Exciting news!

This is going to be short and super sweet! We have officially been matched by our agency with a beautiful little girl! She is absolutely gorgeous....I want to hold her so badly that my arms actually ache! I will have to be patient though....we just got an esimate from our agency of 4-9 months until we can go get her.....I honestly don't know how we are going to wait that long! Please pray that everything goes perfectly with our paperwork, and that we get to travel to get her sooner than what they are estimating.


Love,

Katie

Fundraiser

Just wanted to share this with everyone....we are doing a fundraiser with this great gourmet coffee company. Here is the link http//:www.justlovecoffee.com/TheWerners

If you go to that link, it will bring you to our personal URL fundraising site, if you buy anything from that our URL site.....they will donate $5 per bag of coffee you buy to our adoption expenses! If you aren't a coffee lover....these would make great christmas gifts for any coffee lovers you know.....(think teacher gifts, grab bag gifts....gifts for you boss)

And feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested in 1-helping us raise adoption funds or 2- is a coffee lover.

Thanks everyone.....hope you are having a happy and blessed Monday!

Love,

Katie

Pretty excited about this!

Today we got our approval notice from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services! We had to get our fingerprints done at the federal building on July 11, so I wasn't expecting to get our approval notice yet.....so today was a happy surprise. So now we just have to have everything notarized, certified and authenticated.....and we have a complete dossier! Once that is sent to China and approved.....we are officially waiting for a referral! If I am this excited about a piece of paper.....can you imagine what I'll be like the day I get to see a picture of our little China girl for the first time!?!!

Please keep our family and our little girl in China in your prayers. Please pray that God has put someone in her life that is loving her until we can get there to bring her home. I can't hardly wait to find out who she is and see a picture of her! Please also pray that we are able to save the rest of the money needed to bring our little one home.

Hope the rest of you are having a happy day also! God is good everyday.....everyday God is good!

Love,

Katie

"Mean Mommy"

Went to get groceries this morning with all 3 kids and came to this conclusion:

I do NOT like to go grocery shopping with 3 kids tagging along. Throughout the school year, Owen and I went together and would have a great time getting groceries, but it is a totally different experience with all 3 of them. By the time we made it to the check out....I felt like the "mean mom." You know what I am talking about....everyone at some point has seen this woman out and about with all her children....you know the lady that looks very frazzled, and has multiple kids with her that you hear her yelling at for doing anything more than just breathing....yep that was me. Okay so maybe I wasn't yelling out loud....but I was YELLING in my head!

That conclusion lead me to my next conclusion....I need to find a different time/day to get groceries. I might have to start fighting the crowds on the weekends so I could then leave them home with Daddy. Not only does their behavior in the store turn me into "mean mommy," but I also spend way more when they are with me. I had no idea that you could hear the phrase..."Mom, can I have....." so many times in such a short amount of time. I also had no idea I was capable of such bribery.....example, "Well, you can have that if you are quiet, stay right by the cart, and stop picking on your brother/sister."

I do love my children dearly and I thank God daily for picking me to be their mom, but I think next time I will leave them home with Daddy and go to the store by myself.

Have a happy day friends,

Katie

One step closer

Today we got the (corrected) version of our home study. You may recall.....my last update, we had received our notarized copies of the home study, but there we a couple mistakes that had to be corrected. I read through it today....and everything is correct this time!!! YEAH! So on to the next step! I have mailed our home study and an I-800A form to the USCIS. Hopefully sometime in the next 8 weeks we will be getting an approval from them. The I-797 form (USCIS approval form) has to be included in our dossier. (Dossier is a fancy word for all the paperwork that goes to China that proves that we can provide a good home for a little China girl)

Not a huge step....but definitely a step forward!

Happy Friday everyone.....hope y'all have a great Memorial weekend!

Katie

A very brief update of the last 4 months

So I don't have the time nor the motivation to actually catch up this blog with all the kids activities in the last 4 or 5 months so....here is a very brief photo montage of what has gone on here.

Here is Ethan showing off his fort that he and Daddy built. Daddy is so cool...he even put Ethan's name on it in spray paint!

