Gotcha Day!

Three years ago today we headed over to the Civil Affairs office in Hangzhou, China to meet our daughter Meili. Today we celebrate three years together as a family! What a precious blessing from God!

Gotcha Day, January 30, 2007

Celebrating Gotcha Day with delicious pancakes!

finally gone sledding...

still happy!!!

He really is this happy... a lot! Such a precious little boy!

happy and sleepy!

Hanging out in the kitchen one day last week...
Willem is such a happy little kid!

Meanwhile, in the other room,
Meili falls asleep while reading Amelia Bedelia.

a little wintertime story

This is the school.

This is the girl who goes to the school.

This is the sled all shiny and red that I use to bring the girl to the school.



This is the brother who rides along in the sled while we bring the girl to school.

This is the ice all over the road on the way to bring the girl to the school.

This is the bruise I got on my knee when I fell on the ice
while pulling the sled to bring the girl to the school.

This is what I ordered to wear on my shoes when I pull the sled over the ice on my way to bring the girl to school!!!

THE END!

a happy little boy!

Merry Christmas!

another doctor visit

Willem saw the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor today. The doctor looked in both of Willem's ears really carefully. He had to clear some fluid out of one of them which Willem really hated! Willem has two perforated ear drums and it looks like he has another ear infection. We're starting him on another round of anti-biotics and ear drops. Willem's ears need to be cleared up before they can put ear tubes in. Right now the doctor's are hoping to coordinate his oral surgery and ear tubes so he only has to be anesthetized once.

As far as life in general... We're getting into a good routine with naps and sleeping at night. Thankfully, Meili and Willem take their afternoon naps at the same time which gives us some time to clean up or just to hang out and relax. The two of them are getting along so well. Willem makes all of us laugh with his funny faces and crazy waving arms!

doctor visit

Willem is doing great. Yesterday he had his first doctor appointment. The doctor checked him all over, weighed him, etc. She said he seems pretty healthy and that we can expect to see a lot of changes over the new few months as he starts to get caught up. She checked his ears to see if the infection is better. Like we had guessed, both ear drums are perforated so we need to get ear tubes in asap. He's 20.8 pounds so we were able to turn his car seat around to face the front. That's nice because now we can see him while we're in the car and it's much easier to get him buckled in.

Willem's a great eater - finished off two pancakes this morning. We're glad that he has such a great appetite and does not have a hard time with solid food. We're sticking with soft stuff and so far he's been able to push food back with his tongue and swallow it. He has two molars coming in which he's already starting to use to chew things.

We have a new nephew (name still being decided) born to my sister Jana and Cory this morning. We can't wait to meet him later today. Willem and the new baby will both meet one set of grandparents for the first time today!

Merry Christmas everyone!

What a happy baby!!!

Willem is such a happy baby. We are adjusting well to being a family of five. Here are a few pictures of our new little boy!

We're home!!!

Hey, we're back from China. Here's a new picture of our family!

Our Travel Blog

This is the website we'll be updating while we are in China.

http://www.youbelong.net/invisiblethread





Our Itinerary
Nov. 29--depart Grand Rapids
Nov. 30 - Dec 3--tour Shanghai, fly to Beijing
Dec. 4th--Gotcha Day!
Dec. 5-11--adoption paperwork and touring
Dec. 11--fly to Guangzhou
Dec. 12--medical exam
Dec. 14--visa appointment
Dec. 15--take oath at consulate
Dec. 16--pick up visa
Dec. 17--fly home!

We're going!!!

We got a call today that we'll get Willem on December 3. That means we need to travel to China late Thanksgiving weekend. We don't know the dates for sure yet. We'll post updates with our travel times and the travel blog we'll be using in China. Praise God!!!

traveling???

Lots of Travel Approvals have been coming in this week for people who are at the same point in the process as us. The travel dates are November 30-December 12 for one family and December 5-December 26 for another. Maybe we'll hear something this week! That would be so exciting!!!

something completely different

I love my dogs...


and my little girl!

December???

So... our travel phone call didn't come yet. It's been about two months since our final paperwork went to Guangzhou. Normally, people get their travel approval between 60 and 80 days after their final paperwork is sent over. We were really hoping to travel before Thanksgiving but now are hoping we'll be able to go before Christmas. A family who got their travel phone call today was given travel dates of November 30-December 17. That's already getting really close to Christmas!

We trust that God has his hand in all of the steps of Willem's adoption. This last part of waiting is still so hard. We're ready to go and just want to get Willem home.

meet "Sophia" the puppy

still waiting

different website

We have our passports back with Chinese visas ready. Now, if only we'd get the phone call saying our travel has been approved. We're just WAITING for that!!!

That website I listed last time will not be the one that we use when traveling. I found out that wordpress is also blocked in China right now. We'll set something up later with a different blogging website. A friend in China is trying to help us find a good one.

For now, stay tuned, we hope to hear our travel dates SOON! This girl is ready to go!

Travel blog

We've been told that firewall in China is blocking Blogger right now so we've created a blog that we can update while we are in China. Feel free to bookmark this new site if you'd like to check in on us while we're gone.

http://invisiblethread.wordpress.com/

Today we sent the applications for our travel visas for China. We still don't know what our travel dates will be but we're trying to get this kind of stuff ready. We've got a large suitcase sitting open in Willem's room and are starting to gather stuff there. Once our travel appointments are made, we might not have a lot before we travel and there will be a LOT of preparation to do at work and at home.

This week all government offices are closed in China for a national holiday so we don't expect to hear anything yet. Hoping we hear something soon!