Joshua's School Birthday Celebration

On Wednesday Joshua got to celebrate his birthday with his classmates at school.  The celebration almost didn't happen since I forgot to make the cupcakes until we woke up at 7:30 that morning!  Luckily I had already bought all of the supplies and was able to whip up these babies by our 8:40 departure time:

Joshua was very upset that he could not open the cupcake carrier and taste test the cupcakes prior to school, and may have had a classic 2 year old tantrum before we loaded up in the minivan.  When Bryan and I came up to the school for Joshua's celebration the teachers told us that he spent all of 'center time' trying to get to the cupcakes instead of working on his fine motor skills :)

The birthday boy was thrilled to have MOMMY! DADDY! at school with him.  We helped pass out the treats to the class and everyone promptly made a huge mess.

One of the cutest little baby boys I've ever seen

And because you can never have too much of this cuteness:

The birthday boy, sporting a chocolate icing 'stache

Family Hike

 On Saturday, February 15 we decided to go on a family hike in our neighborhood.  There are lots of hiking trails and horseback riding trails in our development but we haven't taken advantage of them very much yet.  We heard about a trail in one section that takes you to a large rock bed that sometimes has a waterfall in it after we get a bunch of rain.  The boys were excited to go on an adventure and loved exploring in the rocky waterfall area, which I'm sure seemed huge to them!

Valentine's Day

We had a really fun and special Valentine's Day celebration this year.  It started off the weekend before Valentine's Day with Bryan surprising me with a trip to Houston!  Bryan's parents kept the boys overnight while we went out for a delicious dinner at Vic & Anthony's and enjoyed a night at The Magnolia Hotel in downtown Houston.  Bryan also got me a very special gift-- ring wraps for my Aggie ring!  It was so thoughtful of him to plan everything ahead of time and for us to have a special date and time away from the kids.  Unfortunately he had taken Caleb with him to buy the ring wraps so Caleb dropped a few hints along the way, including pointing at my wedding ring and saying, "That sure is a special ring you've got there, Mommy.  Remember that time I went with Daddy to a jewelry store to get you those new rings?".  HA!

My new Aggie ring wraps!

Caleb was especially excited about Valentine's Day this year.  They talked about it a lot at school and I think this was the first year he understood what it was all about.  He spent the month of February making different Valentines and loved cutting out hearts by folding paper in half.  He was really proud of that skill!  He even wrote a Valentine for me and hid it on the front door step for me to find:

It's kind of hard to tell buy he wrote "MOMY" (with an upside down Y) on the bottom line

And then wrote "LOV" on the other line (bottom right corner).  He wrote all the letters and did all the spelling on his own while I was upstairs putting Joshua down for a nap!  

Caleb's teachers requested that the children write the names of all their classmates on their valentines.  I was pretty sure this was going to be the death of me since Caleb is not a fan of writing!  We did 3-4 each day for a couple days leading up to Valentine's Day.  He did much better than I thought although I saw firsthand what a perfectionist he is and also what saints his teachers must be!  If I told Caleb how to write the letters he'd remind me that "I know what they look like!!".  Here is a sample of his Valentine's Day writing.  He has improved so much over this school year in Pre-K!

Caleb and I assembled robot valentines that he picked out at Hobby Lobby.  I stole an idea off of Pinterest for Joshua's class.

On Valentine's Day the boys woke up to a fun Valentine's breakfast table and lots of goodies.  They each had a gift bag from both sets of grandparents.  Bryan and I got them gardening stuff to use in our raised bed garden in the backyard.  Joshua also got a bug house and net because he has shown an interest in bugs (both dead and alive).

One of Joshua's gift from my parents was some Cars characters that change color in hot/cold water so he got to play with those while Caleb was at school.

Joshua checking out his first catch

I organized the class party for Joshua's class (we kept it simple with cookie cake and juice boxes) and Caleb's class exchanged valentines and made some kind of valentines hats.  It was also his day for Show N Tell so he chose to share his Toyota FJ Cruiser toy that makes noises.

Bryan worked a day shift that day, so Caleb helped me make a yummy meal for our family Valentine's dinner.  Bryan started eating gluten free at the beginning of February so we made a new gluten free baked pasta and a gluten free cobbler dessert.  It all turned out to be pretty good!  My little chef:

The very next day the boys helped Bryan plant seeds for squash, strawberries and carrots.  They love checking on the progress of the garden and using their tools!

Girls Weekend

I was blessed to have an incredible girls weekend in Dallas at the end of February.  When I graduated from college, I prayed for authentic friendships with girls who loved the Lord.  And He was faithful to answer that call with these women!  We've been roommates, bridesmaids, new wives and new moms together.  We've endured tragedy and heartbreak together and celebrated many, many joys.

It was so fun to have an entire weekend together, which I now realize was mostly centered on food :)  We enjoyed our time together in stretchy pants with no make up, lots of laughs, pedicures, restaurants, cooking, and craft time.  I love these girls and thank God for these lifelong friendships!

Katy and I cooking dinner for the group:

Bruschetta, Pioneer Woman's Spinach & Artichoke Pasta, Garlic Cheese Bread,

Italian Salad, and my Grandmother's Chocolate Cake

Ready to EAT! 

Craft time

 Bags I made for our "Favorite Things" gift exchange

A sample of the "Favorite Things" gift exchange goodies!

Group photo before the end of our fantastic weekend!

