BIG SURPRISE!

We were so surprised to get a call with a referral to consider. We accepted the referral with a BIG YES! She has a genetic condition called Thalassemia or Mediterranean anemia. Check out http://www.nohandsbutours.com if you want to know more. Look under the heading special needs and then look for the disorder Thalassemeia on the side. By going over the very little medical info that was sent in the referral it seems as if she has it to a mild to moderate degree...but there are also many variations to the disorder that she could have which we do not know. We are hoping to get more information. Hoping being the operative word.

Her Chinese name is Jin Yutian (soon will be Lauran) and she was born June 24th, 2006. She is 14 months younger than Megan. I will be using my blog to keep everyone posted on the progress of the adoption and when we will be traveling! We are Guessing the end of April...using the timeline our agency gave us for paperwork we now are waiting for....Pre-approval letter, letter of approval, Travel approval, etc..

All of us here are obviously very excited and feeling very thankful this Thanksgiving! We do ask all of you to pray for us. There are many unknowns with adoption and even more with special needs. She will be almost 3 when we get her and I am sure that will be hard on her. She was abandoned at 18 months and her referral noted her difficulty with strangers. So if you feel at all led to pray for us we would really appreciate it!! Specifically pray that God will help prepare her for the transition and for our kids and us to be prepared! Please also pray for her medical condition and her health!
Thanks so much!! Now for the pictures of our little cutie pie!!

Highlights of the Summer

I found some cute pictures today of some things we've done over the last few months. I had forgotten I had put some pictures on our other computer. My pictures are so disorganized it is not even funny! Anyways I thought I would post some of them.

September

Ryan's 9th Birthday party ~ roller skating!

Megan loved to skate, although the skates weighed more than her! I couldn't get Nathan to hold still for a picture!

In July we also tried camping this summer...in a TENT!! It went well other than Megan having bad reactions to mosquitoes...and getting a bite near her eye!

Ryan preferred the sand, swimming, diving...action stuff...over fishing.

Megan's first time fishing...she actually sat still for a little bit.

In August Todd, Nathan and Todd's Dad all went Charter fishing! Nice catch of salmon and trout :)

Grandpa and Nathan

Halloween

Just in case you can't figure it out...Nathan is an alien, Ryan is from Pirates of the Caribbean, and Megan is a princess. Megan did not like Nathans costume and was not happy about taking a picture with him.

Getting Pumpkins

One of my favorite activities with the kids is apple and pumpkin picking. Unfortunately it seemed like when ever we had time this fall we had bad weather. So I ended up just taking Nathan and Megan one day up to a nearby farm just to get already picked pumkins. Not as fun as picking them ourselves! Todd was at school and Ryan was at a friends house...which made it not as fun too:) But Megan and Nate had fun together and loved playing in the hay!

wind blown hair :)

A Fall Day in Cedarburg

Cedarburg is a cute town about 20 minutes away. It has beautiful scenery, cute gift shops and several ice cream and candy shops that the kids like to visit( Todd & I too)! We went there on a warm fall day to walk around! It was really pretty!! I wish every fall day was like this one! Unfortunately the leaves fall, it gets cold, and eventually the snow comes :( Oh well....something to look forward to every year I guess!

Brotherly Love!

Megan's Photo shoot :)

I have never had professional pictures taken of Megan(on my To Do list). So ocassionally I attempt to take some descent pictures of her outdoors. So these pictures are the results of that attempt. I thought they turned out cute. Some funny ones too :) These were done in August I believe!

Cooperating.....


Cooperating......


Still Cooperating.......



"hey...you watch out with that camera....I got sticks !!! "

I did not ask for that pose by the way...

The End!