Hudson Dean is THREE today!

We celebrated with a giant cookie with three icing ballons for each of his three years! Out of five adoptions, we have celebrated the birthday of a not-yet-home child four times now. Vera is the only one who didn't have a birthday while we were waiting for her.

I was feeling very emotional about it yesterday, which never happens to me. I wonder what he did for his birthday; did his foster parents celebrate it with him? Did he get gifts? A cake?

I also wonder what he will do for his fourth birthday. A small family party? Or at least as small as our family parties could be! Will he want Thomas the Tank Engines trains like his cousin Drew, or dinosaurs, or tractors, or a new bike? Will he have been home long enough to understand what we're doing and why we're singing and what's up with the cake and ice cream! Will he think it's happening all over again when we have more gifts for Christmas?

His birthday reminds me a Stephen Curtis Chapman Christmas song, lyrics below, and then a YouTube version:

All I Really Want for Christmas

Well, I don't know if you remember me or not
I'm one of the kids they brought in from the home
I was the red-haired boy in an old, green flannel shirt
You may not have seen me, I was standing off alone
I didn't come and talk to you 'cause that's never worked before
And you'll probably never see this letter, anyway
But just in case there's something you can do to help me out
I'll ask you one more time

All I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in
A shoulder to cry on if I lose, shoulders to ride on if I win
There's so much I could ask for, but there's just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas is a family

Well, I guess I should go ahead and tell you now
If it's really true about that list you have
Somehow I always seem to end up in a fight
But I'm really trying hard not to be bad
But maybe if I had a brother or a dad to wrestle with
Maybe they could teach me how to get along
And from everything I've heard, it sounds like the greatest gift on earth
Would be a mom

All I want for Christmas is someone who'll be here
To sing me happy birthday for the next 100 years
And It's okay if they're not perfect or even if they're a little broken
That's alright, 'Cause so am I

Well, I guess I should go, it's almost time for bed
Maybe next time I write you I'll be at home '

Cause all I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in
Tell me I'll never be alone, someone whose love will never end
Of all that I could ask for, well, there's just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas is a family

First big adoption step completed!

Yesterday I mailed our Letter of Intent to Adopt and all the associated paperwork to our agency in Utah! The Letter of Intent is new to me. The CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) asks all families who are adopting children with special needs to write this letter to them, detailing the steps they will take to deal with their child's special need, medically, educationally, and otherwise. This is also the family's chance to pour out their hearts and let the CCAA know who they are and how much they want to be given the opportunity to parent this child they have chosen from China. I am not a naturally gushy person, so this was a bit of a challenge to me!

This letter must now be translated and sent to China with a letter from our agency detailing why they think we are the perfect family for Hudson Dean. The CCAA will then look over the letters and (hopefully) send back a preliminary approval to adopt (PA). While we are waiting for our PA, which has been taking 51 days to get back, we will be working on our dossier, including our homestudy, medical exams, and immigration approval. Once we have PA and all the parts of the dossier together, we send those to China and will receive back a logged in date, which is simply the date that all the information was officially entered into CCAA's system. Then we wait even longer to get the much coveted Letter of Acceptance (LOA), which is followed fairly quickly by the Travel Approval (TA). Once we have TA, we then send off to the American Embassy in Guangzhou for our Consulate Appointment (CA). We are actually able to request three different possible weeks for our CA, which is nice. Hopefully we can work around some of John's scheduling difficulties.

Can't wait to check off some of the other items on the adoption checklist!