Loyalties

Ok. Let's go ahead and put it out there so there's no confusion.

I'm a little worried about something. I'm afraid I'm about to be labeled a "fairweather fan" as I continue to root for the Chicago Cubs. Now that they sit atop the Central Division--and in fact the entire National League-- going into the final stretch (29 games) of the regular season, I'm balancing a nervous excitement about the possibility of making the World Series with a deep dread that something bad is going to happen. We, Cubs fans, hold our breath at the very notion of success. But please don't think that just because they are doing well this year that I'm jumping on with the bandwagon. Here's the history. Just about all my friends who are my age are either Atlanta Braves fans or Cubs fans (and consequently hate the other team). It's a result of limited TV programming in Kentucky in the 1980's really. Either you watched TBS and the Braves or WGN and the Cubs. The Reds weren't on TV so not many people rooted for them. In 1992, I talked my parents into taking our summer vacation to Chicago so that I could "look at potential colleges." Yeah, right-- Wrigley Field, baby! So I'm a fan of the Cubs and greats such as Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Harry Caray, Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, and Moises Alou (despite the 2003 Bartman foul ball situation). I still can't forgive Greg Maddux for going to the Braves in 1993 (even though he eventually came back to the Cubs in '04). And I'm proud of the team we have put together with Zambrano, Soriano, Woods, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Edmonds. Strong. I have loved and angonized with the Cubs for many years now. I'm looking forward to an exciting/ heartbreaking October!

And just so it's known and out there...
1. College basketball: University of Kentucky (1998 alumni) 2. Amercian League baseball: Cleveland Indians (born in and family from northern Ohio) 3. NFL football: Cleveland Browns 4. NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers (old school logo!) 5. College Football: THE Ohio State Buckeyes (and also Kentucky)

a picture paints a thousand words...

but in case you need them, here's a few words to get you started...

A couple days ago, Will was mad because when he went to the potty, he got a little on his favorite Transformers t-shirt. So, he decided that instead of changing shirts, he would put on a few more over top of it. "How many?" you ask. Ten. Yep. He sneaked quietly upstairs and preceded to layer nine more shirts on top of the one with pee on it... all of them "super" shirts. (He calls them "super" because they either have superheros on them, look like shirts that his favorite superheros wear in the cartoons... or even that he somehow thinks what's on them vaguely reminds him of a superhero.) This is not the first time he's put on several layers of shirts. I think his logic is "the more super shirts you are wearing, the more super you are." So he comes down the steps with his ten shirts (shattering his previous record), barely able to move his arms, and shows off his "answer" to his pee/shirt problem.

Way to think outside the box, Will!

10 years

Yesterday--August 22nd--was mine and Amy's 10 year wedding anniversary!

On that day ten years ago, I made a series of promises--
"Tim, will you take Amy to be your wedded wife to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love, honor and cherish 'til death do you part?" "I will."

"I, Tim, take you, Amy, to be my wife to live together according to God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony. I promise to love you as Christ loves the Church, knowing that Christ gave His life for the Church unconditionally. This is the love I share with you."

"Amy, this ring is a symbol of my love for you. With this ring I give you my faithfulness and devotion, and I will love you forever for my love is of Christ, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

8/22/98

8/22/08 Amy, over ten years, in whatever ways I have succeeded in these vows, may God help me be even better. And in the many ways I have failed to live up to these promises, please forgive me and may God give me the grace to change. You are an amazing wife, and every moment of these past ten years I have loved being your husband. I love you... forever. You're my favorite.

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Oh, and as an anniversary present, our adoption agency emailed us to tell us we received our TA ("Travel Approval"). We've now applied with the US Consulate to ask for an appointment with them on Sept. 22, 23, 24 or 25 (which would have us leaving on the 11th)... they have five business days to give us an answer. If we don't get one of these dates, we won't travel until the 18th.

Will and Preschool

Today Will went to his third day of preschool. He actually started a week ago, August 12th, (Tuesdays and Thursdays only). I guess with everything else going on around here, I'm just now getting around to posting about it.

It's time for Will to discover independence. On the exterior, he looks like quite a natural go-getter and extrovert. But that's not quite right. Truth is he has always had Mama or Brother or someone he was comfortable with all his life right there with him. He held Ben's hand during swim lessons or new classes at church. He clings to me whenever someone he doesn't recognize tries to talk to him. And don't get me started on his mother... His favorite phrases include "sweet Mama," "cuddle, Mommy," or sometimes "I want Mommy!" But I'm hoping some of this will change now that he's started preschool.

So far Will has taken very well to preschool. He talks like he doesn't want to go, but when it's time, he goes willingly. The first day of preschool--the same day as his birthday-- Daddy, Ben and Will loaded up in the car for school. I dropped off Ben at Kindergarten, and Will and Daddy went to McDonalds for our "first day of school celebration breakfast." After that we drove to the preschool where he quickly found a familiar face from church (I'm so thankful for Ethan!). He went right in and started playing. His teacher, Miss Ginger, said that he did very well and was the "social butterfly" after he warmed up to the group. I'm excited about what is in store for Will in this new chapter of his life.

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Here are a few pictures I wanted to share that Ben and Will took with the camera the other day... future professional photographers, I'd say :)

New Pictures of Kate!!

Enjoy!!

Adoption Update

Everything still seems to be on track for traveling around the second week of September. So today we sent off our China visa applications, passport and some more fees. Basically, we're asking them to kindly let us into their country. I'm a little nervous putting my passport in the mail, but it should come back with this cool looking stamp on the inside of it saying that we are officially invited to come in. We also got most our vaccination shots... I still have to go back for my tetanus shot in a few weeks (they were out because of all the kids starting back to school).

