Thankful

I am very overwhelmed today at the support we have in our lives.  Here are some things I'm talking about:

1. Jacinda's new speech teacher - For so long, we've been frustrated at Jacinda's lack of progress in her speech.  We knew she would be getting a new teacher this year, so we decided to hold out and see how that went before we decided what to do.  Going back to a private therapist would have cost us a lot of money because our insurance doesn't cover it any longer.  But if that's what she needed, we would have figured it out.

Her new teacher has been wonderful.  She told me today that she spent the weekend researching ways to best help Jacinda.  I am so grateful to this teacher for investing her time and energy into Jacinda.

2.  Luke's teachers - They are both just wonderful.  Luke is a pretty unique kid and his teachers have been so unbelievable in helping us figure out what works for him and making this a good school year for him.  The structure of this particular classroom is exactly what he needed.

Here's the really crazy thing.  When we first bought this house, I told Aaron that it was a good thing we'd be moving before Luke got to Kindergarten.  I said that there was no way our kids were going to school at this particular elementary school.  Yet here we are ..... God knew that these teachers were exactly the ones that both kids needed at this exact time.  Boy was I wrong.  Just another lesson for me to learn that God really does know better than I do what we need.

I am also thankful for everyone in our lives who is excited for Kenzi to come home.  You have all been so supportive and we are so moved by the love you all have shown us.  It will be hard to have 3 kids who all have very unique challenges, but God is with us and I know that everything will turn out exactly the way it's supposed to.  Our family has been missing a member and I can't wait until she's here and our family is complete.  Exactly the way it's supposed to be.

Kenzi's Middle Name ........ Part 3 of 3

A few weeks ago, I was starting to stress out about Kenzi's middle name.  We just couldn't come up with anything we loved.  We tried to find a Chinese name, but nothing seemed right.  Several names we liked just didn't sound right as a middle name with Kenzi.  So I started going through baby name websites and we talked about names all.the.time.  Nothing.

I LOVE the name Lorelei, and as much as I love it, Aaron does not.  No amount of discussing it was going to make him like it.  So I dropped it.  One night, I was looking at a list of family names and the name Sarah was on it.  Sarah is a classic name that we like, but Kenzi Sarah doesn't sound right to us.  Randomly, a song by Caedmon's Call popped into my head ... I thought it was called Saralai - pronounced Sarah-lie.  Aaron wasn't home at the time, and I just dismissed it as a silly thought.

The next day, we were all in the car, and Aaron decided to play that Caedmon's Call CD on my iPod (I hadn't said a single word to him at this point).  Before he picked up the iPod, he said we could use the name Saralai, just like the song.  At this point, I couldn't believe he came up with that on his own.  He finds the song and we were both WRONG. The song is called Sarala.  So we had a good laugh and went on about our day.

The next day, I brought up the name Saralai again.  We had a very brief discussion about it, but it was mostly along the lines of .... wasn't that funny that we both thought of the WRONG name?  We chuckled and then got distracted by something.

Maybe later that day or the next day, I asked Aaron if he would consider it as a serious contender.  We talked about it for a few minutes and looked it up online.  Well, we attempted to look it up online.  It's not a common name at all.  In fact, I don't think it's an actual name!

One thing we like about the name is that Sarah is a name that's in my family.  Sarah is also the name of a dear friend of ours who has helped us a lot with this adoption.  She has written recommendation letters quickly for us and made things for us to sell at our yard sales.  Even though she lives across the country from us, she has been such a good friend and we're thrilled that part of Kenzi's name will remind us of her.

So her full name will be ....... Kenzi Saralai Wolfe.  There you have it.  The long awaited middle name announcement!  Whew!  My brain is very happy to not have to worry about that any longer.  Now I can focus on freaking out about our packing list!!!!!

Middle Names - Part 2 of 3

Again, we decided pretty quickly on the name Jacinda.  It was a name we had heard and we both just loved it.  But her middle name caused many .... discussions.  Originally, we were sure she would be Jacinda Claire.  I'm not really sure why we decided against it.  At some point, we started discussing other options.  We decided not to use part of her Chinese name because her name was given by the orphanage workers just going down a list.

We put the name Jacinda Catherine on the paperwork we had to submit.  Catherine is Sherry's middle name.  I (Sherry) had always wanted to give my daughter the name Catherine because I figured I would drop it when I got married.  But when we got married, I ended up keeping all my names, so it wasn't as important to me to give it to her since I still had it after all.

