Family Day." (There are a lot of great names to remember this kind of special day.) Today is the day that Meili joined our family. It's been two years already! Here are a few pictures from that Meili's gotcha day in 2007 and a few pictures taken this week. She sure has changed!

We first met Meili in Hangzhou and held her for the first time.

in a taxi going back to our hotel

hanging out with Daddy


We tried really hard to tire Meili out the first night so we could get her to sleep.
She sat this way for a long time and finally just tipped over in exhaustion.

Meili in her princess getup singing "Hallowed Be Thy Name"

and a song she made up called "You are Lipstick."


Happy Chinese New Year 2009!!!

Meili's first day

Here we see one happy kid who just finished her first day of preschool. Aside from an accident early in the morning (her legs are too short to reach the preschool-sized potty) she had a wonderful day!

exciting news...

We're expecting! We've started the process to adopt another baby from China! Not sure if it will be a girl or a boy and will be excited either way! We completed our home study this past December and now are waiting for U.S. Immigration services to complete some paperwork. We'll updated progress here on our blog!

Some other exciting news is that Meili starts preschool tomorrow. She's been going to a speech preschool two mornings a week this year but now she'll be going full days, M-F. I'm excited because she is coming to Oakdale so we get to walk to school together each morning! Meili packed her lunch and backpack tonight before bed. She is pretty excited for tomorrow!

manners

We spend a lot of time talking about manners with Meili - especially saying "May I please have..." instead of saying "I want..." The other day I asked Meili what kind of soup she wanted for supper and she said, "Want is a bad word, mama. It's not using your manners." How precious!

fall photo shoot

showing that she's three years old

Happy 3rd Birthday Meili!

Meili loved frosting and decorating the cake!

playing with her new dollhouse

what a great helper!

playing games

Halloween pictures

Robinettes

Cool weather, beautiful fall colors, apple cider, donuts and pie make this my favorite time of year!

those little moments

There are great moments where your kid says something cute, or funny, or makes a really interesting observation. I love those moments. Meili and I were walking the dogs yesterday and this was part of our conversation...

Meili: Look Mama, the little moon came out today.
Me: Oh. Where do you think the big one went?
Meili: He is hiding.
Me: Oh, why is he hiding?
Meili: So we don't peek at him.

what a great kid!

Meili started preschool two weeks ago. She's not there full time - she just goes to a special speech/articulation program two mornings a week. Her teacher, Miss Chris, says that Meili is an absolute joy and a blast. We didn't get a picture of her getting on the school bus the first day. (Sorry Mom! They pick her up from daycare!) Meili seems to love that part of going to preschool too! She has about a 25 minute bus ride back and forth. We're starting to think that she sleeps on the way back each time because she hasn't been taking naps when she gets back to daycare. (Thanks for the cute slippers Dennis and Kendall!)

Moon Festival

We celebrated the Moon Festival last week by getting together with a group of families who have children from China. Here's a description of the festival, and then some pictures from our celebration.

"The Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar, and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as: Eating moon cakes outside under the moon and carrying brightly lit lanterns (or glow sticks)."

eating a moon cake

getting ready to send balloons up to the moon

camping again!!!

Labor Day weekend we took one last camping trip to Mackinaw City. We went to our new favorite campground and had a marvelous time. The weather was just beautiful - people near us said it was the nicest weekend in Mackinaw City all summer. We camped with our pop-up this time - we had our three dogs along and didn't want them escaping from the tent!

Meili enjoys sitting in her camping chair at the campsite. Thanks Oma!

Catching a wagon ride at the campground...

Swimming in the Straits of Mackinaw/Lake Huron...

Riding the ferry to Mackinaw Island... Meili loved her first boat ride.

Biking around the island...

We caught a great sunset over the Straits of Mackinaw & Lake Michigan when we rode the ferry back one night.

We did the Labor Day bridge walk over the Mackinaw Bridge. Meili was super grumpy because she didn't fall asleep until after 10 the night before and we woke her up at 6AM to get to the bridge on time. We were blessed with another beautiful day!

We were blessed with many wonderful camping trips this summer. Last night we cleaned our camper, packed it up and pushed it into the garage. It's sad to be done with camping season. Can't wait until 2009!