Our Fleet

Avery is one lucky girl ;)

The boys have received (1 to 3) trucks every Christmas from EJ's maternal grandparents, since they were born. A tradition that started when EJ was a boy. We have a lot of Hess trucks!

Fun Surprise

I couldn't believe my eyes...then I remembered TH is made in Philadelphia :)

We couldn't pass it up

Dreaming

"For so long, I dreamed of you," [mama] said, snuggling closer...I dreamed of how you would look, smell, even what you would sound like. And every day I thought of how wonderful it would be to hold you in my arms." God Found Us You, by Lisa Tawn Bergren

Avery's adoption is so much more than ONE moment, but now that we are getting so close, I can't help but wonder even more about how my heart will react/respond the FIRST moment I lay my eyes on her.

We don't have any details of our gotcha day. Just the date. I don't know how much we will learn beforehand. I am fairly certain it will take place in a govt building, not our hotel. But I could totally be wrong. It's pretty difficult to imagine the moment with no details. I will take that as a blessing.

EJ and I escaped to the beach on our own one afternoon last week, while Ryan napped and the older two watched baseball with their grandpa. We went for a walk together and dreamed a little about what gotcha day will be like. I say "dream," but the anxious thoughts almost outweigh the excited ones ;) We will bring with us to gotcha, every trick in the book: lollipops, her doll, lovie, cheerios, bubbles, etc.

I am planning to blog while we are there. Assuming our VPN works.

The packing is going great. It helps that I stared months ago (thinking we'd travel end of June). I should probably do a test weigh-in before I get too excited.

Our 4th of July FUN

I didn't mean to be gone for so long. Been having too much fun ;) Warning, this is a long post! When our China travel dates were pushed back, we decided to high tail it to EJ's grandma's (beach) house. We were due for a visit and we knew it wouldn't happen if we didn't go now. I am so glad we did. Time flies when you are having fun. Now we only have 2 weeks until we hold Avery for the first time.
We LOVE Nana's beach town. We ride bikes or walk almost everywhere we go. Ryan did amazing on his bike and road 3 blocks to and from the ocean each day, sometimes 2x a day. We visited our favorite spots for ice cream, sticky buns, pizza and arcade games. 

 Heading to the fireworks

 Our boys are so spoiled to see fireworks on the beach. It's so fun! A little chilly this year.

 Ryan's first time. He loved it, despite his sleepy face.

We rode bikes every morning. The weather was awesome. Such a treat. This is NOT always the case.

 Lot's of beach time! My favorite.

Lots of baseball too!

 Kite Flying

 Seafood carryout with very little dishes ;) Awesome and SO yummy!

My clam eaters

 He can throw them down (EJ added a few to his plate for effect) But he ate at least 25.

 Just to prove I was actually there!

I relaxed. Like really relaxed. It was awesome.

Just what I needed to help face this last week before travel with a long long long list of things to do!

What's Cookin?

I am cutting us off. No more Chinese food until we get to China ;) I have been trying to master a couple of new recipes. But now it's time to take a break. This is one, Pork Lo Mein, the only I remembered to photograph. I've also added Chicken with Cashews to the list too. Fried Rice, Pot stickers, Sweet n Sour chicken and Kung Pao chicken were already in my repertoire :) I also make Trader Joe's orange chicken (YUM).  Fortunately for me, Avery has likely never had any of these before. Perhaps she won't know the difference?

Aside from 7 bottles a day*, her referral said her meals consisted of cooked millet, steamed egg custard, mixed soup, milk, biscuits, bread, vegetables soup, fruits soup and etc. She likes milk best, and she likes rice cereal, steamed egg custard, and etc. *(I have no idea how old she was when this was recorded). We are assuming she still takes a bottle. This is very common for orphans at her age. We will continue for awhile to help with the bonding process.