Goodbye, Goldilocks

Faith got her first real haircut yesterday and boy was it a big one. She was so ready. And Mama was so not. Here is the before and after:

She went from blonde to brunette in an instant. And also aged about three years. But it is very cute, and she is very happy. As we entered the salon she was explaining to me again the reasons why she really needed this haircut, reason number one being that the long hair "gets in my syrup." She had enough length to donate her hair to locks of love also, so that was good. For more pictures of this and of Faith's first day of school you can visit our photo page and type in the name of our city.

The Bitter and the Sweet

We lost our beautiful dog Scout last night to a sudden, lethal problem with her spleen. She was a dear, smart, wonderful dog, and we are very sad. She was ten-years-old but full of youthful energy and this was totally unexpected. We are grateful that she did not suffer long at all, and David and I were both able to tell her how much we loved her and pet her until the end.

And then today we went to court to re-adopt Davis in the U.S. This will clear the way for us to apply for formal citizenship, and we will also receive what is called a "Certificate of Foreign Birth" which is the equivalent of a regular birth certificate and filed with the state in the same way. We were sworn in to affirm that we did want to go through with the adoption and that was it. Then photos!

Davis is waving in this picture! He learned how last night, and he was so proud he started doing it again the minute I took him out of bed this morning. He stretches his arm out and twists his wrist slowly like royalty.

Asked and Answered

Our papers are on their way to immigration today. Yaay China 2011, 12, 13, or beyond!!

And what now?

This morning I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that Davis was almost eight months old. Then I woke up and realized that Davis IS almost eight months old. WOW. He is scooting around cleaning our floors with his poor little onesies already and I am looking for the all out crawling to strike very, very soon.

We have been very busy the past few weeks playing catch-up on our China adoption. Due to a comedy of errors on our part (ha!ha!) and the fact that the need to complete a bunch of appointments and paperwork came right on the heels of our trip to get Davis, we have run into a problem. Because our wait for our daughter from China has been this long, our visa application for her has expired. If we do not have all of our renewal paperwork sent to immigration by Wednesday we will miss the deadline for a free renewal and will have to apply again, at a greater expense, in the future. Fortunately, it does NOT affect our timeline with our China adoption if we fail to have things in place by the deadline, but it sure would be great to be able to take advantage of the free renewal. Please pray that things fall into place with the one last form that is holding us up.

And back to our Ethiopia adoption - we are going to court this week to re-adopt Davis in the U.S! Hooray!

Prophecy

Faith and I were having a heated discussion today about who has greater vocal talent, me or Dan Zanes. She pretty much closed debate with this:

"Mama, Dan Zanes is a better singer than you are - I know because God told me in my heart."

Good News

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/07/26/met_542140.shtml

My guys were looking really great on the front page of the paper this morning! WOW! We are very grateful to have had this opportunity to share our story as part of the Chronicle's report on faith-based adoption. The video they ran with the online version of the story is very nice, too. I love that the videographer captured some fun and funny brother/sister stuff. Classic. I also love that she edited the piece so well. We had a hard time speaking with the camera there, so she had a lot of very rough edges to smooth out!

This weekend was wonderful also because so many sweet friends and family turned out to celebrate "Davis Day" at Rooster Ridge - my Aunt Molly and Uncle Steve's home. Everyone loved on Davis until he was sufficiently welcomed into the family--and he reciprocated with plenty of grins and giggles. We appreciate everyone's love and support so much - pictures will follow soon!

Career Planning Faith Style

Yesterday: "When I grow up I'm gonna play golf while my husband takes care of my kids and Daddy can be my golf club carrier."

Earlier in the week: "I think that when I am a grown up you will listen to me singing on the radio when you are driving around in the car."