It's Fly-Day!

Hugs and kisses all around!

I Love You!

One more hug while I tell you a secret!

We're On Our Way!

The day has finally arrived and we get to fly to China to get our little girl, Ava Li. Aunt Donna and Uncle Jim have charge of Ben and Pete at our house while we're away. The day started very early but very typicially when the boys made their way into our bedroom and into our bed to watch TV and drink chocolate milk while we ran around getting ready to leave. Donna and Jim spent the night, so Donna helped with the boys and Jim took us to the airport. Tonight, Ben and Pete will go Trick-or-Treating with Donna and Jim while we are someplace over the Pacific either sleeping or watching a movie at 40,000 feet. Keep checking back - we'll keep the blog updated all during our journey!

Peter's Note to Ava

Peter gave this note to me the other day to give to Ava.

Ava's Room

Here are some pictures of Ava's room. We don't have much on the walls yet. We are hoping to find some prints in China to hang in our room. I have to thank Brighton for the flowers. I used one of their tins to paint the flowers on the white door. I sure hope Ava likes pink!

We used the beautiful fan that Jonathan and Susan gave us. I think it looks really pretty in the room

Family Fun Night

We went to our Church's annual Fall Family Fun Night this past sunday night. We went as football fans. The boys had a lot of fun. Here are some pix.

Ben loved this costume!

The boys with Ms. Karen, Peter's Sunday School Teacher

The boys with Ms. Christine, Ben's Sunday School Teacher

Tacky Day

The boys had tacky day at school the other day. They love any chance they have to not wear their school uniform.

Peter's Post

I like doing math and I will show you some now.
5+5=10
4+4=8
3+3=6

My favorite thing to do is going to Disney World. Here is a picture of me and my brother at Disney World.

Peter and Ben (Disney World December 2004)

Ben's Surgery -UPDATED- has pre-op video

Ben had surgery last Wednesday to remove a cyst above his left eye. He has had the cyst for about a year and it was hardly visible. On his last check up, his pediatrician sent us to an ophthalmologist to look his cyst because it is so close to his eye. Well, in that visit we found out that he needed glasses. It turns out that the vision in his left eye is much worse than the vision in his right eye. If we would have not found this out, he could have lost function in his left eye. Anyway, the ophthalmologist sent us to a pediatric plastic surgeon to look at the cyst. It was a dermoid cyst and needed to be removed. So, he needs glasses, has to wear a patch and have surgery above his eye. He has had a busy fall!!!

Ben was a little bit upset about having to have the surgery, but overall, he seemed ok. He had his adenoids removed last December and did great! Because he had done so well then, I really wasn't that worried about it. I also kept thinking it was such a small thing.

When Ben had his adenoid surgery, Donna (Ben's aunt) and I both forgot our cameras, but more importantly, forgot our video cameras. Once he put on his hospital gown, he became a character. He started dancing around the room, shooting baskets in the toy basket ball goal they had in the room...he just couldn't keep still. He was just a ball of nervous energy. The funniest thing was that he kept doing the River Dance. So this time, I brought the camera/video camera. He was still a little ham, but he has grown up in the past 10 months so the performance wasn't quite as manic. I will try and post some video with pictures.

He was in a pretty good mood waiting for the surgery. The surgery center is set up so well for children. He had a couple of moments when he acted nervous, but for the most part he kept busy. When he wasn't dancing around the room, he played video games.

They let me walk back with him into the operating room and stay with him while they put him under. He was really nervous then. They put the mask on his face and just gave him laughing gas at first. He said it was making him sleepy. They then said that they were going to add something that some people say smells like stinky feet...at that point, he got really upset and said he didn't want to do this (can you blame him?). He was really upset, but then he just kind of went to sleep. It was sad to see him so upset.

Donna and I were in the post op area for about 20 min when the doctor came in and said that they were done. He said everything went well...they went in through his eyebrow and scraped the cyst off of his bone. He said that Ben would have a gauze around his head. When they rolled Ben in, he had this huge white gauze bandage wrapped around his head and his face was all swollen. I was really surprised....I just didn't expect all of the swelling to remove a cyst. He was a little upset when he woke up from his anesthesia, but he was pretty good. He drank a lot of gatorade (he was really motivated to get the iv out) and had a couple of crackers.

On the way home, Donna sat in the back seat with him. He slept for the most part, but got sick near the end. Thank goodness they gave us the vomit bag. This is the first time ever that Ben has thrown up in the car that it has been in a bag!!!

He slept the rest of the afternoon, but was back to himself that evening. We all signed his bandages that night. His eye was swollen for several days and went through several different colors, but he looks and feels great now!

Playing Star Wars Video Games

Just Back From Surgery

On Our Way Home

Badge of Honor


Here is some of the video I took of Ben dancing around before surgery. I took this video with our new camera. Sorry about the bad camera work. Hopefully I will do better next time. Some of his funniest moves didn't make it for public viewing :)

"Before" Photos

After I got home from the shower, I just threw all of the gifts from the shower into Ava's room. Here are some of the pictures. I have since cleaned it all up. I will post some "after" photos as soon as I take them, but here are the "before" photos.

"

Showered with Love

We joined our church about 3 years ago. It is a relatively small church and most of the members have known each other all of their lives. In fact, most of them are related. They have made us feel like family members since the day we joined. They always throw baby showers for new baby's, but they usually only do it for first children. I really didn't expect them to throw us a shower since Ava is our 3rd child. Susan, my neighbor and great friend, said that she wanted to throw me a shower and I thought that she meant just a small shower at her house, but it ended up being a shower with all of the women at church. It was wonderful. Susan did a wonderful job decorating. Ava got some beautiful things. She is going to be a very loved little girl! We are so very lucky. Thank you so much to our Mt Zion Family! We love you all!

Welcome Ava!!!

Susan's beautiful centerpiece

All of the pink!!!!

Fun opening presents!

Me and Susan

Peter's Post

I'm Peter and I am 4 years old. I am in pre-k and I love school. I also love my mommy and daddy. I really, really want to go to another Auburn football game. And I really want to go to the Nick Hotel. I also really want to go to the beach. And I really, really, really, really, really love Webkinz. I have 4 Webkinz...a pug, bulldog, panda, and cat.

Ben's Post

I really want to go camping. You get to make your own fire. It is really cool to have your own pocket knife. What I like the best is the Swiss Army Knife. It has a lot of different sharp things....one is a saw. It is really cool to have your own lighter too. Remember how I was talking about making your own fire? Well, I love lighters because they make good fire. But I never use these things by myself. I have to always be with my dad. Everyone under age 6 cannot use one.

WE HAVE OUR TA (travel approval)!!!

This is the final step in the approval process. Now we just have to wait for our agency to confirm an appointment for us to go to the US consulate. Once that is done, they can book our travel. They are giving us a tentative travel schedule of Nov 3 - Nov 16th. We are so excited about going to get Ava!!! We also have A LOT to get done!!!!