This girl got new glasses....not really Mommy's favorite, but she wanted these. (I figured she is the one that has to wear them....so I let her choose) Whether they were my favorite or not....I think she would look cute in about anything. (Yes, I know I am biased)

This guy had his 2nd birthday! For those of you wondering why he isn't dressed and why he has such a messy face.....We let the kids paint some art project and then took pictures of him opening presents.




This girl had her 2nd grade music concert. (While doing this I realized....this is the only picture we have of her all dressed up and the only one that isn't a huge group shot of the kids singing.....wow isn't that such a cute outfit HA!)

Next concert (hopefully) I will remember to get a full length picture.


This cutie turned 8. (I still can't believe....I HAVE AN 8 YEAR OLD!)

Grace's birthday fell on the last day of spring break....which also happened to be a pretty nice day. So we spent some time at the zoo.

Owen enjoying the last snowfall of the season. It was completely melted by noon.

This guy started T-ball. This is Ethan's first year to play! He loves it!

This girl also started playing softball. She isn't as thrilled about it as Ethan. She doesn't like it that the ball comes so close to her when she is up to bat. Not sure if we will ever make an athlete out of her.

This is a picture of Owen and TJ (freezing) at one of Grace's games. Whatever happened to baseball and softball starting in late May? These April games are ridiculously cold!

This guy graduated from preschool and this was a picture of him before kindergarten roundup. We have 3 days of round up at our school. Day 1 and day 3 of round up went great....day 2 could be a whole separate post. Let just summarize it....On day 2 he really didn't want to go, and I really wanted him to go...... after some struggling, I won.

Well, there you have it. I have left tons out....but that is the brief version. I also realized why I don't sit down to do this very often.....Owen has totally coated his hair with sunscreen while I was downloading the pictures for this post (he was literally 3 feet away from me, sneaky boy).....NICE.
Love,

Katie

Adoption update:

We were so excited when the final notarized copies of our home study arrived last week. I got all the I-800A paperwork filled out and put together to send to USCIS....then before we sent it all off, we actually read through the home study and found a couple errors.....Now we are again waiting for new corrected, notarized copies to arrive. Apparently I have prayed for patience enough that God decided to teach it to me.

Blogging slacker

So I am a total slacker when it comes to blogging....oh well. We have had many happenings since January (which was my last post.) So instead of actually writing posts for all the "happenings," I thought I would just make a list of highlights. Here are a few things off the top of my head:

• 1- We officially applied to Holt International to adopt a little one from China in mid January. They tell us the whole process from application to placement will be 12- 18 months.( We are SO SO excited!)


• 2- Owen turned 2. (My baby is 2....how did that happen?)


• 3- We have had many visits to both sets of Grandparents' houses. We are so blessed that our children have 2 sets of wonderful grandparents that love them dearly and that they live close enough that we get to see them often.)


• 4- The kids have had several opportunities to play with cousins. And have had several play dates with friends.


• 5- We have started our home study for the adoption (2 more visits left)


• 6- We visited the science center.


• 7- We have started daydreaming about names for our China girl.


• 8- I had a bladder infection that turned into a kidney infection and was feeling pretty miserable for several days. Of course it was during the kids spring break....total bummer!


• 9- We have started talking to our kids about them having a new sibling and the basic concepts of adoption. They are very excited about getting a new sibling.


• 10- Grace turned 8. (I don't know how she got to be 8 so quickly!)


• 11- We visited the zoo and got rained on and then hailed on....thank goodness for the shelter that they have by the lion exhibit!


• 12- I am going to start working full time nights instead of just part time nights (boo hoo.) But we can't afford this adoption any other way....so hopefully the increase in hours will only be temporary until we get out little China girl home.


• 13- Grace has started soccer practice already. (I am trying to figure out how I am going to work full time, get the kids to soccer practice and softball and baseball practice and to all the games that go along with it....aaahhhh! Thank goodness for my fabulously helpful husband who is also the greatest dad!)


• I am sure there are tons of things that I have skipped over....but like I said, this was just off the top of my head without to much thought put into it. In all honesty...if I had to put to much thought into it...there would still not be a new post. ;-) Hope everyone has had a great start to their week.... Katie