A few more photos

Tiana has been enjoying playing with her gifts. Here are a few from the last couple of days.

A few photos

Waving at Santa as he is coming through the door
Tiana loves to sit in Santa's lap
All of the Grandchildren plus one Great-Grandbaby
All smiles on Christmas Morning
Tiffany and her gifts

Here are a few photos from the last few days. The first ones are of Christmas Eve at my mom's house. As you can see there are quite a few grandchildren. Always plenty of laughs and noise. :)

The second few are of Christmas Day. Tiffany woke us all up at 6:30a.m...... I could not get a smiling photo of Christopher. He just wanted to go back to bed.

Wonderful Christmas Gift!

I woke up this morning to a wonderful surprise in my e-mail box. New photos of our son. I can not believe how fast he is growing up. The photos of him smiling absolutely melted my heart. :) We also received an update. He is 26.6lbs and 31.2 inches tall. I sure hope the clothes I have been buying him are going to fit by the time we travel. :) :) Enjoy!!!

Gotta love those kids!!!!!

In my feeble attempt to get a perfect picture for our VERY LATE Christmas cards, we had a few not so perfect ones. Take a look at a few of the comical bloopers! ;)

Tiana visits Santa

Tiana loves Santa. I have been promising her for a couple of weeks that we would go see him at the mall. I wish I would have had a video camera. She could not get in his lap fast enough, and then she gave him a great big hug. She did not want to get down when it was time the leave and cried all the way out of the mall saying "my turn again".

Joys of Childhood

Remember when you were little and your mom baked a cake? You fought with your siblings over who was going to get to lick the mixing paddles? :) Unfortunately due to eggs not being as safe as in the past, its one childhood joy that our children have missed out on. Tonight Tiffany made a cake and used pasteurized eggs, so we let Tiana have this little indulgence. As you can see from the photos she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Tiana's first time to fly a kite

Tiana has been asking her Baba for weeks to fly a kite. This morning they went out and bought some string for her kite. It is a beautiful windy day, perfect for kite flying. Hope you enjoy the photos.

DTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just spoke to someone from our agency and we were DTC (Dossier to China) yesterday October 25th!!!!!! This means that all the blood, sweat, and tears from the past 5 months of paperchasing is now over and our documents are on the way to China. Currently the wait from DTC to travel is about 4 months, of course we are hoping that it's going to be a little faster , but knowing our luck of getting caught in a slow down, its not likely to happen. That's ok though I will take 4 months, we have plenty to keep us busy during the wait.

Birthday Pictures of Connor!!!!!!!!

Much to our delight we received pictures of Connor with his birthday cake. Oh My, what a precious baby he is!!!!! When Tiana saw his pictures she said, Connor MY BROTHER!!!!!! :)

We can not wait to finally get this sweet boy home!!!!!!!

A day at the farm and Connor's birthday

Today we took Tiana and Madisyn to a local farm. Tiana had a blast, but poor Madisyn was not feeling well. The girls climbed in a fort, slid down the slide, saw all kinds of farm animals and of course the highlight of the day was the hay ride and pumpkin patch. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Today was also Connor's 2nd birthday. We sent him a cake to share with his friends. Happy Birthday sweet boy, next year you will celebrate your birthday surrounded by family and friends who adore you.

Birthday and Update

I know it has been a while since my last update. Last Saturday we finally received the last document we needed in order to be DTC (Dossier to China). YEAH!!!! Our documents are now being certified and authenticated and we are hoping they will be on their way to China very soon. The current wait is about 4 months from DTC to travel. I am sure the next few months will pass quickly with the holiday's approaching and as I work on turning Tiana's room into a room for 2. We have an extra bedroom upstairs but I like to keep my babies close, so they will be sharing a room for the next couple of years.

Today was a very special day. It was Tiana's 4th birthday. I took her to have birthday photo's taken and then she had cake and ice cream with her cousins. Tiana LOVES a birthday celebration and she was extra excited that it was for her. For the past couple of months she makes me sing the birthday song where she will insert the name of the person of her choice, then she will pretend to blow out the candle for them. It is toooo cute! She had a good time blowing out her own candle today. We love our sweet little girl more than words can express. It is so wonderful to once again have the laughter of a little one permeating through our home. We thank God everyday for the blessing he has bestowed upon us as her parents. And we look forward to adding Connor to our family very soon.

Hope you enjoyed today's photos.

PREAPPROVAL!!!!!

We received word today that China has officially matched us with Connor. We are waiting on one more item to go in our dossier and then the all important papers will be on their way to China. What a wonderful way to end the week :)

a must see video

Unfortunately sometimes when you are adopting you run across people who will tell you , " You can't save them all", and while that is true, we can all make a difference one at a time. The link below is to a video that says that so very well.



www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC2rmCRQRKQ

Welcome

Welcome to our blog. This blog was created so that family and friends could follow along on our journey to China for our little boy and final family member Connor.
Connor was born on October 20, 2005, in LinFen China. Connor was born missing his left hand and foot.
The question we get most often is Why?........ Why adopt a child with this handicap?
My short answer is, WHY NOT??????........ Why would a child with missing limbs be any less worthy of a loving home than a child with all their limbs. My long answer is this.... For months I looked at the sweetest little face waiting on an agency's Waiting Child list. When I read his medical report I thought, "Poor little guy, he is so cute, I hope he finds his family quickly." As the months went by, there he was still waiting. Then as I was out and about I started coming into contact with both children and adults who had limb diffferences. I started to get this stirring in my heart, towards the little guy still waiting for his family. I mentioned him to Chris and we started doing some research, and asking other parents who had children with limb differences about the different treatment options and about what their children could do. The answer from these parents was amazing. Time after time the response was, "My child can do anything they put their minds too", I was in awe ......... Children who are born with limb differences compensate for their missing limbs, they know no difference, and do not have the challanges of those who lose limbs by accident or illness. There are different types of prothesis that can aid a child in walking, and running (yes running), so that they can be like any other child, playing on the playground, playing sports (yes sports), and living their life to the fullest....
So after giving all this serious thought, we could not come up with an answer as to why not , why not make him a part of our family, why not give him the resources, and love he so richely deserves. We hope that you will come here often to check up on our progress and in the future to watch the amazing things this amazing little guy will do in life.

Till next time,

The Courtney Crew
Chris, Tammy, TJ, Christopher, Tiffany, Tiana and very soon Connor Courtney