Back (L-R) Stephanie, Katy, Jennifer, Jamie

Front (L-R) Holly, Jodie, Betsy

China Adoption Timeline

It seems a little risky to post an expected timeline for an international adoption since there is no way we can predict the timing and choices of a foreign government.  However, China's adoption process has been one of the most consistent out of all the countries who participate in international adoption.  That is one of many reasons we felt drawn to adopt from China.

We are requesting a girl this time around.  With our previous 2 adoptions we did not specify gender.  For Caleb's adoption, we knew that by not specifying we would likely be matched with a boy since more people request girls.  With Joshua's adoption, we did not specify because we knew we'd be thrilled either way!  This time around we have decided to adopt a daughter and because more people request girls, we may wait a little longer to be matched.

We have also asked for her to be 18 months or younger at the time we are matched (we will hopefully travel 6 months after match).  We'd like for her to definitely be younger than Caleb because we think he needs to stay the oldest.  She will likely be younger than Joshua but they may end up in the same grade in school.  We expect that our daughter will be at least 1 year old when we bring her home.

We have also filled out a checklist with the medical needs we are open to.  Once our agency finds a child who they think is a match for our family we will have time to review her medical information before making a final decision.  We plan to enlist the help of physicians who specialize in international adoption, just like we did when we adopted Caleb.

So all that being said -- and knowing that God is sovereign over this entire process -- here is my best guess at our timeline:

Home Study Finalized - first half of March 2013
Submit I-800 for approval to USCIS (immigration) - last half of March 2013
Receive I-800 approval - July 2013.  I have heard it takes about 3 months
Dossier to China (DTC) - August 2013
Log-In-Date (LID) Issued for China's Adoption Process - September 2013
Referral -- ???  Anywhere from 1-6 months, so hopefully by February or March 2013.  Our agency matches 30-40 children per month and has one-to-one relationships with 20 orphanages in China, mostly in the Henan province
Travel - Summer 2014 to bring our daughter home!!  Trips are typically 2-3 weeks long.

We know that God's timing is perfect.  We trust that the work He has done on our hearts to prepare us for this adoption is part of His plan for our family.  We cannot wait to see what He has in store for us and to see our daughter's sweet face for the first time!

China Adoption Update

The Pickett adoption train is chugging right along as we are making steady progress on all of our initial paperwork!

HOME STUDY

We received our home study packet on 1/23 and were able to have it completed and mailed by 2/4.  The home study packet included a 13 page application, blue print of our home, pictures of our family and home, medical forms for every family members, copies of drivers licenses and proof of insurance, etc.  Each parent is also required to answer autobiography questions, but luckily our home study agency has kept them the same for the most part.  We have reused many answers from our 2008 and 2010 home studies since our synopsis of our childhood has not changed!   Once the home study agency received our packet they scheduled our home study visits.  One will be in our home on Friday, February 15 and the second will be at their office in Waco on Monday, February 25.  They are typically very prompt about finalizing home studies so I think we will meet my goal of having it completed by early to mid March.

CCAI PAPERWORK

We also signed and notarized the service & fee agreements for our Chinese agency, CCAI, and sent in our first program fee.  Once they received that information we were given access to their 46-page copyrighted Dossier Guide on their website.  At first I was very intimidated by the amount of detailed instructions they provided.  While we received some instructions when we did our dossier for Caleb's adoption from Kyrgyzstan, it was certainly not 46 pages long!

Now that I have had time to look over the dossier packet I realized that it is a really straight forward and easy dossier.  For those of you who do not know, a dossier is a collection of documents about our family that are required by the Chinese government if you want to adopt a child.  The majority of the documents are notarized, certified by the county clerk, certified by the Secretary of State, and then authenticated by both the US Department of State and the Chinese Embassy/Consulate.  It sounds harder than it really is, especially since we have been through some of these steps before for Caleb!

Our dossier requires the following documents:

-Adoption Petition that we create (with a great sample form to copy provided by our agency)

-Certified Birth Certificates for both parents

-Certified Marriage Certificate

-Employment Verification that confirms Bryan's employment and salary

-Financial Statement of our assets/liabilities (again, great sample provided by CCAI)

-Physician Reports from having a physical done along w/ bloodwork

-Police Reports from our city saying we aren't thugs

-Home Study

-3 couple photos, 8 family photos

-3 passport photos each

-2 passport copies

-And last but not least -- the most time consuming part -- I-800 immigration approval from USCIS (US Citizen & Immigration Services)

We have scheduled physicals for 2/22 (Bryan) and 2/27 (me).  Once we have completed our dossier we will send it to our agency for critical review before it is translated and sent to China.

We are excited to make progress on the paper chase and know that once it is over the hardest part will start:  waiting.  

Caduceus Society Event

On January 19th Bryan and I had the opportunity to attend an event for the Caduceus Society, an organization of physicians and their families that support the hospital.  If you are like me, then you probably have no idea what a caduceus is -- it is the symbol used by physicians that is a staff with snakes wrapped around it.

Several physicians from Bryan's ER group are members of the new organization and invited us to attend the black-tie dinner at the Miramont Country Club.  Our friends the Jordans (who are also new to the ER group) attended with us.  My parents kept the boys for us in Houston which meant we got to get ready in peace and sleep in the next morning!

We enjoyed a nice dinner at the event and got to hear a wonderful speaker who is a NY Times best-selling author speak about his experiences with childhood cancer.  It was nice to meet some of Bryan's colleagues and their wives.  And it was nice to wear something other than yoga pants for once, too!

Here are some pictures from our fun, fancy evening together!

Being silly with Paige - doing our sassy duck lip pose