LOA TODAY!!!!

Our God is an AWESOME God!!! This afternoon, we received the call from our agency rep that they had received our LOA today! We are in total shock! We have only been waiting for 58 days! The average wait time has been 90-120 days! Now, this LOA (Letter of Acceptance) means that the Chinese adoption officials have reviewed our paperwork and have given us approval to adopt our son, Michael Jianyang! The only thing that is between us and our boy is our TA (travel approval). Apparently, it will take about 4 weeks to get this piece of paper, and once we receive it we can make our travel arrangements! Technically, we could probably leave around the end of May or early June. We may not be able to leave that early but we are going to try and get to China ASAP. Not only is it a miracle that we received our LOA in only 58 days, but today also happens to be Steve's birthday. Nothing can top receiving approval to adopt a son! Glory to God! And now, since we have this approval from China, we can FINALLY introduce our son to you:

VERY Productive Spring Break

Well, Danielle is potty trained!! YIPPEEE!!! Don't ask why, but Monday morning (the first official day of spring break), I thought, "Hey, we have a week off from school, why not potty train Danielle?" Crazy, huh? I knew that we were going to be stuck at home for a couple of days (since the weather was going to be cold - 40s), so what better way to pass the time? We had tried to casually train her a couple of times before, but after sitting on the potty for a while, she would get up and promptly wet her pants - UGH!! So, Monday morning, we tried it again. I put her in panties (and rubber pants), and what did she do? Wet herself - 3 times. But, on the 4th try, she actually went in the potty! Major party time! After she realized that going on the potty wasn't so scary, she kept her pants dry. On Wednesday, we had some friends over for a playdate, and right in the middle of playing, Danielle came up to me and said, "I have to go pee-pee really bad!"...and she did - in the potty!!! We have been golden ever since. I took all the girls to the playground on Thursday...Danielle stayed dry! I took the girls to a local bounce house on Friday...and Danielle stayed dry! And yes, she has been in panties every day since Monday...including all outings! Now, she was doing great with #1, but #2 was going to be tricky...or so I thought. Well, yesterday she went #2 in the potty and hasn't had any trouble! She is still sleeping in diapers, but tonight before bed, she said she had to go potty, and she did...in the potty, not her diaper! Praise God! She was my easiest child to potty train yet! Sorry for all the "potty talk", but I am just so proud of her - and she is too! So maybe we didn't get to go on a fancy spring break trip, but we sure accomplished a lot!!!

How Awesome is God?!

God is absolutely amazing! Let me tell you just one reason why...Meg! For those of you who followed our trip to Danielle in Nov. 07, you may recall what a God-send Meg was. Meg is Steve's step-sister (really, she is our true sister by heart) who has lived and studied in China...and is perfectly fluent in Mandarin. When we went to adopt Danielle, Meg (by the grace of God) was already in China and was able to be with us for half of our trip. Because she was able to come with us, we were able visit Danielle's hometown and experience "real" China. It was amazing! Well, when we started the process to adopt Michael, Steve had said that we need/want Meg to go with us again. We had no idea if that would work out or not, but it has been our secret prayer for months. Last night we found out that God has answered our prayers! Meg is going to be in China from June through Dec of this year. Not only will she be in China, but this time she will be living in Beijing!!!! Let's just say, that will work out perfectly for us! We are hoping to go to get our son some time this June or July...and Meg will be available! She offered to let us stay in her apartment, while that would save us money, it might scare her away! So we will probably stay somewhere else and hang with Meg during the day. Hey, we may save money anyway - we may not need a guide as often! I would much rather see Beijing with Meg - she translates for us exactly, not what people may want us to know! Plus, she is a ton of fun! Meg knows the city of Beijing well, so we would be in great hands! Steve and I got off the phone last night and thanked God for this answered prayer! Everything seems to be falling into place so well. Another thing that we discussed was possibly taking a side-trip to Danielle's hometown. With Meg, we would be able to do this. In order to go to Laibin, we really would need a guide 24/7, and Meg is more than willing to do this. Now we just need to see if we would be able to meet Danielle's foster mother - wouldn't that be cool? God is good! Now just to get our LOA and TA....come on, let's go get our son!!!!!