In the "waiting for LOA" Slump and Over scheduling

Sorry I have not been posting much. I have just been very busy. We have way too much going on and I already feel overwhelmed with the kids activities.

Our crazy schedule includes 3 different school pick up times. I have to work 3 days a week but Owen gets out at 2:45pm in our city we live in. Mia gets out of preschool at 3:30pm in the city next door and then Ethan gets out of football at 4:45pm. It is a logistic nightmare!!! Then to further the craziness we add in their after school activities (Ethan plays football with his school). On Mondays from 6-7:30pm the kids attend the fine arts academy at our church where the boys play guitar and Mia piano. Then home for dinner and homework. Then Tuesdays Mia has ballet at 4pm and Owen has cooking class from 4:30 to 5:30 then at some point I have to pick Ethan up from football. This week starts the addition of hockey which starts at 7pm but we don't know the days of the week. So, more than likely, the boys will have hockey on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Add that Ethan's football games on Monday and Thursday and practices on Tuesday and Wednesday-- life gets really crazy!!!

I write all that to explain how crazy life is right now. I am a huge proponent that kids should not be over scheduled and it looks like I need to take a bit of my own advice. I don't know how we ended up in this many activities but somehow we did. Ethan really wanted to play football and since it is with his school we decided it was OK. Then cooking was a fun addition as well as ballet. Then the guitar and piano lessons fell in our lap free of charge through our church and then the hockey is a constant for the boys and what they love!! Luckily, football only has about 3 weeks left and then things will calm down, but until then, life is just way too crazy for words-- hence my lack of posting. By the time the kids are in bed all I can handle is going on Rumor Queen to check out what is up on the adoption front and then to bed. Sorry I have been a horrible poster but life is crazy.

Furthermore, I am in the "wait for LOA" right now. We are now 25 days into our wait which means we are getting close to getting our coveted Letter of Approval (LOA) from China. China is closed for a bunch of holidays so we wont be getting it for at least a week or 2 but hopefully soon. Once we get the LOA we have a bunch of little steps and then within about 60 days we should get our TA (travel approval) and then we can go pick up our Finely. If things work out PERFECTLY, we will be in China right after the first of the year!!!! I just cant wait and this wait for LOA is really hard because there is NOTHING I can do to speed it up-- totally out of my control-- uggg!! BUT, with that, God has been teaching me a lot about control and patience.

Anyway, I don't really have any pictures right now but I will try to post soon-- I wont wait a week-- I promise!