DTC!

As I am writing this post, our completed dossier is winging its way to China!! It should arrive there by Monday. What a relief to get this huge step out of the way. Now I get to just sit back and peacefully relax (ok, who am I trying to kid here?) while we wait for our Letter of Acceptance and Travel Approval to arrive. It's been just a little over two weeks since we saw Ruby's sweet face for the first time. Some days it seems like we have been waiting for her forever. And then on other days it seems like everything is going so fast this time around. Here's hoping that our wait for travel goes by quickly rather than slowly and that I get to add another little ladybug to my signature line very soon!

UPDATE: We received notification of our LID -- 11/25/08

Halloween -- No Tricks but LOTS of Treats!

We went Trick or Treating with our friend M and her kids, the two O's, again this year. Even though the sidewalks and grass were a bit wet due to the huge rain storm earlier in the day, the evening was so much warmer than last year. The girls were successful at filling their pumpkins with more candy than an army could eat. After doing our own trick or treating, we all went back to M's house to hand out candy. The girls were just as excited to do the handing out as they were at getting candy themselves.

AND -- the biggest TREAT of all this Halloween -- we got our PA (pre-approval) from the CCAA to bring home Ladybug Princess #5!! I am not allowed to post any photos of her yet but I can tell you that she is 11 months old, absolutely darling, and waiting for us in Guangdong Province. Our dossier is being authenticated at the Chinese Consulate right now. It should be sent to China in the next couple of weeks. We have to wait for everything to be processed but I am guessing that we will travel sometime in March/April 2009 to bring her home.

Random Photos

Summer is gone and we are now knee deep in school work. But here are some final random photos of the girls from our fun times this past few months. It was the last summer of "toothless Abby" photos -- I'm sure next summer will be full of "toothless Ellie" photos. And it was the last summer of the girls being a quartet. Stay tuned!

Arches National Park

Our last major stop on this exciting adventure was at Arches National Park in Utah. The rock formations are an absolute wonder to behold! We spent hours hiking, climbing, studying the rocks, and drawing what we saw. Some day when the girls are older it will be fun to come back and hike the more difficult trails to get close up to the more remote arches.

Four Corners Monument

It's amazing how far into the middle of nowhere I actually convinced Brian to drive on this trip. The Four Corners Monument marks the point of the only place in the United States where the boundaries of four states (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah) intersect -- in a perfect perpendicular corner intersection. Anyway, it was a fun photo op and the girls thought it was pretty funny to have our family standing in four different states at the same time.

Aztec Ruins National Monument

Our first big adventure in New Mexico was at the Aztec Ruins National Monument. This site really is a misnomer since the ancient pueblo wasn't built by the Aztecs but rather by Anasazi people. Probably built in the early 1100's, it originally contained over 500 rooms and stood at least three stories high. The sense of history here was simply overwhelming. Since my degree is in Cultural Anthropology I really get excited in places like this!! The girls were quite impressed too.

Petrified Forest and Route 66

Our next stop was the Petrified Forest National Park. The girls enjoyed seeing the "rocks" but were much more interested in all the dinosaur skeletons that were on display inside the visitor center. And the temperature was much more comfortable inside there too!!

As we drove, we followed the historic Route 66. For some of the way we drove on original stretches of this legendary road. At other places we saw parts of original road that have been abandoned and taken over by wilderness. It was fun to imagine what it must have been like to drive on that road back in it's heyday.

Petrified Forest National Park

Some sisterly love

An historic pueblo style inn along Route 66

Getting their kicks on Route 66