Jie Ling's 1 Year Home Photo Show...

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Jie Ling's Reaction to PA!!!

I think Jie Ling was excited to hear the news of her little sister coming home!!(???????)

We Have PA!!!!!!!

We have pre-approval from China to bring home our little baby Xiao Ya!!!!!!!!

I am beyond excited, and can't wait to hold and love and be a mommy to this sweet and precious girl!!

Our I-600A Is Filed!!

Finally we made the drive over to Yakima to file our I-600A (this is the application for advance processing of orphan petition) deliver our homestudy, birth certificates, marriage certificate, and get our fingerprints. Brianna had to come with us this time since she's now 18! Now...all we need to do is wait to receive our I-171H (Notice of Favorable Determination) Basically our government saying it's okay to bring home our baby! This was a huge step, and as soon as we get our PA (pre-approval) from China, I'll be just about ready to send our entire dossier to China, and then hopefully get little C.J. Xiao Ya home before Christmas!!

3 Miles Is Too Long!!

Way too long of a walk for all of us in the sun, and for Jie Ling who wanted to be carried and refused to get in the stroller! (she lost and mom won) We did have a couple of surprises along the way; one adorable little frog, and three deer crossing the street.

Someone must have fed the ducks before us, as they weren't too interested in our food. It's a good thing though as Jie Ling wanted to eat her bread crumbs instead of sharing.

It was a beautiful day!

Woodland Park Zoo

A Perfect Day...

for the Woodland Park Zoo. It was pretty last minute, but what a perfect day to be out with the kids! Jie Ling was very into the animals, but oddly covered her nose even when the animals were behind glass, I can't believe what a little priss she was being! She was such a crack up, and stopped whenever possible to pick grass or lick the side of the water fountain? I was going to make her drink hand sanitizer, but thought better. She called every animal by name, and even kissed a gorilla through the glass. She loved the beautiful day as much as we did. She did scold a little boy in a little kid sized garden area when he tried to open the gate to come in. Apparently she was the gate keeper and no-one was coming in her garden. I had to use my pre-school voice to try and persuade her to let the little guy in, and then when that didn't work I hauled her little butt out of there and over to the pig pen. Mike gave one of the pigs a grape and I yelled loudly for the zoo keeper! I glared at him as everyone knows you don't feed the animals in the zoo!

Anyways, we had a great time and can't wait to do it again.