Here's to looking at open doors and pre-approval

" When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."
-Helen Keller

That Helen Keller, she is a good one for quotes! I feel that I tend fall into the trap of staring at the closed doors. I love that quote and focusing on exploring the new open doors! I can see those doors to China flinging wide-open right now! Whooooooosh!

On Friday, May 25th, I got a call from Josh that our coordinator had called to say that we are now officially "pre-approved" (PA) to adopt Kai! Yay! At the time of the call, I was standing in a little family owned deli somewhere around Sonoma California, (my friend and I were on our way to a hike, but had gotten lost...and hungry.) Anyway, when I got the call I started squealing and jumping around. The guy behind the deli counter and his elderly mother didn't seem to know what to make of this. Heidi looked at me happily. And when I got off the phone with Josh I said, "Heidi, we're pre-approved!" She just looked at me and said apologetically, "Kate, when I hear pre-approved I think of credit cards. What does that mean for the adoption?"


What is means is that we are now official in China's eyes. They'' review our dossier and our letter of intent (LOI) and then hopefully we'll keep moving along quickly. It also means that it is now ok for me to post his pictures on this blog. So here they are.

I also have to note that Josh also found a mini-van for me while I was visiting Heidi in California. People say that they, "would not be caught dead driving a mini-van". Oh yes, this seems a bit harsh, but I have heard those exact words spoken. Me? Can you say DREAM CAR!!! I am not kidding. Josh loves cars. Talks about them, wants to buy and sell them, test drive them, you name it. So when he asks me about my dream car it has always been the same. A mini van.

Why? Well, I just always thought it would be fun to pack lots of kids and friends into a car to go somewhere. Plus, as we've been waiting for more children, I told Josh that I sort of had a "Field of Dreams" moment. (You know when the voice says, "If you build it, they will come.") I sort of started to feel, "If I drive it(mini van) surely kids will come." I mean who wants a poor lady to be driving a mini van all around town with just one kid right?