Emma Grace Rongjia Fischer

We are in the home stretch to Emma Grace. We are waiting on our NVC letter which should be here any day. As soon as I get it, I have to forward it to my coordinator, who will then forward it on the China. Our papers should be presented to the Consulate on August 19 and exactly 2 weeks later on September 2 we should have what they call an Article 5. Then, all of our papers can be delivered to the CCAA who will issue our travel approval! We should be leaving the first full week of October (if everything works out how it should...) but our coordinator said to expect more towards the end of October. There is a trade show in Guangzhou the end of October which causes the hotels to jump way up in price! This is the second part of our trip, so she thinks we will leave towards the end of October and head to Beijing and her province and then finish up in GZ the first week of November or the very last week in October. It all depends on how fast the CCAA issues that travel approval! I feel very torn because I want to get her as soon as possible, but I would really like to be here on Timmy's birthday on October 19. I am actually hoping we leave on the 2oth... talk about a specific prayer request! That week is my fall break, so I would have some "free" days away from school, so leaving on the 20th would allow to be here for Timmy's birthday, get 5 days gone from school without using any of my days, and with the way the holidays fall at my school, we would be able to keep her HOME until January 1 without putting her in child care. SOOOO, although I would love to get her the first week in October, I really think waiting a few weeks will be best for everyone in the long run. Time will tell what happens! What we think is best certainly isn't always best and we will do what we need to do!

I think she is so beautiful! We can't wait to bring her home to her FOREVER FAMILY!

Timothy

Timmy is doing great! He is sleeping 12 hours at night and taking two really solid naps. He loves to eat and has gotten over his hesitation with the spoon. He is starting to like some more table foods... we are just slowly trying new things. He started with his babysitter last week and he already loves her. He stays on a great schedule with her and when I pick him up he is happy, happy, happy. When we get home he is ready to play and then he goes right to sleep at 7. He has a little bit of a cold right now (too many germs with all the kids at the babysitter!) but I am sure he will be fine in a few days. We just love our little Timothy!

Timmy loves to play, he is so content to crawl all over the living room. He STILL does not crawl on all 4's. Sometimes we hold his belly off the ground and make him do it, so he CAN... he just doesn't want to. I think he feels faster army crawling.

Can you guess what happened next? He is starting to climb on everything. He made it to the top of the steps the other night. I was right behind him of course... but he kept stopping and looking over his shoulder with the naughtiest grin. Each step he climbed, he was beaming with pride!

He is pulling up now and LOVES to play with his toys that make music! He will even dance, it is so cute! Although he is not consistent, he will wave bye-bye by flapping his hand.

Kindergarten!

Andrew started Kindergarten this week and he loves it! The best part is that he is at school with mommy. I take him with me everyday and right after school he heads to my classroom. I love it! School has been a really easy transition for him. He went to preschool in the district, so they did an excellent job preparing him. The teachers all know him, so they give him lots of lovin' through the day. His teacher is awesome- we just adore her. It is going to be a good year for him. Here are some pictures on his first day of school!

Here he is in my classroom right before I walk him to his room.

Here we are outside, getting ready to walk in. Look how steamy the camera was at 7:00 in the morning! Can we say humid?!?!?!?

Ready for a new milestone- standing outside Centerfield Elementary on his first day of Kindergarten!

