Happy Father's Day and Birthday Josh!

Elizabeth and Josh on their first time out. Josh had to find special clubs for her since she is a "lefty" and a girl. I guess lefty girls in golf is not so common...who knew? She listened so intently to Josh as he taught her how to swing the club!

This is so Josh! He cannot refuse Miss Elizabeth, even if it means piling dress up hats on his head for some silly time!

June 17th was Father's Day and also Josh's birthday! One of my greatest blessings in life is to see Josh and Elizabeth together. She is such a Daddy's girl. When Josh is not home for dinner or out of town, she constantly asks just when Daddy will be home. When he is home, watch out and plug your ears, as it usually is about a half an hour of he and Elizabeth laughing and yelling and playing their little jokes and games with each other.

As you can see, this summer Elizabeth has been learning how to golf from Josh. (He is teaching both of us at the same time.) She loves to go to the driving range and practice hitting balls. She insists each time that we need to get two buckets for her to hit, not just one. "I think Tiger Woods could probably teach me a lot." This revelation came to her one day, like, "Well, I pretty much have this all down, but I bet I could still learn more from Tiger."

Josh is so excited to be a Daddy to our little boy now too. He is such a fun and gentle, loving Dad. We are both counting the days and hoping to get Kai soon.

As of now, I am personally hoping and predicting that we will hear about receiving our Letter of Acceptance(LOA) sometime next week. I believe this is the last step before Travel Approval.(TA) So, those of you who check this blog, all three of you, (HA! Ok, so maybe 4 or 5 of you), say a prayer for this process that we continue to move quickly so we can bring Kai home!

P.S.-For those of you just dying to see "After" pictures of Kai's room and playroom. Well, we're having a bit of a construction delay...but we'll get there!

What we know about Kai so far

Name: Kai Kneifel- pronounced K-eye. This is the name we have given him. For this blog I will keep his Chinese name confidential, as our agency coordinator has asked.

Birthday-January 22, 2005

Where he is from: Guangdong Province in southern China.

Activities: He can jump. He can build 7-8 blocks. His favorite activity is kicking balls and playing games. (Oh, yes, the Kneifel's love games too!) His favorite toys are listed as balls and blocks.

Other: He can say 3-5 word sentences. He can take off his clothes, feed himself, and communicate with children his own age. He eats 4 times a day, mostly rice with supplements like egg yolks, rice gruel, cod liver oil, mashed fruit and congee.

Here is a "Before" shot of Kai's room right now. This used to be our guest room/my sewing room. We are in the process of switching some rooms around upstairs to make way for our little guy. Those diapers aren't really for Kai. I have extras for my friend's kiddos that come over. Yes, they're for you Izzy and Drew!

Elizabeth painting her room the "perfect" shade of purple! She actually is a really good painter and a big help! I think she might be into design or decorating or something. She was actually upset about leaving Sherwin Williams the other day because she wasn't through looking at the different paint samples and tools for "faux" finishing!

And then you have the "Before" of the new playroom. This used to be Elizabeth's room. So we have a bunch of stuff from the old playroom in here, while we try to organize closets and paint walls.

We are working really hard to get everything around here ready for Kai. I stressed myself out a bit trying to figure out the perfect way to decorate his room. Nothing seemed right and it was really starting to get to me. Why was it such a big deal if his walls were blue or green or tan? Who cares really if I made him a quilt or bought one at the store? I found myself thinking, "Well, he's been in an orphanage all this time...he deserves a bright and happy room." And then, "But, if he has been in an orphanage this whole time, will a bright room be overstimulating and too much?" I swear those are of my thoughts, back and forth and back and forth. Ping-pong, ping-pong.

I feel so much responsibility parenting this little guy. I take it very seriously. I feel that we have been entrusted with such a gift and I just really want to do it right. I have read every book I can get my hands on about adoption, transracial adoption, toddler adoption, bonding, attachment, etc. I've read some of them twice, just to be sure I got it all. I think I am just at that the point where I just need to stop reading and start, "doing" something.

Decorating his room is the first of my parental "doing" for Kai. Somehow, I want him to know just by walking into his room that we love him and have waited and prayed and worked so hard to be his parents. Honestly, I know he may not care much about his room at all. But right now, I can't hug him, can't read to him, sing to him or tickle his little belly. I can't cook for him or build a "big tower" with him. So, I agonize over how to paint his walls, what fabric to buy for his quilt and how many pillows should be on his bed.

I pray every night that somehow he knows that he has a family waiting for him. I pray that he is not too scared when he meets us. I pray that he is ok, that he is not sick, or cold, or sad. And if he is, that there is a kind Nanny that loves him and tends to him. I pray that the rest of this process goes quickly and that we will be with him soon. I pray that we will be good parents for him.

Our timeline so far...

Heidi and I in California at the end of our hike. Notice our friends in the background. May 25th was a pretty great day for me. A hike with a great college friend I hadn't seen in way too long, beautiful surroundings, lots of laughing, a good meal, and a great phone call.

Ok, so let's get down to the nitty-gritty here.

Here is our adoption timeline so far:

April 19th 2006
We send in our application to adopt to our agency. (This is the day that I consider our official starting point.) This was also the week that Josh looked at me and said, "I think we should just move forward with adopting from China." Very matter-of-fact. Let's do it. That's Josh, he takes on big things like it is no big deal. Me? I tend to hedge a bit more. My sister and I had talked a lot about adoption prior to this decision. She had also called with some encouraging information about the whole adoption process. My sister was a really big part of us being able to start this whole process. She really helped us connect with some good resources regarding adoption. (Thanks Jenny! Big sisters are awesome!)

August 11th, 2006
We finish all of our paperwork and are DTC (dossier to China). This means that our huge stack of papers detailing every aspect of our lives is finally sent over to China. Josh and I rushed to Kinkos to make copies of everything so we could overnight it to our agency. Everyday counts! I think this was the moment Josh really saw just how much paperwork was involved as I handed him half of the huge stack to copy! I have to say, I did not want to hand that paperwork over to the FedEx guy when it came time. But it all arrived safe and sound. We celebrate the event with dinner at P.F. Changs with my parents and Elizabeth.

September 5, 2006
This is our LID (log-in date) What this means is that China officially put us in line on this day. Pretty much everything is based on your LID.

April 24th 2007
Receive a message from our coordinator that they have a new list and a little boy we might be interested in.

April 30th 2007
We officially plan to adopt Kai. I fill out all necessary paperwork including our Letter of Intent (LOI).

May 8th
The CCAA posts on their web site that they have received our Letter of Intent paperwork.

May 25th
We receive a call from our coordinator that we are PreApproved (PA) to adopt Kai. I squeal in a little family deli and startle the owner and his mother.

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See right out there on that cliff? That is where Heidi and I ate our sandwiches on a little picnic before heading back. Just beautiful! When I originally planned this trip I had figured that I might as well go to California now, while I only had one child and some flexibility. Little did I know that I would receive confirmation of adopting our second...in a deli no less!

May 30th

Our coordinator calls to say that our dossier is currently in review, which is a good sign. This means we are moving, "fast".

I am still hoping that we will travel in August. So far, it's looking good!

The sun is beginning to set and life is good!