Back from a wonderful weekend!

 We just got back this afternoon from another wonderful weekend camping. This has been our fifth camping trip this summer (sorry, more pictures to come in later posts) and we have been enjoying our family time immensely.We traveled south down to Osoyoos this weekend with our friends and their two daughters.

 We walked, swam, visited some wineries, drank some wine and played. It was a beautiful summer weekend, with just the right amount of rain  Saturday afternoon to cool us all down. We have been so busy these last couple of months we haven't been able to get together for a play date. But it didn't take to long for Sylvie to warm up to Sugar and Spice again.

Gathering up the courage to follow her two friends in...

Mama and Daddy's favorite part of camping...nap time. Usually we are so tuckered out we fit the hay for a little snooze as well.

Our little miss enjoying the sweet life...

These past couple of weeks Cory and I have talked about how our family is going to change when we have two kids to think of, instead of just one. This weekend reaffirmed how great Cory will be as a Dad of two. He is patient (much more than me) and is always willing to give everyone their turns, as evidenced many times this weekend. 

"My turn Daddy, My Turn"

"Me too, Me too!"

 "Me three, Me three!"

 And his good humor continued throughout the weekend...

It makes me think that maybe three might be the magic number for our family! I think poor Cory might have a coronary when he reads this! I guess we'll find out if he continues to read the blog or not!

Where we are now, and the next steps

Some have asked what the process to adopt Mary will look like and how long it will take to travel to China to meet her. So we thought we would outline the upcoming steps and terminology for everyone. 

Overall, we have been advised by our agency that once we accepted our referral of Mary that it would take 4-6 months until travel to China. This is the amount of time it takes for the different paperwork to be completed between the two countries. Since we accepted her referral at the end of July, 4-6 months takes us to the end of either November, December or January. 

We are hoping to travel in November, as Mary turns two in the beginning of December and it would be wonderful to celebrate with her. With Sylvie, we were able to travel at four months, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the paperwork and file reviews go quickly.

The following is an explanation of the next steps that we are going through to complete the adoption process.

1) LOI (Letter of Intent): We submitted our LOI to our agency who translated and submitted it to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). This document informs the Chinese government of our "intent to adopt" Mary and outlines our care and nurturing plan for her.

2) PA (Pre Approval): The Chinese government (CCAA) has assessed and "approved" our Letter of Intent. 

3) LSC (Letter Seeking Confirmation from the Adopter): Now that we have received PA, the Chinese government (CCAA) will now take a closer look at our entire dossier we forwarded earlier in June. This includes our home study, letters of employment, criminal record checks, clearance from our Provincial Ministry of Families, copies of our birth certificates, passports and marriage license. CCAA will next issue a formal offer to place Mary with us. 

The formal offer is called the Letter of Seeking Confirmation from Adopter (LSC). It will be delivered to us through the BC government and our provincial adoption agency. We sign the LSC and return it to CCAA.This step can take as long as 90 days to complete. With Sylvie it only took a little over a month, this is what we are hoping for again. 

4) NoC (Notice of Traveling to China for Adoption): CCAA will then issue an invitation for us to travel to China to adopt Mary. The travel date is usually 6 to 9 weeks after we have returned the signed LSC. 

We have a little side bar on the side of the time line it took for all the paperwork to be completed with Sylvie's adoption and we have now added a second bar for Mary's. Hope this answers many of the questions our family and friends have had about this process!

Share our Double Happiness!

We are very happy to announce that we have accepted an adoption referral for a little girl in China! While we are surprised how quickly the process has gone this time, we are excited to bring our second daughter (and Sylvie's little sister) home.

Without further ado...Please meet "Mary Dang Yundan"!

We will be updating our blog over the next few weeks as we learn more about our daughter and the Chinese province she lives in. Stay tuned!

Cory, Joyanne & Sylvie

Saskatoon Trip

We have been busy visiting family this summer. One of our trips was to Saskatoon to see Cory's family and be celebrate cousin Katie's baptism.

On the plane! Sylvie did really well, I was very impressed. We made sure to pack lots of snacks, drinks and the portable DVD player.

Taking a nap in the Calgary airport during our lay over. Thankfully we scored the comfy leather chairs.

 See how she chews on her blanket tag to help fall asleep? She calls it her "chew". :)

Baby Katie after her baptism with her Dad, Mom and sister Cara.

Sylvie checking out the "good book" during the service, Grandma Shirley sitting beside us.

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Playing at the splash park across the street from Uncle Kevin & Aunty Laura's house. Sylvie loves playing at these parks.

Mama and Daddy enjoying watching Sylvie play at the splash park

Making pancakes Sunday morning for everyone. Aunty Laura is super nice and let all the kids help. Good times with all the kids learning how to take turns stirring the pancake batter.

Hey Grandpa Irwin, what do you have there? Can I have some too?

Yum, I love ice cream now! Thanks for sharing Grandpa.

Thanks for the wonderful, but too short visit. Looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.

Busy July... lazy Saturday morning

After spending the long weekend in Oliver with family, followed by hosting Uncle Adam and Auntie Aryana at home, leading into a plane trip to Saskatoon to see family, immediately followed by a camping trip with friends (don't worry, I'll post some pics of our fun in the next few days) we are finally home for a little while.

So it's Saturday morning, we have no where we need to be, nothing we have to do...

So we are just hanging out at home, or more specifically - on the couch.
Sylvie has not been enjoying the mosquitoes this season. Her right eye swelled up quite bad while we were in Saskatoon. After three days of benedryl, the swelling finally went down. However, the BC mosquitoes seem to love her too...and bit her on the same eyelid. Sigh...poor kid!
Just relaxing in our PJ's enjoying the weekend. We *might* check out the splash park this afternoon - we'll see!


Hope you are all enjoying your summer so far as well!

Late Father's Day Post

While our Saskatchewan family was visiting, we celebrated Father's Day with Cory's aunt and uncle, whom are affectionately known as Grandpa & Grandma to Sylvie. Here are most of us enjoying the short return of the summer weather visiting on the deck and watching the kids blowing bubbles (sorry no photo's this time with Grandma Margie - she was busy inside cooking supper, we'll make up for it next time!).

Eating corn on the cob with my Daddy!

Sylvie particularly enjoyed the motorized bubble blower, and spent a lot of the evening chasing her cousins and Daddy around with it.
Sylvie loves her Kelowna Grandparents, in particular he Grandpa Roy - who loves to spoil her (remember the Christmas photos - where a certain someone is encouraging Sylvie to jump on the furniture!) Every time we go to visit, Sylvie requests that Grandpa lifts her up to hit the wind chimes, she loves hearing the music.
But I'm not sure who enjoys it more, Sylvie or Grandpa Roy! Who do you think?
Happy Father's day to all the special Dad's in our life: Grandpa Cliff, Grandpa Irwin, Grandpa Roy, Sylvie's birth father, and Cory. We are truly blessed with all your caring and love!

Hangin' with my cousins!

Last week we had family visit from Saskatchewan: Cory's brother Kevin, his wife Laura and their two daughters Cara and Katie. Sylvie loved playing with her cousins and getting to know them. The soundtrack for the weekend was the girl's shrieks while running up the hall or when outside playing.

Learning to share the swing, both in pushing and riding... Getting pushed by cousin Cara.

Returning the favor...
Even baby Katie gets a turn, look at that teamwork!
Coloring with my cousin. Check out our matching hairdo's - Daddy played hair dresser while Mama was at work.

Monkey see...monkey do! Both cousin Cara and Katie suck their fingers, so Sylvie thought she would give it a try too!
Looking forward to seeing you all again this summer!