Fun with Jamae

IS IT SPRING YET???




Look Aunt Carol - I'm making Peanut Butter cookies with the book you sent me. I enjoy the book so much. Mommy can read me stories, I can play the piano songs, and I can make cookies.

Happy New Year!

Jamae is all dressed up and ready to go to the Chinese New Year Party at her friends, Ella & Elijah Shaw's house. The Shaw's are currently waiting to adopt their daughter Annaleigh from China so we thought it would be fun to celebrate the year of the rat together this year. Jamae was so excited to put on her China ballerina dress as she calls it. This is the first time she was able to wear this dress. We bought her dresses in China and they hang on her walls so she looks at them all the time. She has been very excited to finally wear this dress. We have saved it for Easter this year, but let her wear it first for the Chinese New Year celebration. This is the last dress that still fits her of the dresses we bought, so she is so excited to buy new dresses when we travel to China soon. The picture below was taken when we were in China right after we bought this dress. She was trying on the skirt. Truly Adorable!!!

Solo & Ensemble Contest

Today Jesse participated in solo and ensemble contest with his band. He performed in a percussion ensemble and played a baritone saxophone solo. I am so proud of Jesse for all the hard work and determination he put it to do this and do it well. He received Excellent ratings in both. Great job Jesse!

Dossier to China

Our dossier (stack of paperwork) was officially sent to China today with our pre-approval letter on top. This pre-approval letter should allow our dossier to go the expedited track. We still do not have any idea when we will get our referral approval - the next approval we are waiting for. China closes down their offices February 6-12 for Chinese New Year, so that will add another week to the wait. We will update as soon as we know anything.
America World's chinese liason is working to get us an update on Ming from his orphanage - updated measurements, information on him, as well as new pictures. We are very excited to hear back from her.
Please continue to pray for Ming - that his heart will be prepared as he hears about his upcoming adoption.

Pre-Approval from China

We have waited 8 weeks and 1 day for the following letter from China (the usual wait is 2-4 weeks). Why it took so long we will never know.

The application for William Bowser and Caryn Bowser for adoption of She Ming from Fuzhou Children's Welfare Instutite, Fujian that you submitted was received. It is hereby advised that with a review of the basic family situation and the Rehabilitation and Nurture Plan for the child made by the family, the China Centre of Adoption Affairs agrees to handle and process the case of an adoption of a special need child after the application file arrives. China Centre of Adoption Affairs

Yipee! What that means is that China has approved us to adopt Ming!!! This has been the most emotional 8 weeks and 1 day. What a sweet relief to receive the call from America World telling us that we now have been approved to adopt MIng. Thank you Lord. We still do not know exactly the time table we are looking at. We are still praying for travel in April. We have been told that we could still be waiting 3-5 months to go. Of course we are praying that China expediates our request and we can travel sooner. Our dossier (application file) will be sent this Friday. Unfortunately, we couldn't send it until we received this pre-approval but thankfully our pre-approval letter will be attached to it which should send it through a faster track. Thank you so much for all your prayers and please continue praying. Ming will not be told about us until we receive our Referral Approval (which could be another 2 months or more) but please pray that his heart will be ready to receive the news.
Now it's time to get his room ready and start the packing lists. I feel like we are in the last months of pregnancy, trying to be ready in case we have an early delivery. Now the fun begins!

BOWSER ON TO STATE

This is the headline that was in our town newspaper today on the front page of sports section!
The article reads, "Moses Lake High School diver Jay Bowser will be making an appearance at next month's 4A state meet. Bowser earned the honor last Friday during the Columbia Basin League's 11 Dive State Qualifier at Central Washington University."
Wow! As stated, on Friday Jay competed in an 11 dive meet in Ellensburg, WA. He had the best dive meet I have ever seen. He was very consistent, with all of his dives being great. The judges must have agreed. In order to be eligible for state competition, you must score over a 300 during an 11 dive meet. Jay scored a 322! What an exciting day. Jay had made a goal of qualifying for state this year and it has been fun to see him meet his goal. I am so glad that he is a junior and has another year to dive. He has improved so much this year, I'm excited to see what he can do by next year. State is February 15 & 16 in Seattle.



Jody very proud of his son after finding out he qualified for state

We have a winner in the family!

Today Jesse was in his school's Geography Bee and he won!
I am amazed at what that boy knows. I think I knew about half of the right answers.
Now he has to take a 70 question multiple choice test that will be sent to the state headquarters. The best 100 middle school kids will then be chosen to compete at the state level. We'll let you know how he does.
Congratulations Jesse!
Update: We just got the Chief Moses Middle School newspaper in the mail. The headline on the front page is
Bowser Wins Geography Bee The article says "Emerging triumphant from this tight contest was Jesse Bowser. He successfully answered the final two questions before him and edged out second place finisher, Zach Walker."

Let It Snow!

At Jamae's house we'll build a snowman
We will have lots of fun, don't you know
There'll be lots of games, cake and ice cream
We'll be so sad if you can't show
January 12th is the party date 10 o'clock don't be late
We'll sing a happy song If you can come along
To party in Jamae's wonderland!

This is the invitation that Jamae's friends received to come to her 4th birthday party.
We had such a fun time making jingle bell bracelets, playing freezing snowball (like hot potato), hearing a story about
a snowy surprise, eating snowman cupcakes, opening presents, and playing in the snow. Sure wish you all could have been
here. We sure had a fun morning.


Jamae showing us her jingle bell bracelet


Snowman cupcakes


Jamae with her snowman cupcake


Fun in the snow


Making a snow angel


We made a snowman


What a fun party