To celebrate getting through the review room, we got together with friends and family at the Cork n Cleaver! My sister's threw this gathering together at the last minute...we were leaving in the morning for Doug's brother's wedding, so there wasn't much time. We feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our life that want to share these great moments with us.
I will never forget this night, or the days that immediately followed. I had finished putting the boys to bed and straightening up the house. Doug was watching TV and I decided to check my email one last time before I went to sleep. I opened my inbox and there it was. I had gotten an email from our agency with the following announcement:
The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before March 22, 2006.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before October 13, 2005
WE WERE THROUGH THE REVIEW ROOM!!! I jumped up and yelled for Doug. I made him read the announcement to me because I thought for sure I was reading it wrong (and I was already crying so hard I couldn't see the screen).
I had been hoping to hear that maybe, just maybe, we were in the "review room", but we weren't.....WE WERE THROUGH IT!! We finally had official approval from China. Our dossier had been moved to the "Matching Room". The excitement was overwhelming!!! I called my sister's at midnight to tell them (that's how late it was when I found out). I didn't sleep a wink that night! I laid in bed and had visions of my baby girl. I prayed that she was safe and warm. I wished there was a way to let her know we were one step closer to having her in our arms!
I put a time line on the top of my blog that starts with this approval. It will stay on there until we finally receive our referral.
are not bored right now. Why, you ask? Because there has been an outbreak of Chickenpox at the boys school. Most of the children who are getting them were immunized for this as a baby, but apparently the immunization does NOT last forever. So, one after another the kids are breaking out with the Pox! Jacob is actually quite proud of his pox. So, we took some 
pictures to show them off. For those of you who look at these pictures and start to wonder if we are feeding Jacob, I assure we are. The boy has a bionic metabolism (he gets that from me...ha ha).
Today was a total blast! Our good friends, The Johnson's, are moving back to Georgia (hopefully, only temporarily). Their son Colin is one of my boy's best friends! We decided to throw him a going away party in style. So, we passed out fliers at their school letting the kids know they were going to be picked up at the end of the day for a going away party! What they didn't know was that we had rented a Hummer limo for the big event. The kids were all lined up in front of the school when we pulled up with the windows rolled down and the music blasting...they all went nuts!! We drove around town singing and laughing and having a great time! We ended up at Fiddlesticks for go-cart rides and video games! It was so much fun...the kids loved every minute of it! WE WILL MISS YOU COLIN!
with her five grandchildren that live here. I have two, and Doug's sister Cori has three, one of which is the only girl in the family! We, of course, know that will be changing with the arrival of our sugarplum which is not coming fast enough.
around their pen. We also fed birds and the giraffes! It was a fun day. The boys and I promised to take our sugarplum there when she's old enough to enjoy it.
remodel the entertainment center he had built in our living room. This project went well and moved along rather quickly. I get real nervous whenever we
do a home renovation project. I can't stand living in a mess, so I'm usually pretty anxious until it's over. Earlier in the year we had remodeled the boys bedroom and playroom area of the house so that we could create a bedroom for our baby girl. That was a BIG project, and it kind of burned me out. This one was much less overwhelming. Doug had plenty of help from the boys as well. He is training them to be little "do-it-yourselfers". They already know how to use most of the power tools in this house, including a skill saw! It's fun to watch them work with Doug. They are both very detailed and take a lot of pride in their work!