Our next priority is to get our official changes made from the USCIS on our home study document (changing it to match with an older child with special needs)... which we're already expecting to come in the mail any time. They don't always expedite these changes, so we will have to stay on top of it.

Also, we want to get Kate's care package in the mail quickly. We are sending a blanket that we've been sleeping with for a couple weeks, a disposable camera, a picture album of her new family with Chinese written on it (check out my profile picture or other examples on Amy's post: http://raisingtomatoes.blogspot.com/2008/07/taras-rockstar.html), and a journal with questions written in Chinese that we are hoping one of her care workers will fill out for us with additional information about her last 21 months. You never know if the care packages are going to make it to their intended destinations, but it's certainly worth a shot.

Also, we got an email from our agency saying that we will not be able to take a tour of Beijing due to the recent tragedy of the stabbing death of the American at a tourist site at the start of the Olympics. It's unfortunate for us, but it's obviously not the point of our trip. And who knows, it may change again before we actually arrive.

* I hope my new web address hasn't caused problems for any of you, but I hope you understand that I changed it in order to remove our last name and other identifiers from this public forum. Thanks for your patience :)

Ben's first day of elementary school

This morning I dropped off Ben for his first day of Kindergarten. Yes, I knew it was coming, but I can't get over the feeling that our family has just crossed over into a whole new stage of life.

I'm not sure why this feels so big. I mean, after all, Ben's only going half a day. And he already had the experience of attending preschool last year three days a week... but that was just right next door to my office. And in comparison to the hugeness of the adoption, this seems like it should be tiny. But it's not. He started school!

Ben has got a real thirst for learning right now. Of course, he knows all the basic stuff. On top of that, his coloring, writing and addition are really coming along. But I'm completely amazed by his ability to read so well already. He is constantly taking on new books and more and more words. For example, he read the back of my Fall Break mission trip shirt last night: "I was in prison and you came to visit me... whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." And he's just starting Kindergarten!! Ben is ready; it's just me who's not.

So, this morning, we got up (while it was still dark) and got ready for school. Last year I took Ben out to breakfast before his first day, so we decided to keep the tradition alive. We headed over to McDonalds (which he asked on the way to school why McDonalds didn't have an "a" between the "m" and "c"... he's so smart!) and both ordered the cinnamon melts and an orange juice. There we enjoyed a breakfast, eye to eye and knee to knee.

Later as we walked into the elementary school, I couldn't stop thinking about how big he was and how proud I am of him. I don't know how I ever got so lucky as to have such a wonderful little boy... (*cough, cough*) I mean, young man.

Emailing my blog post

I'm testing out this newest discovery on blogger.com. This is pretty cool if I can post to my blog through email messages.

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More Than Meets the Eye

Ben and Will's most recent obsession-- Transformers! Like most of their other favorite toys, they've had very limited first-hand experience with their tv shows (such as "Ben 10," "Planet Heroes," or "Spiderman"). Since we don't have cable, their viewing is limited to what they can find on Cartoon Network.com, YouTube and other websites. In fact, we have now worked through the first 14 episodes of the old (circa 1984) Transformer cartoons on YouTube (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Transformers_episodes and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ16d-qpBEE).

And personally I think it's brilliant. What's better for little boys than cars and airplanes? Cars and airplanes that turn into robots!! Add to that robots that turn into dinosaurs and insects and you have Dinobots and Insecticons!! I'm telling you, it's marketing genius.

And for Ben it's even better. "How?" you may ask. Not only does Ben absolutely love cars, robots and dinosaurs, he loves puzzles. The harder, more complex, the better. Ben will sit there and transform his Optimus Prime and Bumblebee back and forth between robot and automobile over and over and over. It's impressive.

And now the icing on the cake: it sparks conversation between me and my boys. I tell them about how I used to watch Transformers on tv when I was a kid, and that I actually used to play with my own transformers, including Gremlock (the T-Rex Dinobot), Megatron (that turned into a gun) and Soundwave (the boombox that had two cassettes that turned into a dog and a bird). The other night when Ben was getting ready for bed, he sat with eyes open wide in amazement listening and asking me questions about my favorite Autobots and Decepticons from when I was a kid. It was great. Male bonding at its finest, I tell you.

There's a special bond between fathers and sons... indeed, "more than meets the eye."

LOA

Here she is! Our beautiful daughter, Kate (Xunuo). We got our LOA ("Letter of Acceptance") at the adoption agency yesterday and FedEx-ed to us at the house today! I'm so proud to be able to post (i.e. "show to the world") her picture now. We are amazed that it came so quickly-- only 10 days from our LOI ("Letter of Intent")! Isn't she the most absolutely amazing little girl you've ever seen?! Once we got the paperwork, we signed it and will get it back to our adoption agency right away. They will file everything by Tuesday, and they expect to get an appointment in about three weeks after that. Hopefully this means we will travel by mid-September. Wow! When we go, we will arrive in Bejing, travel to Suzhou (where she now lives) to get her, and then to Guanzhou to complete the American side of the adoption process.

What can we say? Everything is happening so fast. We have so much left to do. We have a change form pending with the USCIS (immigration office) to stay on top of, Parent Education credits to finish off (reading, videos, write-ups), a care package to send, payments to make, travel arrangments to apply for, vaccinations to update, room to get ready-- all the while celebrating a 4th birthday for Will and getting two little boys ready to start school next week! Such an exciting time :) Lord, thank you for your greatness in all of our joys!

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Meanwhile, the boys finished up swim lessons today. Over the last two weeks, Ben and Will have been taking lessons at the Pavilion. They have done so well and have learned so much. Even if we had to bribe them with swim goggles, it was worth it. I think they've come to enjoy the pool so much more now. Here's a few pictures of my little swimmers...

check Ben out...