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...

matched!

Wow! Now that we've shared the news with many of our family and friends, I can get away with blogging about it. My wife and I were matched with our daughter this past week!!!!

We have been in the process of adopting a daughter from China for a long time now. About this time three years ago, we first began filling out paperwork. January 2006 we sent our homestudy along with many documents, forms and pictures to China and received back a log-in date (LID) of March 7, 2006. So now after 28 months of waiting to be matched, we finally received the referral for our little girl. (See my blog entry puzzle pieces from 1/26/07... who knew that at the time I was writing my daughter would be three months old?)

My daughter, Kate, is so beautiful! There's a lot we can't post online until we receive our official Letter of Acceptance (LOA)-- including her picture-- but she is absolutely amazing. I am so in love with her already! After some more paperwork gets processed, probably in about two or three months, we will travel to China to get her.

Pray for us as we prepare ourselves, our family and our home to welcome our new daughter. Ask God to give us the wisdom it takes to respond to her special circumstances and needs as she goes through this huge change in her life. Thanks!

...just wanted to share the good news :) Oh, and check out the link to Amy's blog, "Raising Tomatoes."