China Here We Come!!!

We feel so blessed. We received our Consulate Appointment for July 7th, so we're all set to leave on June 22nd. Yesterday I bought, socks, "Lightning McQueen" underware, and a little pair of Levi's and the most adorable shoes. I got out my 'toddler boy toys' down from the attic. We're getting SO excited. We're really going to make it to China!

Travel Approval Has Arrived!!!

We received our Travel Approval this morning from China!!! We are now cleared by the Chinese Government to come anytime. The next step is to get an appointment for Seth's American immigration Visa at the U.S. Consulate. Our agency will call them tonight and try and book that. We're hoping for July 7th! If all goes well we'll be leaving in 13 days on June 22nd. I can hardly wait to hold our Seth-Siyuan and hopefully put a smile on his sad little face. My heart has felt so heavy, waiting anxiously to finally bring him home. Hopefully tomorrow I'll post good news of a consulate appointment!

The Chicken Coop is finally done!

The Chicken Coop is Finally Done!

After a couple of weeks of building, we finally have a place for our Chickens, Yeah!

The Coop is out in the Orchard, where the Chickens permanent home will be.

Hi, this is Alex. I am working on my Eagle project. I am collecting donations to buy bottles for babies with cleft palate in China. Please watch this 4 1/2 minute video that I put together. (***If you receive this as an email you'll need to click on the dobsondaily link at the bottom of the page to go to the blog***)

I will be taking the bottles to China when we go to adopt my brother Seth. We leave on June 22nd.

If you are interested in donating to this project you can donate at www.paypal.com (click on send money to account: dobsondb@gmail.com).

Thanks,

Alex

Spring, The Season of Growing

I love Spring! I love my garden newly planted, before it looks like a weed jungle. I love my fruit trees in bloom, before I start worrying about bugs and canning. I love my Radiant Crab and my redbud. This year we've added chickens to our Spring Growing.

Now my husband has been begging for chickens for several years, but I have been reluctant. He's been involved with some busy responsibilites in our church and I told him I was busy enough managing six kids and was not about to manage a henhouse besides. He suggested that I wouldn't have to worry about it, but that the kids could manage the chickens, feeding them, collecting their eggs. Now I'm sure those of you who are parents, have children who cheerfully, happily and spontaneously (without being asked) complete their chores. But mine don't. So, that meant mean old Mom would have to make sure they did their chicken duties. So, we have not had chickens.

But now, Derek isn't so busy with church, and can manage the kids managing the chickens. So we bought 16 baby chickens. We are city folk, and weekend wannabe farmers, but we don't know the first thing about raising chickens. I talked to the 'chick lady' at IFA who told me that since we were novice chick raisers we'd lose a third of our chicks, so to buy extra. We were hoping for about 10, and so she encouraged us to buy 16. But she didn't know my kids would be praying for these little chicks to live, and you guessed it, three weeks later all sixteen chicks are alive, thriving, and stinking up the back bathroom. But they are cute, and my kids are loving them. We're in the process of building a chicken coop, for when our chicks get their feathers and can move outside (Wahoo!). Poor Derek, I told him I wanted it to look cute. A chicken coop cute? But he's doing a great job. I'll post pictures when we get it finished. So until the weeds flourish, and my plants wither, I'm enjoying Spring. Cyndie

Our LOA just arrived!!!

We're so elated, excited, overjoyed, & thrilled. Our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) arrived at our agency today. What does that mean? That means all of our paperwork has been approved and we've been accepted to adopt Seth.
So now what? I wish I could get on a plane tomorrow, but alas there is still a bit of paperwork to go. Our agency will overnight the LOA to us. We will then sign all of the paperwork and send it back to the agency who will send it back to China. After they record and process that paperwork then they'll tell us we can come. That will probably take about 4 weeks to hear back from China.
We're hoping to leave by the end of June. It was over a year ago that I first saw his sweet little face. It's been a long time coming, but we're almost there. I can't wait to hold him in my arms and finally bring him home.

Prom for a Princess

Last weekend Nicole had Prom. It was such a magical evening. I told her to enjoy the magic, 'cause it's pretty rare to get to go to Prom with someone you like, when he likes you, and you find your dream dress for half off so you can actually buy it, and all those events come together in a teen cosmic miracle. She is such a sweet and amazing girl. I thought you'd enjoy the pictures of her evening.