An Announcement and a Snow day... YAY!!!

Well, here we go again! Things have been going so well with Anthony Le and we absolutely love, love, love being parents! We felt the time was right to move foward in building our family! On January 29, 2009, we officially sent in our Application to Holt International Children's Services to begin the process for our next Adoption... this time, a little girl!!! Anthony and I are overjoyed as we begin the journey to our next child. Some may think "Wow, that is fast, Anthony Le just came home 9 months ago... isn't that quick???" Well, for those of you who have been following this blog for a while, or are familiar with International Adoption, you know this anything but, a quick process. Adopting a second, third, or fourth time, makes it no faster... we will be waiting approximately 2 to 3 years for our little one to come home this time. We wanted to get started right away so our children would be close in age.

We will be meeting with representatives from our Agency to discuss the particulars of our Adoption process and Country Criteria... but at this time, it looks as though we will be going to China to find our daughter. This was a hard decision for us to make as we really wanted to return to Vietnam to adopt our little princess! However, Vietnamese Adoptions are still closed to American Families. Given the fact we do not have any solid information as to when they may open back up, we had to make some decisions. We talked at legnth about our choices and felt led to the China Program. Our hearts will always be with the country of our son's birth, but at this time it just wasn't in the cards. (We do have some time, though... if things look like they will be changing for the better... we are open to change... you never know.)

So what's next??? Here is the simple explaination... After we meet with our Agency, we will begin working on our Homestudy. Once our Homestudy is complete, we'll begin working on our Dossier, where we gather our paperwork to send to China. Once we have submitted our Dossier, it will be sent to China and "logged in" to their database... then we wait for a referral. We have been told to expect a 12 to 18 month wait for referral. We will also need to complete all of the required immigration paperwork we will need. Once we have our referral, we will need to wait a few months for travel approval. Adoptive Families who travel to China usually travel in groups to meet their children. That is the skinny version... we will have more details as we move through the process, so check back here for updates. We appreciate all of the support our family has given us through the years and are looking foward to the day we get to introduce all of you to our daughter!

In the meantime, we are enjoying our son and loving every single second of raising him! Anthony has been such a blessing in our lives... we are so thankful to have him. Everyday is a cherished moment and we wouldn't change one thing!!!!

Today was a great day... we FINALLY had some decent snow here in Jersey and I took the opportunity to spend some quality time with my boy. We had a blast with playing in the backyard in the snow...even Kyra, our doggie, got in on the fun! I love snow days!!! After we came inside, Anthony enjoyed his first warm mug of home-made Hot Chocolate! MMM MMM MMMMMMMMM!!!!! Yumm-o! Here are some photos of our good-times!

Little Miss Kyra had a great time playing in the

snow today! She was exhausted when she came

inside and slept for three hours!!!!

Oh my Goodness!

Even in the snow, Anthony loves

to play on his Swingset...

...he just HAD to go down that slide and

dump all the snow off! If was fun to watch him go

down and land in the snow pile!

Nobody to catch him this time... just snow!!!

Happy Boy!


Mommy pullin' Anthony on the sled!


MMM! What is it with kids n' eating snow???


Goofin' around when we came inside!


Mom, can we play some Play-dough
before nonnie-time, PLEEEEESE????