Birthday

Jude Fuzhi's birthday was Aug. 18. He turned 4. We weren't able to be there, but we did send him some presents, including the outfit he's wearing in this photo. We also sent him some photos, and he's looking at the album of them. This was the first time he laid eyes on us.

We wish we had been able to spend his birthday with him, but we will next time. We're just happy the things we sent him made it and he looks so good.

Happy birthday baby!

When we were waiting to go to China in 2008, we were delayed because of paperwork and we hoped to travel and bring Jake home before his 2nd birthday. We made it by 10 days. This time around, there was really no hope of beating the birthday, so as the time ticked across the world, our son celebrated turning 4 without us yesterday, which was today in China. We hope he had a great day with his foster family, and we can't wait to celebrate today with Chinese food and a birthday cake. His gifts were sent last week, and hopefully he enjoyed them. Here's the birthday boy in his younger years and the gifts we sent him through a wonderful woman in China.

Fuzhi aka Jude 

Outfit 

Snacks for the orphanage.

(We were told a birthday cake would be too hard to deliver as the orphanage is in a remote location) 

Toys and photo album of pics we sent of his family.

A new leap

In May 2013, our world once more was blessed as we saw the face of our second child for the first time. Happy with our dossier behind us, one that with the blessings of a full life took longer to complete than we hoped, we learned the same week that our second-born is waiting for us in Chongqing, China. Our agency sent us your file, little one, and we fell in love. Your brother talks about you every day and prays for you every night, and your parents long to hold you in their arms. In July we learned that we have pre-approval for this adoption to be finalized, and just this last week we found out we soon will have the official OK. This blog became a whole lot richer tonight as we updated the status of our "son" to our "sons."

Our first family portrait