Syd's favorite things.

Here's Syd wearing two of her favorite Christmas presents, A Broncos hoodie and a hat from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  And she's probably wearing her roller skates in this pic too.  None of these have come off since Christmas.  She got a tent from Santa and has been sleeping in it every night and all of her favorite things go in the tent with her-every night!  My favorite gift was a Build-A-Bear Unicorn from Syd.  When you stuff the critters, you can put a heart in it to help "bring it to life" and Syd put two hearts in, one for her and one for Alex.  How sweet is my kid?!

2 a.m.? Seriously?

At 2 in the morning not a creature was stirring, except for the strange creaking I hear on our steps.
I glance at the time as I hear the click of a light and think to myself, seriously? it is still night!
As I listen to James snoring, I find our daughter pouring over the gifts left by Santa earlier in the night.
I lead Syd to bed while shaking my head and tried to explain while I tuck her in tight,
That the sun's still asleep it's time for goodnight.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Winter Wildland

We went to the Christmas lights at the zoo tonight and had a great time.  It wasn't terribly cold or crowded for a change.  Syd and Teagan talked with Santa and Mrs Claus and then followed Santa around like puppies!  They got to make treats for the tigers stockings.  They attached the stockings to a zip line and slid them down to the tigers.  They had to climb up in a tree to get them, that was cool to watch!  I tried to get a picture of them, but they just don't hold still!

Care Package

We've gotten our Pre-Approval from China to adopt Alex so we can now send him a care package.  We're sending him pictures of the family, a new outfit, a camera, and Syd picked out a toy airplane and a blankie.  We're going to get him some toy keys also, Syd held onto her toy keys the entire time we were in China when she was a baby.  Maybe Alex will like them just as much.  Our agency has given us the address for the orphanage in Chinese and English and also Chinese translations for mom, dad, big sister etc... so the nannies can tell Alex who we are.  We're also sending the nannies some lotions, which is not much, but we will take them more when we travel.  It's the least we can do for the women that have been caring for our son!

CCAI

We got to go to CCAI to get Alex's (his new name!) file so Syd could experience the whole "match day" feeling.  They had "It's a Boy" signs up and we got to find his orphanage on the map.  Lily was there so we got a picture with her also.  Syd had a lot of fun and was thrilled to tell everyone about her new baby brother!

IT'S A BOY!!!!

After nearly 4 years of waiting, we are so excited to announce that we have a son!!  He is adorable!  Can you believe those cheeks?  Our LOI has been sent to China and we hope to travel by the end of February.  Chinese New Year is on February 14 so that may delay things a bit, but as you know, it's a new waiting game.
Here's some info on our son. 
Name: Dang (surname) Li (resolve) Zhi (to be determined)  soon to be Alex Li Zhi
DOB: March 8,2009
Province: Henan
Orphanage: Luohe Lily Orphan Care Center
LID: 5-16-06
MCC: 8-18-09
Match day: 12-1-09