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 :)