Get the luggage ready!

Well I'm not sure if it was a sign or what, but we were taking advantage of some great sales after Christmas and getting some new luggage for the big trip. Ours has seen the 12,000 mile round trip journey and it shows! So as we are learning about the purple 4 wheel spinner we bought from a sales agent (that I found it hard to believe she actually went to seminars to learn about this luggage) my phone vibrated and we knew Friday could very well be the day our travel approval comes through! So I looked and boom! There we had it! We will either leave January 7 or 14, we just need to wait a couple days to see what consulate appointment date we get. So there you have it! Cam will be with us for his 2nd birthday on January 24th for sure and that may even be his first day in the United States! Let's pack!
Sent from my iPhone

15 Teeth!

We received 2 new pictures Friday!!  It will probably be the last new pictures before we see him with our own eyes.  We also received some new measurements so we can get more of an idea on what size clothes to take with us.  It's all in centimeters and kilograms so Siri on the iPhone comes in handy for a quick conversion calculator!  He is almost 20 pounds and that's pretty good for having heart surgery last year.  The most amazing number was he has 15 teeth!   That seems like a bunch to us and we are leery of its accuracy but if we are past that much teething I'm all for it!  From the pictures it looks like  he is sitting up on his own pretty well.   Lainey was not able to do that when we got her, we had her propped on pillows usually.  She was just 14 months old though, Cam is 23 months.  We are told he is not walking yet so we will probably have to look at some physical therapy when we get home like we did with Lainey.  Christina looked right away at his lips and they are nice and pink so that's a good sign his heart is working well!  Well we need to get Lainey to bed so better run.

A Long Wait Coming To An End

After several months of paperwork, 11 to be exact, we can really start getting excited about adding Cam to our family!  But first let me back up some, the little guy we are adopting from China is Cameron Jude.  We came across his profile back in January of this year and on Valentine's Day we decided yes we are ready to make this adventure again to add to our family of myself, Christina and Lainey.  Valentine's Day was significant because Cameron or Cam has some heart problems.  He was born with tetralogy of fallot.  Simply parts of his heart weren't formed right and were in the wrong places.  He had surgery to repair his heart in Shanghai in 2013.  From all the medical reports we were given the surgery did what was needed and he could grow up to be a very healthy man.  Some further surgeries could be needed as he grows and things move around, but we were and are ready for that when it comes! 

 

Tomorrow we should get final approval from U.S. authorities to adopt Cam and then we can send that to the Chinese authorities and we are one step closer to getting a final travel date to take that long flight and get him in our arms!  Its been much more difficult this time as compared to adopting Lainey.  We were matched with her profile in October 2009 and in January 2010 we held her for the first time.   With Cam we found his file and then had to do all the paperwork and home studies and document processing.  So we've had just 6 photos of him for nearly a year to dream about and its been rough!  We think we will travel in early to mid January but six months ago I would have thought we would have him snuggled in his new room by Thanksgiving or early December at the latest!  Paperwork delays and holidays seem to have pushed us back.  He will turn 2 in January and we certainly plan to be taking pictures of his face covered in whatever icing he wants! 

So just like we did for Lainey I will try to post as often as we can with pictures and I see video is now even available for this blog, so sit back and enjoy our next adventure right along side us!