Knocked Up...Again

It's been a few weeks since our last post, and all of a sudden, quite a bit has changed. About 5 weeks ago, our adoption agency approached us about whether or not we would be interested in adopting two children. While this had sort of been the long-term plan since the inception of this process, we never dreamed that we would be allowed to adopt two children at the same time. Needless to say, we were most excited about the possibility. It's kind of like getting to have cake and ice cream at the same time: mind blowing.

Given this new possibility, we once again began looking for the next member of our family. Not too far in, Andrea was approached about a little boy named Fu Lian Hao who we both fell in love with. He's in a different orphanage than Xin Lei, and a little younger, but we think that would be in the same grade in school. So far, we don't know much else about him except that he has a deformity in his left hand and is considered "active". Plus, he's adorable.

Of course, finding Fu Lian was only half the battle. The next part was re-submitting portions of our paperwork so that we could officially reserve him. Without really knowing whether or not our application would be accepted, we have been sitting on pins and needles for about two weeks waiting to see what the Chinese government would say. In the meantime, Paige gifted him with the nickname "Marshmallow"; a nickname we've all curiously gravitated toward. The genesis of this nickname came from the pictures we have of him wearing about 500 layers of clothes and looking like a cross between the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and the Michelin Man. Every day we'd all wonder if Marshmallow would get to be a part of our family. Well today I'm pleased to announce that yes, he will!!!

This morning, we received word that he has been reserved and that we will be able to pick him up whenever we go to China this fall. So, we're coming in a family of 4 and leaving a family of 6 - it's gonna be awesome. We're so excited about this, I can't even put it into words. It's like Christmas come early. We've always wanted a big family and now we get to have it sans the birthing process.

In the coming weeks, we'll be sharing more about how this changes the process and about Fu Lian in particular (who we will call Xander). We think it's going to be great for the boys to have a sibling with similar backgrounds, etc. If nothing else, they can use each other as a sounding board when they get fed up with their crazy American parents. In the meantime, we're in the middle of a fairly sizeable remodel project, adding two new bedrooms on upstairs. My brother John (pictured below) is helping us with the project, and doing a fantastic job. So we'll have pictures of that, too.

Post By: James