TA!!!!

We just got word from our adoption agency that our Travel Approval from China was mailed today!! We will be leaving to go get Amy in China within the next 2 weeks!!!! We still won't know for sure when we leave until we get a Consulate Appointment from the US embassy in China. Hooray, we're almost there sweetie, hang in there!!

BTW, if anyone has any frequent flier miles they could donate to us, that would be a huge help, still trying to figure out how to GET to China.

Karianne rides a bike!

Found a bike and a helmet for $5 at a yard sale today. I brought it home and Karianne jumped right on it and didn't take long at all to figure out how it works and she was cruising in no time. Here she is in front of our house with her daddy.

Happy *0th Birthday Marielli! We love you so much!

24hrs

In the last 24hrs We went to Cicis and took our picture in the parking lot because the flowers were so pretty, I made Angie a princess skirt because she thinks she is a princess and Lucy helped us plant some flowers in the back yard!
And my Grandma had a birthday! happy birthday Grandma, I love you!

This is so funny to me, Angie has always been so tiny. I remember Angie wearing 0-3 month clothes well after she was a year old. Here's proof. This picture was actually taken when Angie was almost 11 months old, but she still wore it for quite a while after this picture was taken. Yesterday I put the same outfit on Lucy. It is a 0-3 month outfit, a big accomplishment for Lucy who isn't very big herself ( a whooping 10lbs now at 3 months). A couple weeks ago I put a 6month tshirt on Angie, fits her fine. What a little peanut!

Lucy

Lucy, our little miracle is 3 months old today! We finally got some pictures taken.

MEND

I was a member of MEND (mother's enduring neonatal death) Houston when we lived in Texas. a MEND support group chapter was just organized for Tulsa. We had our first meeting last night. There was a good turnout for the first meeting. No one ever wants to be in that sort of "club", it's uncomfortable being there, but is is nice to talk to other people about your loss that have been through it themselves. No one rolls their eyes and wonder why you are still talking about your loss, and why you are not "over it". It's just nice to be able to let your guard down. If you live in this area and have experienced a loss of a baby, come join us!

Fundraiser Raffle

I started a raffle on my custom clothes site today. We are traveling in about 6 weeks and need to come up with the rest of the funds for Amy's adoption. For every $5 you donate on our CHIPIN, you get an entry in the raffle
for a chance to pick any item on my site. It will go for 2 weeks.

MommasDarlins.com

Look! it's the Sun of God!

Here's Karianne at a birthday party this weekend. Just putting up a picture of her to tell my story. Angie and Karianne talk constantly about Jesus now ever since Easter. It is so fun to watch. The other day, they were in the car and Karianne was counting on her fingers. She got to three and said, Three! Three days! Just like Jesus died!" Angie said, "You're not Jesus!" Karianne said, "No but three days is just like Jesus!"
It's been raining here a lot this week. We had to go in our laundry room twice during the night on monday when the tornado sirens went off. THAT was fun. Karianne is still tallking about how we hid in the laundry room from the 'totilla'. our internet was knocked out for a couple days from the storm. Just got it back today.
The sun peeked through the clouds briefly when we went out tuesday night. It was very pretty with the rays coming out through the clouds. Karianne got so excited she said breathlessly,"momma look out my window, IT'S THE SUN OF GOD!" She was so excited I just couldn't disagree with her. Of course that's the Sun of God!

We eat Fish!

Karianne was watching Go Diego on TV and got it into her head that she wanted to eat a fish. I'm not sure what exactly prompted her. I put her off and told her we'd buy some later, thinking I'd pick up some fish sticks. We did go shopping later in the day and I tried to show her some fish sticks. She wasn't interested, she told me that's not a fish and she wanted a REAL fish. I wasn't sure what she wanted, the fresh lobsters in the aquarium? Goldfish? snack cracker Goldfish? She said, "I'll show you momma". And took me over to the seafood counter and picked out the fishiest fish she could find complete with eyeballs and all it's parts still intact. I laughed and said, "I know you won't eat that!" and I tried to turn her away but she insisted on that fish. I kept telling her she wouldn't eat it and she said, "yes, I will, I'll show you momma!" Well, I at least got her to pick out a fish that had already been fillet and I agreed to buy it. We brought it home and neither Brent nor I had ever cooked a fish before so we had fun trying to figure that out. We did alright and Karianne ate her fish and loved it. She showed me!

LOA!

We got our Letter of Approval (LOA) today from China! We now have their official approval to adopt Amy. Now we will hopefully be hearing soon when we have permission to travel to bring her home! Horray!

Chickens know the rule!

I bought a Easter shirt on clearance. It has baby chicks all over it and it says "Chicks Rule". I gave it to Karianne. She wanted to know what it said, I told her and tried to explain to her why it was funny. When Brent got home she ran up to him and said, "look dad, it says 'chickens know the rule' ".