Beyond Blessed

After many agonizing weeks of no news about our transfer LID, we finally learned today that our new LID is 3.5.10. I am praising God for this news because it means we are not lost in the system somewhere. Our paperwork has been processed, and we can now wait for the next step....which is our Letter of Acceptance (LOA.) We should get our LOA in the next 2-3 months, barring any catastrophies (like the one we've already experienced LOL). If we hold to the law of averages at this point, we can expect to travel in August or September. I sure wish it was sooner, but I am happy and relieved at this point just to know we are nearing a travel timeframe. We'll still have a bit of summer here in Florida to splash and swim in the pool, so I'm happy about that.

On another positive note, I received some adorable photos of Madeline from another family adopting a girl from Madeline's orphanage. They sent their daughter, Iris, a cake for Chinese New Year and just recently received some photos. These were taken about a month ago. Thanks, Melissa, for these precious photos of our girls!

Madeline, left, making faces while Iris, right, enjoys a bite of cake

Iris enjoying her cake

We also received confirmation from Ann at Red Thread China that Madeline will received her birthday cake and care package on her 2nd birthday, which is this Friday, March 12th. We are sad she will be celebrating apart from us. But at least she has her friend, Iris, and her foster family. We should receive some pictures from her birthday party in the next few weeks.

While the blessings are rolling in, I should note that we finally got word from Brian Stuy that he has located Madeline's Finding Ad. I am thrilled about this because I had asked him back in December, and he hadn't located it yet. I can't wait to see this precious ad.

And finally, to round off the week full of blessings....

...we had a wonderful mini vacation with the Mouse, Mickey Mouse that is. Patrick had a meeting in Orlando. So we decided to take in a little fun. We started off our vacation with a fun, but very cold, trip to Tampa to catch the opening day of Spring Training for the Yankees. Caleb had a blast, despite the cold temps. He was very intrigued by the bull pen. And Yanks pulled off a win in the bottom of the 9th!

We spent the next day at Epcot. Patrick picked up a few things for Caleb for his next Gotcha celebration in "China." We also had lunch with the princesses in Norway. Caleb's favorite princess was Cinderella, although Snow White tried to make a plug for herself with a huge smooch on his forehead. I will add photos to this post when I get a chance. I also got to spend the day alone with Caleb at the Magic Kingdom. It was such an awesome time alone with my precious son. We had a blast riding on the raceway and saving Buzz from the evil emperor Zurg. Caleb also enjoyed making mama dizzy on the teacups. And he actually rode the merry-go-round 3 times!

I had actually received an email from our C*hina coordinator on Friday telling me she had no news of an LID for us. And for the first time ever on a Friday, I didn't throw myself a pity party. I just wanted to enjoy the day with my son, and that's what I did.

We have so much to be thankful for....a son who blesses our socks off daily and a daughter waiting for us in China who will celebrate her birthday with friends and her foster family. We are thankful that we can finally see a light at the end of this tunnel.

***Be sure to check back for updated photos***

Edited to add: Caleb's video with the princesses