Matthew

My sweet little Matthew has had a hard week. His life has been turned upside down and he is not happy about it! I started back to work on August 9... back to teaching 3rd grade at my old school. People think I am crazy, going back to work.... three little kids, adopting and bringing home our daughter in a few months. But, it was definitely the right decision for our family. There were many reasons why I needed to go back to work this year, and I am confident we made the right decision for our family. BUT- my kids are being put through the ringer, well....Matthew has been put through the ringer. The week before school started, we put Timothy with his babysitter for a few days to help him "transition." We thought Matthew would have NO PROBLEM transitioning because he is such a happy, laid back kid so we did not put him in until this week. Timmy is a mommy's boy- we thought he would be miserable. Well, Timothy did great. He loves Melody (ga-ga as we all call her!) He naps great, eats great, plays great and by the third day he was reaching for her when I was holding him. No issues at all! Matthew has been all tears. We drop him off and the screaming and kicking begins. He holds onto our legs screaming "I don't want to go to school." It is awful. I pick him up and he looks soooooo sad. The first thing he says is "Can we go home now?" He hates it. Thursday night he literally fell asleep screaming from his room "I don't want to go to school tomorrow." It.has.been.painful. I am trying to get out of work early to go get him, but it was the first week of school and I have so much to do. It has just been really hard. We have spent the weekend relaxing at home. I have talked to him a lot about how some days are school days, some are home days.... and that even when he goes to school, mommy will pick him up and we can go home and play. Please pray that next week is better!

Here are some pictures of his second day of school. Yes, I did not say first day of school. That would be because I forgot the camera on his first day (poor second kid).

Matthew finished up his t-ball season and got a trophy. We are looking forward to starting him out in Little League next year so he can have the same experiences that Andrew had with T-ball.

Now we have 2 holes in the mouth

Andrew lost his second tooth. Oh, the drama. I thought it would be better the second time around but WRONG. This time, the tooth was so wobbly that he could push it all the way forward, but he wouldn't pull it out (I think he was still in shock from pulling out the first one!) He cried and cried..... he didn't want to eat, he was biting food on the side and chewing so awkwardly. Finally, we told him that if daddy pulled it out, he could go to the dollar store and pick out a treat. (yes, we bribe our children.) Well, he really wanted a toy but he really didn't want to pull the tooth, so that almost caused more tears. Eventually, he gave up.... daddy pulled it out and he was fine. It did bleed, however. For those that know Andrew, this is not a good thing. Rick and I were wiping the blood as fast as it was coming out so he wouldn't notice, we are so sneaky!

On a side note, the tooth fairy forgot to put money under his pillow AND forgot to take the tooth. When he was searching for his money under his bed this morning, I ran down and got some money and slid it in his pillow when he didn't notice. Then, he found his tooth on the floor and I told him that silly tooth fairy must have dropped it so I will call her later on today. So, we totally recovered.... and remember that little ears do not need to hear that story EVER!

Andrew with TWO missing teeth and his new toy for being brave (kind of...)

oh, Timmy!

I guess you could say that Timmy is turning into a food "snob". From the moment this kid started baby food.... he was in love. He loves to eat, I mean.... he really loves it! Then, he started feeding himself.... wagon wheels, crackers, puffs, cheerios.... and he feels that he is too good for the "spoon fed" stuff. If I try to hold a cracker up to his mouth, he will take it out of my hand so he can do it himself. I think he is just ready for more, or he just really enjoys feeding himself. I tried table food with him, and he didn't like it. I think it is a texture thing that we need to work up to. Check out these faces he makes when he sees the spoon coming towards his mouth.....

He closes his eyes, scrunches up his face... it is like he can't stand the thought of being fed by someone.

here he is when he sees me scooping up the food... the face is getting ready:

The hand goes up for the block, and the face starts to scrunch!

See the spoon coming in from the left side, Timmy sure did, so he got his face in the right position!

What, is there something on my face?

A few more pictures...

A slumber party with everyone- we ate popcorn and watched a movie

Of course, there is wrestling... don't you love how Timmy is watching, he will be in the middle of it all next year

So, this picture is a little funny and a little disturbing. See Timmy's neck? Bent a little far back, don't you think? About 5 seconds later, Brandon went to put him back on the floor and dropped him (not very far, don't worry...) and it took him a few minutes to get over the shock of it all. Timothy, even with 2 older brothers is not used to being roughed up this much. All I have to say is poor Emma Grace. She will be one tough cookie.