We began our adoption paperwork of September of 2005. A process that we thought would take 8-12 months has actually taken four years. That is probably because Caroline was meant to be our daughter and little sister, and she wasn’t born until June of 2008. Every Halloween, Christmas, and Easter that passed we thought for sure we would have her here with us for the next year’s holiday. We didn’t know it, but last Christmas when we said, “The baby will definitely be here with us next Christmas.” we were right this time. We wouldn’t know we were “right” until the last week of August 2009 when we got “the call” we had waited so long for. Within minutes of the call pictures arrived. All of a sudden after four years we were looking at a very tiny and very, very cute Mei LanFeng (Caroline). Our head said, “Don’t tell anyone yet”, but our hearts said, “Call everyone” and that is what we did.

In the time we have waited for Caroline, Shannon and Ryan graduated junior high, Alison graduated high school and began college, we added a second puppy to the family, renovated our home (renovation not complete), took our yearly trips to Walt Disney World, and talked about the day our baby would be riding the rides with us in Disney World. It has been a long, busy, and exciting four years. It is about to get more exciting as our family prepares to travel to China for 16 days to pickup Caroline. Packing for six people for 16 days has taken me 8 weeks (I’m almost done), and makes me realize that I am not a very good packer. We have ten suitcases, five duffels, a baby stroller, and only five people to carry all of this. Within a few days of landing in China the baby will be with us as well.

While we are looking forward to this experience as a family, mostly we just can’t wait for our whole family (puppies included) to be home for Christmas snug in our beds while visions of sugar plums dance in our heads.