So when we left for China, I think we were still debating between Claire and Catherine.  We weren't in love with either one, but we really just couldn't decide.  The second day we were in Beijing, we were having dinner at a Peking Duck restaurant with some colleagues of my dad's.  The girlfriend of one of the men there was named Kai-Li.  (We have no idea how she spelled it, though.)  After we got back to the hotel, we Googled various options for how to spell it and decided that night that her name would be Jacinda Kai-Li.  It is pronounced Kai-Lee.  It's not pronounced like Kylie, it's really 2 separate names.

Kenzi's story is coming soon!

Middle Names - Part 1 of 3

We are getting close to announcing Kenzi's middle name.  But first, we'd like to document the stories of how we chose the middle names for Luke and Jacinda.  Their first names were all chosen quickly, but their middle names have been the subject of much discussion each time.

When I was pregnant with Luke, we had TONS of girl names we liked and no boy names.  Several weeks before the "big" ultrasound, I just knew it was a boy.  Sure enough, at 16 weeks, the ultrasound tech told us it was a boy.  So we began the task of choosing a name.  I don't really remember how we decided on the name Luke, but I'm pretty sure it was Aaron that suggested it.  We decided pretty quickly that Luke would be his first name.  We looked up the meaning of Luke and it means "Bringer of light", which we thought was pretty appropriate, given our infertility history.  His middle name was not chosen quite as quickly, though.

We spent months talking and looking and debating and not deciding.  We were in the car, driving to Maryland for our baby shower and we decided to just spend the whole car trip discussing it.  We started with Bible names and just named Bible name after Bible name.  One of us said Isaiah ...... we put it with Luke ... Luke Isaiah and right there, in the car, decided that was it!  We had already told everyone his first name, but we decided to keep Isaiah a secret until he was born.  It was kind of fun having that secret all to ourselves for a little while.

In the next day or two, Jacinda's story!

Moving Right Along ......

The adoption process is moving right along.  Right now, our paperwork is at U.S. Consulate in China.  We will probably get Travel Approval in early November and then travel in late November or early December.  We're hoping to be home before Christmas!

Other updates ......
- We're working on some applications for adoption grants and no-interest loans.  If you'd like to make a donation to our adoption fund, we'd be very grateful.  We have paid all the agency fees, we just need money to pay for our trip.
- We think we have actually decided on Kenzi's middle name.  We're still discussing it just a little, so I will wait to share it until we're sure.
- Luke is recovering from a pretty bad bout of strep.  He missed an entire week of school.  So this week is like the first week of school again ... we're all trying to get back into the swing of things!
- Packing - There are strict weight limits for luggage these days, so we're working on paring down our packing list to only what we absolutely need to take with us.  We have pretty much everything, we just need to shop for a few more little things.

I-800 Approval!!!!!!!

We found out today that our I-800 form has been approved.  This is the U.S. approving us to adopt Kenzi!!!!  Next, a process takes place that puts Kenzi in the system to get a Visa to travel to the US.  Once the US has approved her Visa, China will issue us a Travel Approval.

We're looking at travel probably in early December, assuming everything moves along as it should.  Looks like we might get a GREAT Christmas present this year!!!

Long Time, No Post

It's been a few weeks since we've posted.  There's been a lot going on, but not much on the adoption front.

- We sent our applications away for Chinese Visas so that we can travel.  It's a bit nervewracking sending our passports to the Chinese Consulate, but it's necessary.
- We're waiting on the approval of our I-800 form with US Immigration.  This form approves us to adopt Kenzi.  Once that form is approved, a process gets started to notify the US Consulate in China that Kenzi is approved for a US visa.
- We're still looking at travel in late November or early December.
- Luke had strep last weekend.  Hopefully, he's just getting his sicknesses over now so that we can make it through the winter with minimal germs!
- Jacinda has been LOVING having Luke in school!  At first, she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself.  But she quickly realized that with Luke in school, she doesn't have to share her stuff!  So she's all over that situation!
- Luke is transitioning well in Kindergarten.  He's had a few issues, but his teacher is wonderful and she's really helping us figure out what will work best for him.
- I've been furiously sewing and crocheting.  Once the weather cools off, I love to crochet, so I've been going a little crazy!
- Hurricane Irene did come through our area.  Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as predicted.  We lost power for about 12 hours.  We also lost a tiny piece of the wood trim on the outside of our house.  Hubby and his dad fixed it with no problem.

I think that's it.  Hopefully the next few adoption steps will move quickly.  We're ready to get our little girl home!!!